Google to profit from self-driving cars by decade’s end — analyst

One of Google's driverless cars.

(Credit: Google)

Google stands to rev up substantial revenue from self-driving cars.

The search giant is likely to gain whether it creates the hardware for self-driving cars or simply license the necessary software to automakers, Piper Jaffray’s Gene Munster said in an investors note released Tuesday. Either way, revenue from this burgeoning sector should start to ramp up for Google before the decade is over.

“We believe the utility of reducing auto deaths and idle time in traffic add up to a $ 200+ billion opportunity in autonomous vehicle technology,” Munster said. And the analyst sees Google as the “best positioned Internet company over the next ten years” to profit from the technology.