[nt_mark]

1. Google is NEVER going into the auto business, but they'll licence or even donate their software to run on any auto manufacturers car.

2. The auto manufacturers will only tepidly roll this out very with tons of regulatory and legal tiptoeing.

3. The end user will have to sign away any legal rights to recourse and/or the government(s) will have to amend statutory rights accordingly before the first cars hit the road.

4. It will happen, eventually. It will save hundreds of thousands of lives/year.

[ScottBurson]

they'll licence or even donate their software to run on any auto manufacturers car

Of course, as you're riding down the road in your Google-powered driverless car, there will be ads on the dashboard monitor, paid for by the businesses you pass by on your route.

[einhverfr]

3. The end user will have to sign away any legal rights to recourse and/or the government(s) will have to amend statutory rights accordingly before the first cars hit the road.

Since the end user will probably not be the plaintiff "The care you made owned by my neighbor ran over my son!" it will have to be a statutory fix IMO.

Question: How do you get "hundreds of thousands of lives per year?" How much safer do you expect these to be and where do you expect them to be driven?

[Kadrith]

I wonder if the use of this patent, and any associated software, would be tied to Android or other Google services.