Google cars

[KernelPanic]

self driving cars now legal in california
Why is Google straying so far away from its base? This must have cost billions to develop.

Thoughts?

[SEO_AM]

You have to remember that Google is a Silicon Valley, California corporation. Their two primary hobbies are hugging trees and constantly pushing the technology envelope. Self driving highly efficient cars saves a few trees, the air they breathe, and pushes the technological envelope. Bottomline is that it makes sense to them.

PS: I spent my entire career based out of Silicon Valley.

[Test-ok]

Googles got their paws in lots of things. Larry Page and Chairman Eric Schmidt are among the backers of a
venture to mine asteroids for trillions of dollars of precious metals

[KernelPanic]

Googles got their paws in lots of things. Larry Page and Chairman Eric Schmidt are among the backers of a
venture to mine asteroids for trillions of dollars of precious metals

wow check this out:

Platinum is used primarily by the automobile industry to make catalytic converters. Unlike gold and silver, platinum deposits on Earth originated on asteroids that collided with the planet. A single metallic asteroid with a 500-meter diameter likely contains more platinum than all that’s been extracted on Earth, according to Planetary Resources.

1 space rock has more platinum than has ever been mined on earth. Private company, we can't invest :/

[PhilipSEO]

I believe I know (some of) the answer to this one. There are actually two entities: Google Inc. and the Google Foundation. Google Inc is the Google-as-we-know-it technology venture. The Google Foundation is different. It invests their mad money in cool experimental crazy ideas / projects like mining asteroids and, in this case, self-driven cars. No matter how you flip it, it's expensive marketing for the Google brand, among other things.

[Kevin H]

self driving cars now legal in california
Why is Google straying so far away from its base? This must have cost billions to develop.

Thoughts?

Or could be looking for a backup plan if they become the next altavista of search

[KernelPanic]

Or could be looking for a backup plan if they become the next altavista of search

Yeah that's sort of what I was thinking also. I don't believe there is a tree that Google wouldn't burn down if it meant showing a profit for their investors (no commentary here, that's what they are supposed to do) so the whole green, be responsible community members is BS imo.

They are executing plan B, plan C, plan.....

[NewDelhiSEO]

Google is a serious investor in Green Energy and green technology. They are sticking to their mantra. Make something good and we will find a way to monetize it latter.

They have invested Billions in Solar projects globally.

[JoBrand]

I consider it to be another way of making money out of whatever they can. Everything they must do is to invest money somewhere and put their name on it. And they got you. You think the product is good just because it has the name of a world known brand on it. The same with Apple. Just put their logo on a Blender and it will become the most popular blender in the world.

[DmytryV]

I support the idea about simple making money.