By now you’ve probably seen Google’s self driving car. It’s not exactly much to look at compared to a Camarao, in fact, it looks more like a gray clown car than anything you’d see on the road. Still, it does have General Motors a little concerned.
“Anybody can do anything with enough time and money,” Mark Reuss, product-development chief at GM, told Bloomberg. “If they set their mind to it, I have no doubt” that they could become “a very serious competitive threat.”
It’s not something that will happen overnight of course, but it does look like Google is going to be encroaching on the Motor City. They have been working with an un-named Detroit auto manufacturer and plan to roll out 100 of the self-driving automobiles by the end of this year. The cars can only seat two people and their top speed is just 25 mph, so yes, it will take some time for Google automotive to get up to speed.
Self-driving cars aren’t going to be taking over the highways by next year, but as we pointed out earlier, Volvo is also working on a self-driving car. GM has its own semi-automated driving in the works as well, called Super Cruise that supports hands-off lane following, braking and speed control under certain conditions.
And if you’re one of those people who loves getting behind the wheel, you had better enjoy your driving time while you can. It’s been predicted that most cars on the road will be self-driving by 2050.