Google Considering ‘Robo Taxi’ Service with Autonomous Car Technology

From smartphones to tablets to notebooks to a TV stick, Google has been working with manufacturers to make some great products for some time. What's next? According to a new rumor: a car. Yes, a car. It's no secret that Google has been working hard on its self-driving car technology, but apparently the company has decided to take things a bit further by working with car manufacturers to have its own car design built.

So, much like how Google will work with vendors to produce its own vision of a smartphone or tablet (Nexus series) and then slaps its own name on the product, the same thing would happen here. Imagine for a moment going to a car dealership to look at a... brand-new Google model. If this becomes a reality, I think that odd feeling will take awhile to wear off.

According to the rumor, Google has nearly completed a deal with Continental, one of the world's largest suppliers of auto components. It's not quite clear how much involvement Google would have with the car outside of its self-driving technology.

If a Google car sounds strange, then you're going to love this next rumor: Robo Taxis. With its own cars, Google could potentially open up its own taxi service. At first, the cars would have a driver behind the wheel in case, but as time goes on and the safety is proven, that would change (the goal is to make for a cheaper taxi service, likely). What I'm interested in learning is how people would tell the car where to go. Google Maps, maybe?

If any of this becomes a reality, then the future is going to be extremely exciting for car technology.