makes me wonder even more when I found this from the New York Times dated April, 2016. What to think? ( And there is a driverless car group now. Could Nunchi tech be useful to self driving cars? " ) ( Also just wondering about Google and their Google Maps. Cars need to have a map to reach their destination? ) :

Business Day

Ford and Google Team Up to Support Driverless Cars

DETROIT — In an unusual alliance between a traditional automaker and a technology company, Ford Motor and Google on Wednesday joined to lead a coalition of companies that advocate federal approval of driverless cars in the near future.

By teaming up to promote regulations that favor fully-autonomous vehicles, Ford and Google may be moving toward closer cooperation on the actual development of driverless models.

Ford’s chief executive, Mark Fields, has said in recent months that his company is evaluating potential partnerships with other firms on autonomous vehicles, but has not made any formal moves in that direction.

Still, by forming a public policy coalition that includes Google, Ford is aligning with Silicon Valley’s most prominent supporter of cars that can operate without a driver.

The group, which calls itself the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, presented testimony on Wednesday at a hearing on autonomous vehicles held by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The hearing was the second conducted by the federal agency as it tries to develop national guidelines for the use of autonomous cars on American roadways.

In January, the Obama administration said it hoped to expedite regulatory guidelines for autonomous vehicles and to invest in research to help bring them to market.

While Google has been at the forefront in testing driverless models, many mainstream automakers like Ford are also accelerating development of a wide range of autonomous vehicles.

At Wednesday’s hearing at Stanford University in California, the nation’s top auto safety regulator, Mark Rosekind, said the federal government was hopeful that driverless technology could help reduce the annual death toll from traffic accidents. In 2014, the last year for which data was available, 32,675 people died in auto accidents.

Mr. Rosekind said that more than 90 percent of vehicle accidents every year were the result of decisions made by drivers at the wheel — and self-driving technology had the potential to prevent at least some of those accidents.

“We are focused on promoting safety innovation that can do the most to save lives,” he said.

Automakers are already putting some self-driving features, like automatic braking and steering, in current models. But the coalition led by Ford and Google is urging swift passage of regulations that allow for totally autonomous vehicles.

In addition to Ford and Google, the coalition includes the Swedish carmaker Volvo and the ride-sharing firms Lyft and Uber. The spokesman for the group is David Strickland, a predecessor of Mr. Rosekind’s as the head of the safety agency.

“There are policy issues and inconsistencies in the regulatory environment today that could greatly delay deployment or possibly deny full self driving from many that could benefit from its promise,” Mr. Strickland said at the hearing.

A Ford spokeswoman, Christin Baker, said Ford’s involvement with Google was not an indication that the two companies were working together on a driverless car.

“The five founding members of the coalition are focused on public policy issues,” Ms. Baker said. “That’s the mission of the group.”

Other carmakers, including General Motors and Toyota, testified separately at the hearing. A Toyota official, in particular, suggested that regulators hold off on setting requirements for self-driving technology until it was introduced in the market.

Other groups that expressed support for self-driving cars included those speaking for disabled persons who cannot operate a vehicle, and Mothers Against Drunk Driving, which noted that driverless cars could reduce the number of accidents that involve alcohol consumption.

At an earlier hearing, some consumer groups warned that driverless cars had not been perfected in testing environments. One group, Consumer Watchdog, said that future regulations should require that a licensed driver was present and able to take control of a vehicle if autonomous technology failed to operate safely.