Google has a lot of self-driving cars that have driven a lot of miles, but so far, no commercial use for them. But that could change if the Silicon Valley giant pursues its rumored plans of developing an autonomous ride-sharing network to compete with Uber and Lyft. Recently, Google filed a patent application that could be seen as the first shot across Uber’s bow.

The application, first noticed earlier this month by the website Patent Yogi, is for efficiently determining pickup and destination locations for autonomous vehicles. Google says it wants to operate fully self-driving cars where passengers provide some initial input, such as a pick up or destination location, and the vehicle maneuvers itself to that location.

Continue reading…