Decent thought experiment but the whole "wolf in sheep's clothing" part is just link bait title or a really bad analogy. A more appropriate analogy would be "a head fake" as the late Randy Pausch so aptly put it.
Probably just a really bad analogy. They also used "vicious cycle of driving and learning" where "virtuous circle" (which I take to mean a system with positive feedback) would be more appropriate.
Well, both vicious and virtuous cycles involve positive feedback (i.e. in the direction of current change). The difference is that virtuous cycles tend towards positive outcomes.
The whole piece uses terms with negative connotations to convey what I think is meant to be a positive message of being impressed by ingenuity. So, I'm not sure which is the more charitable interpretation: he was extremely careless in writing the post, or was deliberately misleading to get views.
He qualified it when he wrote the piece, calling it "sort of a 'wolf in sheep’s clothing'" in the actual article, then took off the "sort of" when he made the title. For that reason, I think it's probably sensationalist link bait.
That's not to suggest that it's a good analogy, because it's also a totally improper use of that idiom.
> A sheep follows the herd, but the wolf drives itself
I doubt that the author is using 'sheep' and 'wolf' to refer to the herd behaviour of the former versus the self decision making ability/nature of the latter.
I cannot give a very well analyzed comment on the seriousness or the _wolfiness_ of this initiative by Google, I haven't given it a deep thought yet. I am, however, unable to understand the arguments of why what Google is doing, is bad. The author elaborates the possibility of Street View feeding Driverless Project and the latter increasing efficiency of the system. The reasoning behind this being vicious is missing.
"A Wolf in Sheep's Clothing is an idiom of Biblical origin. It is used of those playing a role contrary to their real character, with whom contact is dangerous." - Wikipedia. Role contrary to real character, possibly. Dangerous, I can't see how.
