I agree. I was referring to the prejudices of some Japanese people, not Google's.
Now this issues are being discussed publicly. I think that's a good thing.
It's only feasible right now in a controlled environment (all the drivers are the same AI and no humans doing unexpected things). Otherwise is a hard and complex AI problem.
A couple months ago, Ricardo Galli - spanish hacker and creator of the open-source reddit-like "Meneame" - posted an explanation of his algorithm for doing that.
"A quick search of popular bittorrent trackers reveals that a torrent of many of the tracks in question was available in March of 2007, a full 13 months before Cogill's supposed initial leak."