4 ms·

I believe another self driving car company, Aurora, also raised $500mn recently [1] I don't really understand how these companies are attracting these massive s

by dmode 8y ago

I believe another self driving car company, Aurora, also raised $500mn recently [1] I don't really understand how these companies are attracting these massive sums, given that even a company like Google has made limited progress in 10 years after investing several billions. On top of that there are heavy weight car manufacturers like VW and BMW who are also investing in this technology. [1] https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/07/amazon-sequoia-invest-in-self-driving-car-startup-aurora/ https://techcrunch.com/2019/02/07/amazon-sequoia-invest-in-s...

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
john_moscow 8y ago
It might come with a sweet cashback, let's call it.
- hermi 8y ago
  tbh might not even be that If you only charge the LPs on deployed powder.... well
bluGill 8y ago
Big car companies generally invest in someone smaller for tech like this. If it works they can choose to buy the company, or just buy parts from them. If it fails they can stop throwing good money after bad without demoralizing their workforce with a large layoff.
Fricken 8y ago
Waymo's autonomous vehicles are just barely good enough, which isn't yet good enough to build a viable business off of. The cost and complexity of deploying autonomous vehicles does not yet match the value proposition. Waymo's progress had plateaued, and it's reasonable to presume that many of the other outfits working on autonomous vehicles will arrive at the same plateau shortly if they haven't already. Fundamental research is needed to get off that plateau, the solutions are unknown. If we take just barely good enough as the status quo we can expect over the next several years, then Nuro is well positioned. You can actually build a revenue generating business with just barely good enough autonomy doing unmanned delivery. Aurora is good because they acknowledge that building capable autonomous vehicles is still an applied science problem. There is still invention that needs to be done.

by dmode 8y ago

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

john_moscow 8y ago

It might come with a sweet cashback, let's call it.

hermi 8y ago
tbh might not even be that If you only charge the LPs on deployed powder.... well

bluGill 8y ago

Big car companies generally invest in someone smaller for tech like this. If it works they can choose to buy the company, or just buy parts from them. If it fails they can stop throwing good money after bad without demoralizing their workforce with a large layoff.

Fricken 8y ago

Waymo's autonomous vehicles are just barely good enough, which isn't yet good enough to build a viable business off of. The cost and complexity of deploying autonomous vehicles does not yet match the value proposition. Waymo's progress had plateaued, and it's reasonable to presume that many of the other outfits working on autonomous vehicles will arrive at the same plateau shortly if they haven't already. Fundamental research is needed to get off that plateau, the solutions are unknown. If we take just barely good enough as the status quo we can expect over the next several years, then Nuro is well positioned. You can actually build a revenue generating business with just barely good enough autonomy doing unmanned delivery. Aurora is good because they acknowledge that building capable autonomous vehicles is still an applied science problem. There is still invention that needs to be done.