And they?re off: Google revealed over the weekend that it has been testing cars ? which have already racked up 140,000 miles throughout California ? that drive themselves, and the reaction is coming fast and furious.

Many are heaping praise on the search-engine giant for its R&D work on a different kind of engine, with Robert Scoble laying out the many roads to which the driverless cars could lead: better road design and new kinds of traffic controls that might help reduce congestion, among other things. But Business Insider?s Henry Blodget asks what?s in it for Google shareholders, and brings up a question that is often asked of rival Yahoo but, perhaps, not enough of Google: What is the company?s focus? Blodget suggests that Google create a start-up to make robotic cars, and focus instead on the mobile-phone war with Apple, for example.

Yet others question just how innovative Google truly is. It famously allows its engineers to set aside 20 percent of their time to work on whatever they want, and popular services with practical applications such as Gmail and Google News have supposedly sprung from that time. But some innovation watchers wonder whether innovation has ?jumped the shark? at Google, pointing to the demise of Google Wave as a possible sign. And at least one Google executive has stated the company has grown so large that, at least outside its ?core DNA,? it is innovating by acquisition.

But back to the cars. The Atlantic?s Alexis Madrigal has a little fun with pointing out, via two newspaper clippings from 1938 and 1985, that the concept of self-driving cars has long intrigued us. Now the technology seems to have caught up to the fantasies.

Source: http://blogs.siliconvalley.com/gmsv/...beep-yeah.html
deep.j1 Reviewed by deep.j1 on . Google Inc.?s (NASDAQ:GOOG) New Robot Car And they?re off: Google revealed over the weekend that it has been testing cars ? which have already racked up 140,000 miles throughout California ? that drive themselves, and the reaction is coming fast and furious. Many are heaping praise on the search-engine giant for its R&D work on a different kind of engine, with Robert Scoble laying out the many roads to which the driverless cars could lead: better road design and new kinds of traffic controls that might help reduce congestion, among Rating: 5