By James Bellefeuille, CoFounder of Vugo, a rideshare service startup. If you would like to ask me a question about this, article or rideshare advertising please contact me on @JLBellefeuille or follow @Vugo on Twitter or Instagram.

Yes they can.

According to a 2007 study done by Harvard Health Watch, the average adult American spends 101 minutes per day driving. The current population of the United States is 318.9 million according to the United States Census Bureau and World Bank, only 210 million are licensed drivers, meaning that every single day approximately 335,500,000 hours are lost while getting from A-B.

(Correction: Originally this post stated that there was 535,752,000 wasted hours, this was corrected to 353,500,000 wasted hours per day once the error was recognized. We corrected by only counting licensed drivers.)

Is Google’s Self-Driving Car Project Strictly Altruistic?

No. However, if self-driving cars are successfully adopted in the US, they could prevent many deaths and auto accidents.

Google has been struggling with the lower value of mobile advertisements and has been working to capitalize on the mobile search industry. Many times when people are using their phones, they are in their vehicles searching, watching digital media, or playing games (not the drivers of course).

According to Forbes, Google makes around $10.09 each year from each user. Only 84.2% of the United States uses the Internet, according to World Bank, meaning that there are only 268,513,800 Internet users in the United States.

According to Statista.com in 2014, 43% of Google’s revenue came from the United States; 10% from the UK; and 47% from the rest of the world.

Google’s overall revenue in 2014 was 66 billion dollars, meaning 28.38 billion came from the US. According to a cross-platform report from Nielsen, the average American Internet user spends 11 hours online per day.

What if Google could increase the amount of time a user spent on the Internet?

If Google was able to increase Americans Internet consumption by creating self-driving cars, it is likely that they could increase average American internet consumption by up to 1.68 hours daily per person.

How much are self-driving cars worth to Google?

Based on our assumptions, a one hour increase in Internet consumption in the United States would increase Google’s revenue by about 9%. Meaning…

2014 revenue from the United States = 28.38 billion.

= 2.58 billion for each hour the average American spends on the internet today.

= $30.93 Billion if there is a one hour increase in Internet usage in the US.

= $32.59 billion in potential US based revenue with 100% self-driving car adoption.

The difference? Up to 4.21 billion dollars per year or more.

4.21 Billion Dollars Per Year.

Imagine if Google controlled the dominant platform that allowed self-driving vehicles, including the the displays, devices, everything… for in vehicle digital media, not just for the driver, but also for all everyone.

It would make self-driving vehicles even more valuable than our estimated 4.21 billion dollars a year.

Is Rideshare Advertising a Billion Dollar Industry?

Google recently made headlines by discussing entering the rideshare industry. By entering the space armed with self-driving cars and AdWords, Google is not only able to capture the US market from entrenched competitors, it is able to capture the global rideshare market as well at a lower cost than anyone else, even Uber. Due to it’s Rideshare advertising ability, which wouldn't dwarf the transportation business, but would make for an incredible one-two punch.

Self-driving vehicle advertising is a multi-billion dollar business in the United States, and rideshare advertising will be leading the way.