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My takeaway opinion: Sad to see that Khosrowshahi did not end the self driving program at Uber. Yes, I know hindsight is 20/20, but that's exactly why an incom
by throw7 9y ago
My takeaway opinion: Sad to see that Khosrowshahi did not end the self driving program at Uber.
Yes, I know hindsight is 20/20, but that's exactly why an incoming CEO is brought in. Everyone was saying autonomous vehicles was Uber's only possible future... he saw the internal reports, he knew his (or should have) talent (was it "techbros" or computer scientists?).
I feel this is the real inflection point for Uber.
- azernik 9y agoI think Uber's essential mistake is to go from "autonomous vehicles are the only way our business model makes sense" to "we should be building autonomous vehicles". Their expertise is in UI, routing algorithms, and business development. There is nothing in their background that indicates they should have any competitive advantage in building autonomous vehicles over Google/Waymo, the proverbial 800-pound gorilla of everything AI, or GM/Cruise, with experience in safety-critical engineering and oodles of capital to throw at the problem. Sure, base your business model on the eventual development of driverless cars, but buy the damned things from the professionals, eh?
- cnfsdgradstdnt 9y agoI think uber has been on a hiring push the last few years for quality engineers so it's not inconceivable they could make this work. I also think them working on this mostly makes business sense. To me it sounds like they rushed the development and tried going too far way too fast.
- inverse_pi 9y agoThey essentially bought CMU's robotics department which ranks #1 (in terms of universities) in almost all AI conferences. They also bought part of UToronto's ML department which is where GHinton was teaching.