Google's self-driving car is the future. The project has been widely acclaimed due to its promise of safety, regardless of the driver's ability in driving a car. As a result, technology firms have taken huge notice of the project. But not only that, even German premium automobile manufacturers have begun its hunt in acquiring software expertise in order to manufacture their own self-driving cars.
Automakers and tech firms are now making software expertise as a new battleground as cars require lines of code in order to connect electric car motors to batteries, communicate with smartphones or activate brakes when an obstacle is detected ahead of the course. German premium automobile makers such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi are now on a hiring spree for software experts to do just that.
"What car companies are doing is hiring people generally from outside automotive. Some companies a few years ago didn't have a connected car department. They all have that now," said Magma People Chief Executive Malcolm Earp, according to a specialist automotive recruitment company.
Just last month, the three German premium carmakers said that they would pay about $2.8 billion to purchase Nokia's mapping service, beating out high-tech rivals for location services as that would be the key to the future of self-driving cars.
In September 2014, German multinational automotive corporation Daimler acquired mytaxi and RideScout, two smartphone apps that will help the maker of Mercedes-Benz limousines offer services to people who do not own cars.
Another example of cross pollination between technology and car sectors is Google's hiring of former Hyundai Motors Chief Executive John Krafcik, a figure with an extensive amount of experience with automotives, as its self-driving car project CEO.
The Google Self-Driving Car Project started in 2009 to revolutionize the car industry. At the time of writing, the company behind it has self-driven 1 million miles and is now out on the streets of Mountain View, California and Austin, Texas. As of July 2015, recorded incidents only involved 14 minor accidents with all cases caused by either another driver or the cars were being driven manually.
