Google on Tuesday received a patent that reveals the firm’s vision of a world where fleets of self-driving cars provide on-demand personal transportation and delivery of goods.

In that vision, the vehicles would be on the roads in such numbers that customers would need help sorting out which one has arrived to pick them up or drop off their package.

If pursued by Google, the business described in the patent document could provide a path to monetization for one of the firm’s “moonshot” experiments, which in total lost $5.5 billion in 2014 and 2015, with only $775 million in revenue.

“With a typical taxi or car service, a human driver can interact with a passenger to identify himself to that passenger,” the patent document said. “However, when an autonomous vehicle attempts to pick up a passenger or drop off a delivery, it can be difficult for the user being picked up or retrieving the item to know which autonomous vehicle is assigned to them.

“This can be exacerbated if there are numerous vehicles being sent to the same location to pick up multiple passengers.”

The patent describes technology for providing a signal to a customer from the vehicle they have ordered. That signal could be given by an electronic display on the outside of the vehicle that identifies it to a user.

Google’s pursuit of the technology could put the company into competition with ride-hailing titan Uber, which in September launched a pilot ride-hailing project in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, using autonomous cars.

But patenting this technology is far from a guarantee that Google will get into the operation of autonomous vehicles for on-demand transportation and delivery.

“It’s confirmation of the fact that they’ve been thinking about this space but it doesn’t mean that they’re thinking of competing with Uber or others with fleets of self-driving cars,” said Forrester analyst Frank Gillett.

“It’s a wisp of smoke but it doesn’t necessarily mean there’s a fire. It doesn’t give you a good idea of the current strategic direction of the company.”

Fleets of self-driving cars are part of the strategy for a number of other firms. Santa Clara chipmaker Nvidia has entered a partnership with China’s version of Google — search-engine giant Baidu — to create an artificial-intelligence-based platform for self-driving cars, and Baidu this summer received permits to test autonomous vehicles on California roads.

In January, General Motors invested $500 million in San Francisco ride-hailing company Lyft, and in May announced plans for the two firms to start testing a fleet of self-driving electric taxis on public roads within a year.

“The leading Chinese and American companies are going after this,” Gillett said. “It’s also clear that the car companies including Ford and GM and the German makers are thinking deeply about this, plus Tesla. They’re all pushing to see how far they can get by 2020.”

Because autonomous vehicles will be expensive when they hit the market, and because most cars now on the road will be drivable for another five to 10 years, it’s likely that autonomous vehicles will take hold in the ride-hailing market before individual use becomes widespread, Gillett said.

“You keep the vehicles busy and get more from them,” Gillett said, adding that urban areas will probably see the first deployments because population density will provide the demand necessary to keep the vehicles operating steadily.

Google could make money from its self-driving car program by selling or licensing the technology, or from operating on-demand ride-hailing and delivery services itself, analysts said.

“You could see Google as an operator of these networks, either directly owning and operating the vehicles, or closely partnered with another entity or entities that does,” said Stanford School of Law professor and autonomous-vehicle expert Bryant Walker Smith. For production of self-driving cars, Google would probably work with a carmaker, Smith said.

Although Google is an internet company, it has launched hardware and services such as Google Express for grocery delivery, indicating it might see opportunity in operating on-demand transportation and delivery services, Smith said.

Google will continue to compete against Uber in the self-driving business, Smith believes. “They’re likely to become bigger competitors, and I imagine they will try to match each other in some of their domains,” he said.

Brookings Institute senior fellow Blair Levin also noted that Google already sells services, but he said the firm may “continue to do things that take advantage of their core competencies in software, data and artificial intelligence.

“That suggests licensing the technology but in a way that gives them access to the data.”