Self-Driving cars need dealers more – Google

Self-driving – autonomous – cars will need dealers even more than according to the head of Google’s self-driving car project.

Speaking to the 2016 J.D. Power Automotive Forum taking place before the New York International Auto show, chief executive of the project John Krafcik, says one of the repercussions of self-driving cars will be an increase in utilisation.

“Self driving cars are going to be more expensive physical assets, so we’re going to find a way to use them more,” he said. For example when you are sleeping the car could be providing a service such as Uber.

Thusly, Krafcik believes usage will skyrocket – in the US to upwards of 100,000 miles a year.

“I think there are going to be positive implications for a lot of dealers,” said Krafcik, “And for the OEMs, thinking about that duty cycle is going to be very different.”

Krafcik also noted the cars can’t be reliant on communication with other cars or infrastructure.

“You can’t have a truly autonomous car if you’re reliant on V2V or V2X, because there will be times when those go down.”

“We’re really not dependent on external infrastructure to get around the world,” he said. “While we love the idea of V2V and V2X — that’d be super-helpful for us — we’re not relying on them. You can’t have a truly autonomous car if you’re reliant on V2V or V2X, because there will be times when those go down.”