The
Wall Street Journal
By JUSTIN LAHART
Jan. 12, 2014 5:19
p.m. ET
Associated Press
In the race to build
in-car information systems, Google GOOG +1.79% may be destined for the checkered flag
for one simple reason: It has the killer map.
At the International
CES show last week, Google and several car makers, including General Motors, GM +1.02% launched the Open Automotive Alliance.
This is a plan to establish Google's Android operating system as a common
platform for apps in the connected car.
That opens a new front
in Google's battle with Apple, AAPL +1.73% which announced plans last year to
integrate its devices into car makers' dashboard control panels, and Microsoft, MSFT +1.92% which developed in-car voice-activated
and touch-screen technologies with Ford Motor. F +1.11%
Agence France-Presse/Getty
Images
Given rivals' earlier
moves, Google could be seen as having a late start. But the open nature of
Android has obvious appeal. The ability for a company to customize Android
persuades even Google's rivals to use it;Amazon.com, AMZN +1.09% for example, tweaked the software for
its own Kindle reading device. Given vehicle development's long lead times,
these are important considerations.
More important may be
Google's map expertise. Having sent cars with cameras all over the world to
develop its Street View capabilities, the company has created maps that are
extremely accurate and up-to-date where others aren't. Think of the apology
Apple had to issue in 2012 following criticism of a new version of its own Maps
app, which was designed to replace Google's.
The popularity of
Google's maps for devices running Android and Apple's iOS creates a network
effect. The more people who use Google Maps, the more information Google has on
factors such as traffic, and the more appealing the product becomes. Such was
the logic behind Google's purchase of Waze, a real-time traffic-information
app, last year.
And don't forget a big
reason for Google's interest in cartography is its autonomous vehicle program.
A crash means something quite different for a car compared with a smartphone.
To minimize the potential for error, a must from both a regulatory and
product-liability standpoint, a self-driving car needs a painstakingly accurate
map.
With a gaggle of
companies demonstrating autonomous and semiautonomous vehicle technology at
CES, and likely at this week's auto show in Detroit, the day when commercially
available self-driving cars cruise U.S. roads looks less a futurist daydream
and more a rapidly approaching reality. "With U.S. drivers driving 75
billion hours a year, autonomous cars are also poised to have a much greater
impact on society as a whole than most people give them credit for,"
Morgan Stanley said in a recent report.
Google's
autonomous-car program is a big reason the concept is being taken so seriously
within the automotive industry. It isn't hard to envision the company licensing
the technology for car makers just as right now it provides its Android
operating system to smartphone manufacturers.
At the least, car
companies may want to tap Google's map technology for their programs. But
Google's wider product offering means they may see it as being in their best
interest to build a closer relationship with it over the long term.
All of which gives
Google an advantage over the likes of Apple as the autonomous age arrives and
Detroit and drivers venture into unfamiliar territory without a map.
Write
to Justin Lahart at justin.lahart@wsj.com
best
ReplyDelete