In what was otherwise an underwhelming Ask Me Anything at Reddit, Carlos Ghosn, the President and CEO of Renault and Nissan, a company that has promised to offer cars with autonomous drive by 2020, analyzed Google’s place in the driverless sector. The exchange:

Question:

Often when you hear “autonomous vehicles,” it is in the same sentence with Google. How do you see the search giant’s role in the future of autonomous vehicles? 

Carlos Ghosn:

From time to time on a specific technology, companies can benefit from marketing/information halo. If you asked people today, what’s the best-selling electric car, many will say the Tesla. But really, it’s the Nissan LEAF — by far. Because of Tesla’s marketing strategy, it’s more visible to the public. They appear to be the leaders.

The Google car is more of a driverless car than an autonomous car. It would serve more of an economic purpose. Consider, for example, if Uber was able to drive their cars without drivers. There would be an economic purpose.

We are much more involved in autonomous drive. The driver is still in the car, but we want to make sure to make the driving experience is less stressful. We’re giving more power to the driver, to make the driving experience more pleasant.•