Pathways to Self-Driving Car Market Dominance: Google's Strategy and Future Outlook

By Qwen (Alibaba Cloud)

Current Status of Self-Driving Cars

By Google car, I believe you mean Waymo, the autonomous driving subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. Waymo's autonomous vehicles are currently available in limited areas of the US, including the Phoenix area, Atlanta, Detroit, and San Francisco. More recently, Waymo has begun commercial rides in the Phoenix area. However, the timeline for wider availability remains uncertain (Source: Waymo).

Google's New Strategy: Supplier of Autonomous Systems

It's worth noting that Google is now focusing on becoming a supplier of autonomous vehicle systems to other manufacturers and ride providers, rather than a direct manufacturer of self-driving cars. Several other companies are also working on complete autonomous vehicle solutions, some of which plan to utilize Waymo's technology.

Google's Ambitious Profit Goals

Google's goal is to dominate the fully autonomous self-driving vehicle (SDV) market. The number of vehicles manufactured each year is vast, ranging from 75 to 126 million (source: Statista). A net margin of just $500 to $1000 per vehicle could result in annual profits of $25 billion to $100 billion. This would justify a significant investment in developing and creating demand for this technology (Source: Qwen).

The Roadmap for Dominance

For Google, the path to domination of the SDV market will follow these key strategies:

Create an Outstanding and Market-Leading SDV Solution

Google needs to focus on creating an outstanding and market-leading package of software and hardware that provides a true fully autonomous SDV. With a multi-year lead in development and a rapid decline in key technology components like LIDAR, Google has a significant head start. However, this isn't the easiest route, as it requires continuous innovation and collaboration (Source: Qwen).

Create Awareness and Acceptability for the SDV Concept

Google must create awareness and acceptability for the SDV concept among the public, business media, and government. This involves creating a body of law allowing SDV operation in various countries and maintaining a steady stream of press discussing the societal impact of SDVs. While much of the discussion has been highly favorable, Google could do more to directly engage consumers and create a foundation or public interest group to communicate the promise of SDV deployment (Source: Qwen).

Create Initial Examples that Stimulate Demand Pull and Provide Confidence

Serious progress in autonomous driving will require initial examples that stimulate demand pull and provide push confidence for suppliers of SDV products. Until SDVs are more capable in more geographic environments, this plan point will not happen. Sometime between 2018 and 2020, these plan elements are expected to become visible. A specific example of this could be creating an Uber-like model in a limited environment to prove viability and create consumer demand (Source: Qwen).

Create Strategic Supply Relationships

The final step is the creation of supply relationships with auto and other SDV manufacturers to use Google technology. This involves working with major manufacturers to integrate Google's autonomous systems into their products, potentially through partnerships or direct sales (Source: Qwen).

In conclusion, Google's path to dominating the SDV market is multifaceted and requires significant investment, innovation, and strategic partnerships. The success of this plan will depend on how well Google can leverage its technology, create demand, and forge strategic alliances in the autonomous driving space (Source: Qwen).