Skip to main content

Google ready to spin off self-driving car business

Google is ready to ‘graduate’ its self-driving car business into a stand-alone operation, according to Forbes. Speaking at the Nikkei Innovation Forum in Palo Alto this week, Google CEO John Krafcik, said, “Around a year ago we announced this new Alphabet structure and the ‘bet’ of Alphabet is sort of shorthand for these new entities that are forming within this new corporate structure. So this self driving car project is on its way to what we call a graduating project.” The announcement follows Googl
October 28, 2016 Read time: 1 min
1691 Google is ready to ‘graduate’ its self-driving car business into a stand-alone operation, according to Forbes.

Speaking at the Nikkei Innovation Forum in Palo Alto this week, Google CEO John Krafcik, said, “Around a year ago we announced this new Alphabet structure and the ‘bet’ of Alphabet is sort of shorthand for these new entities that are forming within this new corporate structure. So this self driving car project is on its way to what we call a graduating project.”

The announcement follows Google’s decision last December to create Verily Life Sciences (formerly Google Life Sciences), focused on using technology to better understand health, as well as prevent, detect, and manage disease.

Krafcik did not elaborate on the future name for the independent autonomous car unit, which will apparently happen “soon.”

Related Content

  • July 20, 2015
    UK to lead the way in testing driverless cars
    The UK government has launched a US$30 million competitive fund for collaborative research and development into driverless vehicles, along with a code of practice for testing. The measures, announced by Business Secretary Sajid Javid and Transport Minister Andrew Jones, will put the UK at the forefront of the intelligent mobility market, expected to be worth US£1.4 trillion by 2025. The government wants bidders to put forward proposals in areas such as safety, reliability, how vehicles can communicat
  • May 4, 2023
    Carlos Moreno: ‘I’ve had a lot of death threats over 15-minute cities’
    Carlos Moreno, inventor of the 15-minute city concept, talks to Adam Hill about misinformation, conspiracy theories and the attraction of ‘human smart cities’
  • May 4, 2020
    MaaS: 130,000 chances for a bad user experience
    Johan Herrlin, CEO of transit data specialist Ito World, puts himself in the hotseat with ITS International to talk about, among other things, why a beautifully designed MaaS app with a perfect subscription model is still a failure if you get your customers lost along the way
  • October 11, 2016
    HMI Technologies announces first autonomous bus to operate in NZ
    In breaking news from the ITS World Congress, HMI Technologies announced that New Zealand's first autonomous bus will soon be operating at Christchurch airport. Following meetings at Intertraffic in Amsterdam and consequent conversations with engineers, HMI decided to purchase the vehicle from French manufacturer NAVYA. According to HMI’s Dean Zabrieszach, the announcement has already generated plenty of interest.