5 ms·

Google X is coming out with a bunch of a legitimately game changing companies. What do you mean?

lawrenceyan 8y ago
Am I being down voted for not providing proof or something? Okay then: Waymo - https://waymo.com/ https://waymo.com/ Verily - https://debug.com/ https://debug.com/ Loon - https://loon.co/ https://loon.co/ Dandelion - https://dandelionenergy.com/ https://dandelionenergy.com/ Wing - https://x.company/wing/ https://x.company/wing/ Chronicle - https://chronicle.security/ https://chronicle.security/ And this is literally off the top of my head. All six of these companies have been spun out from projects working within X, so I don't see how you can say with a straight face that Google isn't reinvesting huge amounts of capital into innovation and technology. No other company currently exists which is as diversified in its efforts or as willing to take risks as Alphabet is.
- Retric 8y ago
  Google is known for execution of existing ideas. Chrome, Gmail, Android etc all had other companies doing the same thing. Waymo is again solid execution but many companies are doing the same thing and waymo has zero original game changing tech. Many companies have been doing ground source heating for private homes, but again they are not changing the game just playing it slightly better than the competition. The bar is high for this stuff. Having the first stage of a rocket land on a barge changes the economics of spacecraft. That’s the kind of innovation people are looking for.
  - foota 8y ago
    As far as I know Waymo was one of the earlier serious self driving car ventures, no?
  - lawrenceyan 8y ago
    > zero original game changing tech ??? Google has been working on making self-driving a thing ever since the DARPA Challenges back in the 2000's. It's amazing to me that you would think Waymo of all companies is the second comer with no originality. I'm really trying to give you the benefit of the doubt here, but this honestly just shows a glaring lack of knowledge/insight.
    - jaggederest 8y ago
      It's funny, because in the meantime SpaceX has literally gone to orbit. I'd bet they're going to be on their way to commercial moon landings before waymo releases a generally available product of any kind. It's not that Waymo is not original, it's that there's no gradual deployment. It's "We're going to keep it in the lab until it's perfect" project which is exactly the problem. Even in this regard Elon via Tesla is beating them at that, by deploying as many self-driving features as the risk-reward calculus allows. That's what I was trying to express, perhaps poorly, in my original post.
      - lawrenceyan 8y ago
        No offense to the AutoPilot team at all, and I think Andrej Karpathy is a really smart guy who can probably do some great stuff for the company in the coming years, but Tesla and Waymo are in different leagues when it comes to self driving. If you’re looking for a real upstart company that legitimately has a chance at going head to head with Waymo, you should be looking at companies like Cruise Automation not Tesla. Because though Tesla is a great car company with an even better brand name that I’m sure will carry it very far, one thing it is not currently, is a self driving car company. Perhaps this will change in the future. For now, Tesla has other problems to deal with and focus on.
      - hef19898 8y ago
        Because moon landings can be done with tech from the 60s with less computing power than an iPhone. Getting autonomous cars on the streets is an order of magnitude more complex. And isn't execution much more important than just having an idea?
      - mrep 8y ago
        > It's "We're going to keep it in the lab until it's perfect" project which is exactly the problem. That doesn't seem to match what I am seeing. They are giving out rides in phoenix arizona already and plan to fully launch there by end of year. They have also officially ordered 62,000 chrysler pacificas and 20,000 jaguar SUVs to scale out their service in the coming years.
      - 8y ago
- paulsutter 8y ago
  Be nice to see something ship

Am I being down voted for not providing proof or something? Okay then: Waymo - https://waymo.com/ https://waymo.com/ Verily - https://debug.com/ https://debug.com/ Loon - https://loon.co/ https://loon.co/ Dandelion - https://dandelionenergy.com/ https://dandelionenergy.com/ Wing - https://x.company/wing/ https://x.company/wing/ Chronicle - https://chronicle.security/ https://chronicle.security/ And this is literally off the top of my head. All six of these companies have been spun out from projects working within X, so I don't see how you can say with a straight face that Google isn't reinvesting huge amounts of capital into innovation and technology. No other company currently exists which is as diversified in its efforts or as willing to take risks as Alphabet is.

Retric 8y ago
Google is known for execution of existing ideas. Chrome, Gmail, Android etc all had other companies doing the same thing. Waymo is again solid execution but many companies are doing the same thing and waymo has zero original game changing tech. Many companies have been doing ground source heating for private homes, but again they are not changing the game just playing it slightly better than the competition. The bar is high for this stuff. Having the first stage of a rocket land on a barge changes the economics of spacecraft. That’s the kind of innovation people are looking for.
- foota 8y ago
  As far as I know Waymo was one of the earlier serious self driving car ventures, no?
- lawrenceyan 8y ago
  > zero original game changing tech ??? Google has been working on making self-driving a thing ever since the DARPA Challenges back in the 2000's. It's amazing to me that you would think Waymo of all companies is the second comer with no originality. I'm really trying to give you the benefit of the doubt here, but this honestly just shows a glaring lack of knowledge/insight.
  - jaggederest 8y ago
    It's funny, because in the meantime SpaceX has literally gone to orbit. I'd bet they're going to be on their way to commercial moon landings before waymo releases a generally available product of any kind. It's not that Waymo is not original, it's that there's no gradual deployment. It's "We're going to keep it in the lab until it's perfect" project which is exactly the problem. Even in this regard Elon via Tesla is beating them at that, by deploying as many self-driving features as the risk-reward calculus allows. That's what I was trying to express, perhaps poorly, in my original post.
    - lawrenceyan 8y ago
      No offense to the AutoPilot team at all, and I think Andrej Karpathy is a really smart guy who can probably do some great stuff for the company in the coming years, but Tesla and Waymo are in different leagues when it comes to self driving. If you’re looking for a real upstart company that legitimately has a chance at going head to head with Waymo, you should be looking at companies like Cruise Automation not Tesla. Because though Tesla is a great car company with an even better brand name that I’m sure will carry it very far, one thing it is not currently, is a self driving car company. Perhaps this will change in the future. For now, Tesla has other problems to deal with and focus on.
    - hef19898 8y ago
      Because moon landings can be done with tech from the 60s with less computing power than an iPhone. Getting autonomous cars on the streets is an order of magnitude more complex. And isn't execution much more important than just having an idea?
    - mrep 8y ago
      > It's "We're going to keep it in the lab until it's perfect" project which is exactly the problem. That doesn't seem to match what I am seeing. They are giving out rides in phoenix arizona already and plan to fully launch there by end of year. They have also officially ordered 62,000 chrysler pacificas and 20,000 jaguar SUVs to scale out their service in the coming years.
    - 8y ago
paulsutter 8y ago
Be nice to see something ship