Anthony Levandowski, head of Google's , told an audience at the Society of Automotive Engineers conference this week that the company is looking for partners to help it get autonomous cars on the road within the next decade, according to a from the Wall Street Journal.

"We're talking to every car company to see what their level of excitement is," Levandowski said.

While noting that the company still needs to do "millions of miles" of testing, he said the could be ready well before 2012. "If not, shame on us as engineers," he added.

A spokesman told Computerworld Thursday that the company is reaching out to many auto companies but keeping its options open.

"We're talking with lots of auto companies about a variety of topics, but we haven't decided how we may make our technology available to consumers," he said. "As Anthony Levandowski said yesterday in Detroit, 'all options are open.' "