Google's self-driving car: What's in it for Google?

"As ZDNet's Sam Diaz reported, when Google CEO Eric Schmidt told an audience at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference that "Your car should drive itself. It's amazing to me that we let humans drive cars. It's a bug that cars were invented before computers," many analysts suggested that he needed to be just a little less disruptive and a lot more focused on search. Even Sam suggested

Schmidt wasn't implying that such technology is coming. It was more of a side thought in a speech that he delivered about the interactions that computers and humans can have to share day-to-day tasks and learn from each other.

Guess what? Not only is the technology coming, but it's already here and Google is already testing it extensively. Google announced today that its drivers had logged over 140,000 miles in the company's self-driving cars around the San Francisco Bay area. According to a blog posted today by Google Distinguished Engineer, Sebastian Thrun,

Our goal is to help prevent traffic accidents, free up people's time and reduce carbon emissions by fundamentally changing car use.

So we have developed technology for cars that can drive themselves. Our automated cars, manned by trained operators, just drove from our Mountain View campus to our Santa Monica office and on to Hollywood Boulevard. They've driven down Lombard Street, crossed the Golden Gate bridge, navigated the Pacific Coast Highway, and even made it all the way around Lake Tahoe."

Read more at ZDNet (Thanks Duncan)