- The car group's finances were separated from Google's (GOOG, GOOGL) research lab X on Jan. 1 this year, says X chief Astro Teller, speaking at the WSJDLive 2016 conference. The team is now completing a series of corporate and legal moves to become its own business.
- It's a major step in the vehicles' path to commercial operations, writes the WSJ's Jack Nicas, and as a stand-alone operation, the car group would likely be expected to soon begin generating revenue (though not necessarily a profit).
- “The world is going to have cars that are sold to individuals and cars that are shared by individuals, and which one Alphabet does, we have our thinking on it,” says Teller. “But right now we’re very focused on safety.”
- Teller says Alphabet's self-driving cars will likely roll out incrementally over the next several years as they improve with more time on the road. They will, however, be fully autonomous from the start. "You press a button and tell the car where you want to go."