Google: Imagining the impossibilities

It's probably not an impossibility for Apple to come up with an iTable, or an iBlanket for that matter (and I'm sure you know what I mean by these two gadgets). I wouldn't be surprised if Nokia would come up with a cellphone which can project holograms or something like that. And again, Microsoft building a Windows version that is "almost bug free" is not that surprising. (But IBM offering term life insurance quotes? That is something else.)

But Google is the only company I know of that keeps on doing something that normal people like me did not even think of as possible within the next few years. Here's report from Yahoo!:

Google tests cars that can steer without drivers

By DANIEL WAGNER, AP Business Writer

WASHINGTON – Google Inc. is road-testing cars that steer, stop and start without a human driver, the company says.

The goal is to "help prevent traffic accidents, free up people's time and reduce carbon emissions" through ride sharing and "the new 'highway trains of tomorrow,'" project leader Sebastian Thrun wrote Saturday on Google's corporate blog.

The cars are never unmanned, Thrun wrote. He said a backup driver is always behind the wheel to monitor the software.

It's not the first signal that Google wants to change how people get from place to place. In a speech Sept. 29 at the TechCrunch "Disrupt" conference, Google CEO Eric Schmidt said "your car should drive itself. It just makes sense."

"It's a bug that cars were invented before computers," Schmidt said.

The cars have traveled a total of 140,000 miles on major California roads without much human intervention, according to Google's corporate blog.

More... 

I mean, Google started out with its search algorithm, and now, look at its ventures -- green technology, "mainstreaming" trips to the moon, phones, and now, this? Google is like Massive Dynamic!

Next stop for Google: Beam me up, Scotty!

The Google StarShip!

:p