Google Self Driving Car!! Full-Fledged Automated Driving Car Waymo.

Waymo has only existed for about a month since being spun off from Alphabet Inc.’s X lab. Despite that, Waymo has the potential to be one of the most important players in the future of the auto industry in the coming years. At the Automobili-D conference running in conjunction with the North American International Auto Show in Detroit, Waymo CEO John Krafcik announced that the company has designed and built its own complete sensor suite, processing system and software in order to produce a fully automated driver stack.

"Our goal is to build a better driver," said Krafcik. "An automated driver."

If self-driving cars really do take over our roads then things are going to be a lot safer — at least for people inside them. Vehicles will be able to constantly communicate with one another to prevent crashes, but what about those poor, unconnected humans? Or humans who might wander into traffic by accident, or decide to test the reflexes of Mr. Robo-Car for fun? Well, Google’s self-driving spinoff Waymo has one potential answer: softer cars.

As spotted by The Mercury News, Waymo recently patented a car design in which the vehicle is held together internally with a number of “tension members.” These members — which could be cables, rods, or springs — would slacken or tighten to adjust the car’s “external rigidity” as needed. If sensors detect the vehicle is about to “come into contact with another object” they would change accordingly. If it’s another car, keep the outside stiff; it’s a human, loosen up as appropriate.

The $15.3 billion purchase of Mobileye (MBLY) is an expensive gamble on the part of Intel (INTC). Based on the $358.16 million FY 2016 revenue of Mobileye, Intel made a 42.71 Price/Sales bet on it. Intel will probably take on new debt to finance this venture. Intel loaded up $7 billion of debt to finance its $16.7 billion (less than 9x P/S purchase based on 2014 revenue of Altera) bet on Altera. Altera is probably contributing more $2 billion to Intel’s annual top line right now. However, I think it will take many years before Mobileye itself can generate the same level of contribution.