Google Creates A Car That Needs No Driver

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Oct 11, 6:49AM EDT · Published Oct 10, 7:52AM EDT

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A car without a driver. A man without a brain. A map that needs not user.

Google says that “we have developed technology for cars that can drive themselves.”

The cars are not ready for prime time yet. They have been driven in test runs on more than 140,000 miles of road with an operator and software engineer on board.

The search firm claims “Our goal is to help prevent traffic accidents, free up people’s time and reduce carbon emissions by fundamentally changing car use”

Cars that can “see” trouble ahead could help decrease the accidents that kill 1.2 million people worldwide each year. Vehicles that take the shortest route, and the one that needs the least “stop and go” traffic will cut gasoline use. And people who do not have to drive can read e-books on their Kindles.

Over time, if the product advances, it will become part of the optional and eventually standard equipment for vehicles. That will cost the car companies money to add hardware, but could actually help drivers more than anyone could imagine.

Douglas A. McIntyre

About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.