[vinair]

Looks like Google is pretty serious about its mobility venture.

Seems, Google has hired Hyundai ex- US CEO, Krafcik to help achieve its mobility ambitions!

Google hires Hyundai US ex-CEO to lead self-driving unit
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/t...w/48967358.cms via @timesofindia

[hybridpetrol]

Products such as this Google self driven car & Apple's similar venture would become a show-off product for a while, after the launch. In my opinion, the self-driven car, coming to mainstream would take another generation of time. It is not far fetched to assume that by 2050, majority of the cars would be self driven, if at all, the technologies ever succeed to convince public and the governments, on safety aspects.
On a lighter note, if our cars were driving themselves, what we guys would do for hobby? watch crap movies all the time?

[Akshay1234]

As BHPian Lamborghini wrote somewhere yesterday about Google hiring someone from Hyundai to head its car division - No better person to design a car people shouldn't drive.

[D C]

I am not very confident about the success of driver-less cars, anytime in near future, for commercial use. It might even be like a proven technology that is not in use, just like the automated airplanes. We have all the technology needed to fly pilot less passenger airplanes and the industry is worried about how people react to flying an airplane without a pilot and believe it is not practical at this point. A car that drive by itself may face a similar fate in the passenger car segment.

Looking forward to see how Google's driver-less car division go forward with this new addition!

[GTO]

Krafcik has been circling Silicon Valley ever since he left Hyundai. He's worked with Ford earlier and also had a stint at TrueCar.com.

Interesting development. Silicon Valley hasn't traditionally thought too much of auto industry executives, seeing them as old-fashioned, lacking innovation & too stiff.

While there is no doubt that Krafcik will be looking after the business side of Google's self-driving car, it'll be interesting to know how exactly he's going to contribute.

Google could also use him to push Android into the car industry.

[xingamazon]

Self driving cars are here to stay, the only question is will be the manually driven cars survive along with it. Like how Chassis vehicles survives after advent of Monocoque design.

My view by say 2020-2025 even Team BHP will have a separate section for Self-Driven cars