Traffic on wireless networks may soon have a whole new meaning. Google is reportedly so eager to produce a driverless car that it has started conversations with component makers in an effort to bypass existing automakers. The company apparently wants to build its own vehicles and sell them to customers, or rent them as on-demand taxis without drivers.
Google has already produced prototypes of a driverless car, but actually selling them and putting them on the road is a different story. The company knows that today’s mobile networks are not equipped to handle automobiles. Most carriers barely have enough spectrum to serve their human customers, but work is underway to adapt white space spectrum for machine-to-machine connections. In the United States, Google is an administrator of a white space database, meaning that it helps register equipment that is to be used on the white space spectrum.
However, Google may have to explore other options for its connected cars. The white space spectrum is best suited for signals that are longer range and lower frequency than those that transmit voice and data over cellular networks. Most M2M signals do not need to be transmitted continuously at high speeds, but those from a driverless car might be an important exception.
For Google, the opportunities presented by a branded vehicle are abundant. First and foremost is the $2 trillion automobile market. There are also plenty of ways to monetize the car owner once he or she is no longer preoccupied by the business of driving. When a user searches for services in an area, advertisers could pay to have the car literally bring them the business.
But Google may face a bumpy road if it truly wants to sell cars directly to customers. In the United States, most new cars are sold through dealers, and outsiders who have tried to bypass dealerships have had limited success. Tesla founder Elon Musk learned that lesson in Texas recently, when the state banned the sale of Tesla cars because Musk wanted to sell them directly to consumers.
Follow me on Twitter.
