Ford: What The Heck, Google Is Now Building Cars?!

Lately, Google has different goals than the ones we were expecting and tries to avoid damaging the energy system by using solar energy and promoting several campaigns to protect the environment. The amazing attempt comes from a hybrid car built by Google.org, the Google engineers and the Hymotion/A123Systems and is meant to show an alternative to the classic cars that are damaging the environment. The car works with solar power and batteries and can be used for driving up to 35 miles. However, you're still encouraged to fill your gas tank as a "just in case" measure.

"As you may know, one of Google.org's core missions is to address climate change. In the U.S., transportation contributes about one-third of all greenhouse gas emissions -- with more than 60 percent of those emissions coming from personal vehicles," Dan Reicher, Director, Climate and Energy Initiatives, Google.org, started the introduction of the new car. "We've been working with Google engineers and Hymotion/A123Systems to build a small fleet of plug-in hybrids, adding an external plug and additional batteries to a regular hybrid car so that it runs on electricity with gasoline (or even better, biofuels) to extend the driving range for longer trips," he added.

As you can see, the car is actually a Toyota, but - even if the search giant managed to build a hybrid product - it wants even more from these campaigns. That's why the Mountain View company announced their activity is now based on the solar panel installed last year in October because it works at full power.

"The system will offset peak electricity consumption at the solar powered offices and the newly constructed solar carports have charging stations for the plug-in hybrids. At 1.6 megawatts -- with an electricity output capable of powering approximately 1,000 average California homes -- the Google project is the largest solar installation on any corporate campus in the U.S. to date, and one of the largest on any corporate site in the world," the same Google employee described the solar panel.

Lately, both Internet giants Google and Yahoo tried to promote their own environmental campaigns in a move meant to improve their images and fight for good causes. But let's admit that all these campaigns are also useful for all of us, residents of the planet, because Earth urgently needs help.