Pick a Venture to Launch Now That Wins Once Self-Driving Vehicles Go Mainstream
Company: Google
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
Suppose that five years from now, self-driving cars have become the normal way people get around. Which business would you start building today so that it is positioned to benefit from that world? Explain why you chose it, how it would make money, and what you would do between now and year five.
```hint Look at what changes around the car
Think beyond the vehicle itself: when nobody drives, what gets cheaper, what sits unused, and what new work appears? Then ask which of those openings needs years of preparation, so that starting today is a real advantage.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- Does "the norm" mean most people own a personal self-driving car, or that most trips are taken in shared driverless fleets?
- Am I founding a startup, or building a new business inside Google?
- Are driverless trucks and delivery vehicles in scope, or only passenger cars?
- Which geography should I assume: dense cities, suburbs and rural areas, or one particular country?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- Second-order effects of widespread driverless vehicles on cost per trip, car ownership, parking, time spent in the car and driving jobs.
- Several candidate businesses compared on explicit criteria, including why starting today matters and how the business defends itself against driverless-vehicle makers and fleet operators.
- A chosen business with a clear customer, value proposition and business model.
- A phased plan from today to year five that earns revenue or learning before driverless vehicles dominate, with metrics for each phase.
- Risks such as a slower rollout or incumbents building the same thing, and how the plan adapts.
### Follow-up Questions
- Driverless cars become the norm in ten years instead of five. What happens to your business?
- The leading driverless fleet operators decide to build what you are building themselves. How do you respond?
- What result in year one would convince you to keep investing, and what would make you stop?
Overview: A product strategy question that assumes driverless cars will be the norm in five years and asks which business you would start building today to benefit. It tests second-order thinking about autonomy, comparing opportunities on timing and defensibility, choosing a business model and planning a phased roadmap.