The (dubious tech) HOW of completely independent self-driving cars is likely a distraction, but the WHY of it could still generate benefits. For instance, user centered design of self-driving vehicles can lead to seamless public transport where a digital assistant plans every minute of your commute. And/or 5G enables remote control of a vehicle that is partially self-driven. The end result for the user still feels autonomous, but the operating mechanism is more tractable.
The Bloomberg piece on driverless cars misses the point on how progress happens - i.e. in fits and starts, with many bumps. The overinflated valuations aren't a feature of this tech, but of almost any tech over the past 5 years. And $100bn sounds like a lot till you consider that the US spends $4tn annually on healthcare and wastes a big chunk of it. Or that global automotive market is circa $3tn so this is about 3% of one year's revenue that has so far invested in disruptive tech. And finally, isn't this why exponential markets confuse people? For a long time it feels like nothing's happening, but then when things happen, they seem to happen very quickly. Yes, the optimism was misplaced. But 'going nowhere' seems unduly pessimistic, and centred around Levandowski's rise and fall.
The (dubious tech) HOW of completely independent self-driving cars is likely a distraction, but the WHY of it could still generate benefits. For instance, user centered design of self-driving vehicles can lead to seamless public transport where a digital assistant plans every minute of your commute. And/or 5G enables remote control of a vehicle that is partially self-driven. The end result for the user still feels autonomous, but the operating mechanism is more tractable.
The Bloomberg piece on driverless cars misses the point on how progress happens - i.e. in fits and starts, with many bumps. The overinflated valuations aren't a feature of this tech, but of almost any tech over the past 5 years. And $100bn sounds like a lot till you consider that the US spends $4tn annually on healthcare and wastes a big chunk of it. Or that global automotive market is circa $3tn so this is about 3% of one year's revenue that has so far invested in disruptive tech. And finally, isn't this why exponential markets confuse people? For a long time it feels like nothing's happening, but then when things happen, they seem to happen very quickly. Yes, the optimism was misplaced. But 'going nowhere' seems unduly pessimistic, and centred around Levandowski's rise and fall.