Changing of the guard

GOOGLE has launched its first foray into the pioneering world of autonomous cars with the formal unveiling of new sister company Waymo, which is expected to whet its appetite for world domination with a self-driving taxi service. 

Waymo says that drivers around the world clock up an incredible ten trillion miles each year, one of those fantastically difficult to challenge numbers, and that it will make every one of those miles safer.

First step in the Google revolution will be a self-driving taxi fleet. It probably won’t be sparing expats awkward conversations of payment moments in far flung corners of the world. More likely the fleet will occupy the pristine streets of tech cities like San Francisco and Seattle, charging executives an arm and a leg  for WIFI access on their way to meetings.

After the taxi fleet, the sky is the limit. The motoring world will be transformed beyond all recognition with the entrance of tech and software companies into the market, challenging the power players of Ford, Volkswagen etc who has ruled the roost for a century.