Google has announced the opening of a number of new jobs for its self-driving car project, signaling that the company might be looking to speed up its manufacturing process.
According to Tech Times, Google’s parent company, Alphabet, recently posted 36 job opens for both marketing and manufacturing. Such a slew of new positions as this might indicate that the company is looking to either strengthen their position in the increasingly competitive autonomous-driving market or speed up their manufacturing process.
Among the freshly opened positions are jobs with titles like marketing manager and manufacturing process engineer.
A marketing manager in this case would be asked by Google to design a “go-to-market strategy and storytelling to win hearts and minds of community members, influences and governments,” according to the job description.
In the past, Google has expressed their disinterest in building and manufacturing cars. They have, in the past, outlined their intent to team up with an established auto maker that could implement Google’s tech — without Google having to have anything to do with making the car itself.
However, among the opening described by Google, several require expertise in operations and engineering. This is a strong indication that the company might be considering building some of the hardware themselves.
This news, in concert with their recent expansion of their driverless car testing program to Kirkland, Washington, signals Google’s continued commitment to its self-driving division, called Google X.
Kirkland marks the third testing ground for the company, who before has deployed autonomous prototypes in Mountain View, California and Austin, Texas.