On December 14, Google announced the split of its unmanned business, which will be in the form of an independent subsidiary called Waymo.
The new company name implies the search for “a new way forward in mobilityâ€. In fact, it is difficult to see the fate of the driverless business being split by Google, but according to the statement of the CEO of the new company, Waymo will not become a car manufacturer.
This is similar to Google's initial promotion of the Android operating system in the smartphone market, which is rarely involved in hardware design and production, even if the intervention is for the purpose of industry demonstration.
The cooperation between Google and the car company Chrysler is in the process of being promoted. Knowing that the car columnist, in an interview with the 21st Century Business Herald, said: "It is foreseeable that the unlicensed Google driverless business will seek to unite with more car companies."
Zhang Junyi, a partner of Weilai Capital, believes: "After eight years of continuous research, Google needs to open up to find more application scenarios." Weilai Automobile is a representative company of China's Internet car, targeting the high-end automotive market.
From a business perspective, Google's driverless technology is less ugly in the short term. But Zhang Junyi believes that "Waymo", an independent startup, will usher in a good corporate valuation in the capital market.
Technology will be commercialized as soon as possible
On December 14, the announcement of Google's split-off of its driverless business was held in San Francisco, and the driverless technology company "Waymo" was born. "The separation of driverless from Google X means that the project has been 'graduated'." The artificial intelligence company went out to ask the CEO, former Google headquarters scientist Li Zhifei told the 21st Century Business Herald that the split will make it clearer. Commercialization goals and execution routes.
At the press conference, Waymo CEO John Krafcik said, “The split independence indicates that Google’s technology is mature. We can imagine that our self-driving technology is used in various fields.†In John Krafcik’s view, Google’s driverless Technology has reached a stage where it can be brought to market.
Even from a capital market perspective, the high valuation of today's venture capital market driverless technology companies has given Google the incentive to spin off this business unit. In stark contrast, in the short-term, the driverless business is almost impossible to bring real profits to Google. According to the current ordinary car equipped with Google driverless technology and various sensors, the cost is more than several million yuan.
"You have to know that google drones rely on a very large number of expensive sensors to achieve very reliable driving," a person working on driverless research told reporters. Therefore, if Google wants to promote the commercialization of driverless technology, it is difficult to do it alone, and the entire industry is needed to push down the cost of hardware.
Google splits the driverless business for commercialization, but short-term driverless technology is not commercially viable. The obstacle to large-scale promotion lies in hardware costs. In the long run, hardware costs will continue to decline as the market scale expands.
Intelligent driving projects have always burned money. "You can see that Google's investment strategy has changed significantly this year." The head of the business line of a domestic unmanned development company told reporters that since this year, Google has cut down many projects with unclear or unprofitable prospects, so restructuring smart driving is "sooner or later." Things."
Tesla, Uber, Baidu and many traditional car companies have launched quite aggressive drone solutions in recent years. According to these companies' expectations, unmanned driving on production cars will be implemented from next year to 2020.
The progress of a number of Internet companies and car companies to promote technology has become a threat to Google's autonomous driving technology. At a glance, although Google has obvious advantages in the field of autonomous driving, some competitors are currently forming differentiated advantages. For example, Uber has the largest operating fleet, and Tesla can also be responsible for automobile manufacturing and open up hardware and software.
Fix positioning in car chains
“Building a company separately is conducive to the marketization of the business, the motivation to go to the market, and the flatter structure. It may allow the business to accelerate its focus.†I said that splitting the business undoubtedly indicates that Google wants to continue to do autonomous driving. business.
John Krafcik highlighted at the press conference that Waymo will not be a car manufacturer. Google has revised its positioning in the driverless field and will become a driverless technology supplier.
“In fact, Google used to be the whole industry chain in the field of driverless driving, which made the car companies nervous and afraid to be replaced.†But after Google clearly defined its position, the insiders of the domestic driverless development company believed that the car companies Will be more confident to cooperate with Google.
"Google may be aligned with more traditional car companies." Earlier, Google has announced its first case of external cooperation, and will team up with Chrysler to build a driverless car. John Krafcik told the US media that the first Chrysler model with Google's driverless operating system has been completed and will be officially tested soon.
At present, Google does not seem to have announced more partners, but once the cooperation with Chrysler is smooth, Google can promote the unmanned technology to other car companies.
“Whether they are car owners or driverless technology companies, they want to be able to connect with many unmanned technology companies or car companies at the same time.†Zhang Junyi said that Google hopes to provide technical support for many car companies, while BMW Such car companies also hope to cooperate with several technology suppliers.
In Zhang Junyi's view, splitting into independent subsidiaries is in fact Google's ability to further expand the ability to build unmanned driving.
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