I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that this is a comment on how smart people often accept stifling constraints on their thought and actions

I'd like to give him the benefit of the doubt and say that this is a comment on how smart people often accept stifling constraints on their thought and actions "because that's how it's done." It is my belief that this self-driving car project is really a kind of first for Hotz. He's famous for finding and exploiting the error-modes in what other people built; now he's actually building something. Methinks he's about to learn a lot about himself and the nature of the world. He's clearly extremely smart, so I'm actually rather excited for him!