Google's driverless cars are still on the road, but Google just discontinued its new system for shopping for a car online, Google Cars, as The Truth About Cars reports.
Google Cars was only rolled out last year as a beta test in the Bay Area, and TTAC reports that its current iteration will go no further. Current users received the following text message confirmation that the program is being discontinued.
The Google San Francisco Bay Area car search beta program has been discontinued as we focus on building the next version of our experience for car-related searches. Stay tuned for more news!
This message also shows up on the home page of google.com/cars.
What was Google Cars? Well, it was a lot like online car-buying services from sites like Cars.com, only much simpler, with first-page results and no endless click-through menus that drive up pageviews.
You can see how simple it all as right here on In Auto News, which archived a search.
TTAC reports that the cost car dealers paid for being in Google Cars was higher than all other similar services. Dealers also reportedly had reservations about a lack of differentiation between dealerships on pricing and inventory displayed. These may have been contributing factors in Google discontining the program.
As The Truth About Cars wrote right here on Jalopnik last year, Google Cars seemed to have a lot of potential, being the least messy way to shop for a car online we'd ever seen.
Google's Online Car-Buying Program Is Dead