Google is reportedly in talks with automobile manufacturing giants regarding the possibility of designing and launching its own self-driving cars. The news comes from former Wall Street Journal reporter Amir Efrati, who currently reports on jessicalessin.com as the two prepare to launch a new premium news service with a number of other journalists. According to Efrati, Google has held talks with Magna International and Continental AG, one of the world’s largest auto parts suppliers, to build self-driving cars that Google has a hand in designing. German newspaper Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung had previously reported that Google is close to closing a deal with Continental. Google is said to be considering a “robo-taxi” fleet, though it is unclear if it plans to operate the driverless automobile service on its own or sell the vehicles to a third party. Efrati’s report claims Google had previously held talks with several big car brands, but it failed to strike a deal and therefore began investigating other possibilities.
Google may design and launch its own ‘robo-taxi’ fleet of self-driving cars
Published Aug 23rd, 2013 4:15PM EDT
If you buy through a BGR link, we may earn an affiliate commission, helping support our expert product labs.
This article talks about:
Google
Zach Epstein has been the Executive Editor at BGR for more than 15 years. He manages BGR’s editorial team and ensures that best practices are adhered to. He also oversees the Ecommerce team and directs the daily flow of all content. Zach first joined BGR in 2007 as a Staff Writer covering business, technology, and entertainment.
His work has been quoted by countless top news organizations, and he was recently named one of the world's top 10 “power mobile influencers” by Forbes. Prior to BGR, Zach worked as an executive in marketing and business development with two private telcos.
