The founders of Google and one of their autonomous Toyota Prius hybrids

The founders of Google and one of their autonomous Toyota Prius hybrids

The future is going to be automatic. Automatic social updates pushed automatically to your mobile phone, synced automatically to your computer and to your car, which then drives you automatically to work where you automatically perform the tasks for which your employer automatically drops credits into your online bank account.

Google wants to be the automater. It also, apparently, wants to be an automaker. Or, as Jessica Lessin reports, it might want to be.

At least, it's on the table as the next project for the big brains at the search-is-just-part-of-the-game web company. Having tried and failed to find an automotive partner for its self-driving car technology, Google may set out on its own. And it could field a fleet of "robo-taxis" with the cars it builds.

Google, says Lessin, has been talking with carmakers about building new vehicles to its own specifications. This news comes just days after a report of a deal between Google, IBM, and Continental AG--a well-known automotive tire and parts supplier.

What could come of these new cars? Lessin has the full speculative romp, but the undercurrent is this: there may be a new high-tech automotive startup on the scene soon, and this one has pockets deep enough to hold Elon Musk several dozen times over.

Google-liveried 2012 Mitsubishi i

Google-liveried 2012 Mitsubishi i