While Google’s cash pile tops that of individual automakers, Toyota’s $41 billion, Volkswagen’s $44 billion and GM’s $29 billion ensure they can fund technology advances. That gives manufacturers the resources to provide a counterbalance to Google, said William “Red” Whittaker, director of the Field Robotics Center at Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh.

“No one has a monopoly on this technology,” Whittaker said. “The big global OEMs, they run deep, they run strong, and they aren’t fooling around.”
More>>