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Great question! I think the biggest help would be statistical significance. We (as in the tech community) realize that machines can exceed humans in efficiency

Great question! I think the biggest help would be statistical significance. We (as in the tech community) realize that machines can exceed humans in efficiency and safety, but the data that this is unarguably true does not yet exist. Waymo drives 1 million miles per year, but this is obviously dwarfed by humans driving. A self-driving car company needs to be doing hundreds of millions of physical miles in order to quieten these fears, and it's only a matter of time before this is happening. This is one of the reason I think autonomous taxis are the perfect vehicle (pun intended) to bring autonomy to the world, since the business gets stronger the more miles you do.

Denzel 10y ago
Thanks for answering Oliver. I understand the statistical point of view (as a member of the tech community). However, I think that argument is falling upon deaf ears across the general population. You still get a "yeah, but..." with an uneasy shrug. People don't like the idea of losing agency when things go sideways. While people may agree with the premise of a computer being better in extraordinary situations, it's hard getting over an unknown unknown. They don't trust the system. They trust themselves. Elon Musk fundamentally understands that you must "capture the imagination" of the general public to advance a field. [1] He's done it consistently through SpaceX and Tesla, and I witnessed it first-hand on two separate occasions with two very different people. For years, I would tell my father -- an older American muscle-car loving guy -- about Tesla and their cars. All the logical arguments. But his heart was set upon the Dodge Hellcat: one of the fastest street-legal cars ever released. That was, until the day the Tesla Model S beat the Dodge Hellcat in a drag race. From then on, he started talking about Tesla, calling me when he saw one, and talking with the owners. Tesla captured his imagination with a visual, visceral experience. And so it was with my girlfriend -- a young, 20-something, not really interested in cars. I'd point out Tesla cars while we were driving and tell her all about them. The logic behind electric cars didn't interest her. Until one day, she called me, screaming into the phone, "Babe! Babe! I just saw this car... it... the doors, I don't know, they like went up like a bird! But it was an SUV!" She was over the moon excited. To which I responded, "That's the Tesla Model X." From then on, her dream car is the Model X. Tesla captured her imagination with a visual, visceral experience. My gut feeling is that the company to win will be the one with statistical significance and a way to capture the public's imagination. P.S. This is all assuming that you're trying to win as a consumer company. If your mission is just to succeed as a supplier, then disregard. [1]: https://youtu.be/xmOt5OZGvhw?t=3m24s https://youtu.be/xmOt5OZGvhw?t=3m24s
- gregpilling 10y ago
  and if you wanted a little history to back up your thoughts, Henry Ford had the 999 racecar before the Ford Motor Company was founded, and Soichiro Honda was crazy about racing as well and almost bankrupted the company in pursuit of it (some dispute the closeness of it). Both felt that racing captured the hearts and minds of the public, and gave the newspapers something to write about.
  - Denzel 10y ago
    Thank you for that! That does indeed lend more credence to the hypothesis... especially since Musk is known to have studied Henry Ford's life.
- PhantomGremlin 10y ago
  You're quite right about imagination. But you didn't do your dad any favors with the Tesla vs Dodge Hellcat comparison. The speed of the Tesla is really a parlor trick. I'd bet on the Hellcat every time I needed to do more than a few laps on any decent race track. Here are the sad details as reported by Car and Driver. The Hellcat smoked the Tesla: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/tesla-model-s-p85d-at-lightning-lap-2016-feature http://www.caranddriver.com/features/tesla-model-s-p85d-at-l...
  - Denzel 10y ago
    Thing is, I didn't show my dad the comparison (I didn't even know it existed until he told me). He came across an article independently and watched the video for himself. He's also much more concerned with acceleration -- the feeling of being pinned back in your seat -- than distance. So the quarter mile was enough for him.

Denzel 10y ago

Thanks for answering Oliver. I understand the statistical point of view (as a member of the tech community). However, I think that argument is falling upon deaf ears across the general population. You still get a "yeah, but..." with an uneasy shrug. People don't like the idea of losing agency when things go sideways. While people may agree with the premise of a computer being better in extraordinary situations, it's hard getting over an unknown unknown. They don't trust the system. They trust themselves. Elon Musk fundamentally understands that you must "capture the imagination" of the general public to advance a field. [1] He's done it consistently through SpaceX and Tesla, and I witnessed it first-hand on two separate occasions with two very different people. For years, I would tell my father -- an older American muscle-car loving guy -- about Tesla and their cars. All the logical arguments. But his heart was set upon the Dodge Hellcat: one of the fastest street-legal cars ever released. That was, until the day the Tesla Model S beat the Dodge Hellcat in a drag race. From then on, he started talking about Tesla, calling me when he saw one, and talking with the owners. Tesla captured his imagination with a visual, visceral experience. And so it was with my girlfriend -- a young, 20-something, not really interested in cars. I'd point out Tesla cars while we were driving and tell her all about them. The logic behind electric cars didn't interest her. Until one day, she called me, screaming into the phone, "Babe! Babe! I just saw this car... it... the doors, I don't know, they like went up like a bird! But it was an SUV!" She was over the moon excited. To which I responded, "That's the Tesla Model X." From then on, her dream car is the Model X. Tesla captured her imagination with a visual, visceral experience. My gut feeling is that the company to win will be the one with statistical significance and a way to capture the public's imagination. P.S. This is all assuming that you're trying to win as a consumer company. If your mission is just to succeed as a supplier, then disregard. [1]: https://youtu.be/xmOt5OZGvhw?t=3m24s https://youtu.be/xmOt5OZGvhw?t=3m24s

gregpilling 10y ago
and if you wanted a little history to back up your thoughts, Henry Ford had the 999 racecar before the Ford Motor Company was founded, and Soichiro Honda was crazy about racing as well and almost bankrupted the company in pursuit of it (some dispute the closeness of it). Both felt that racing captured the hearts and minds of the public, and gave the newspapers something to write about.
- Denzel 10y ago
  Thank you for that! That does indeed lend more credence to the hypothesis... especially since Musk is known to have studied Henry Ford's life.
PhantomGremlin 10y ago
You're quite right about imagination. But you didn't do your dad any favors with the Tesla vs Dodge Hellcat comparison. The speed of the Tesla is really a parlor trick. I'd bet on the Hellcat every time I needed to do more than a few laps on any decent race track. Here are the sad details as reported by Car and Driver. The Hellcat smoked the Tesla: http://www.caranddriver.com/features/tesla-model-s-p85d-at-lightning-lap-2016-feature http://www.caranddriver.com/features/tesla-model-s-p85d-at-l...
- Denzel 10y ago
  Thing is, I didn't show my dad the comparison (I didn't even know it existed until he told me). He came across an article independently and watched the video for himself. He's also much more concerned with acceleration -- the feeling of being pinned back in your seat -- than distance. So the quarter mile was enough for him.