They are doing research to stay competitive and sell more product.
It has nothing to do with saving money. This is the point that you are missing. Banks are not in business to loan money, they are in business to make a profit just like these companies.
the government is on the leading edge
Because they have an unlimited budget. You give me an unlimited budget and I will move mountains and possibly for no reason just like the government does.
I think this is a good use of government money
I just checked the remittance advice on my last paycheck. That ain't the governments money it is taxpayer money. The government has no money.
I didn't say anything about the companies saving money. They're doing their research and coming up with innovations that will make their products more competitive, and encourage people to BUY them, just as any other company would.
The government has the money that they take from us. Some of it is well spent, some not. People will differ in their opinions about which is which. If the government is willing to provide some seed money for research in a project that, if brought to fruition, will benefit many in this country, that's a good thing. There are many things we use each day, and take for granted, that would not be available to us if the government hadn't put up some money to help folks do some R&D on the product, or hadn't spent money on a project from which a product came as an offshoot of the original expenditure.