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Marc Andreessen: Turn Detroit Into Drone Valley

58 points by kloncks 12y ago

_Zach 12y ago
Agreed. Make Robocop a reality in Detroit. They need it now, more than ever.
IvyMike 12y ago
I wonder if he picked Robocop city on purpose.
- qbrass 12y ago
  The prophecy must be fulfilled. Joking aside, the reasoning behind choosing Detroit in real life isn't much different than OCP choosing it in the movies. The city's broke, has crime problems, and you sell people on the idea of bringing it back to it's former glory.
  - ekianjo 12y ago
    "The Future has a Silver Lining" :)
  - eli_gottlieb 12y ago
    > The prophecy must be fulfilled. No, that will interfere with the fulfillment of the other prophecies.
- ekianjo 12y ago
  By the way did they actually build that Robocop statue in Detroit ?
briantakita 12y ago
I would request that Mr. Andreessen ensure that the companies that he invests in are transparent & ethical with their interactions, particularly with the US Government. Drones can be a wonderful tool to empower us. They can also be a powerful tool to enslave us. Skynet anyone? Some sort of effective regulation is probably necessary. Not the kind of regulation involving a former/future Drone Manufacturing executive/lobbist being the chair of the regulatory body.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- madaxe_again 12y ago
  Based on his stance on how terrorists are bad because they're bad, I wouldn't hold your breath.
msujaws 12y ago
Why drone valley and not autonomous vehicle valley? Seems more prime for the motor city. Not to mention, Detroit already has some large neighborhoods that are mostly vacant and the roads could be shifted over to test grounds for the autonomous vehicles. Michigan endures extremes in all four seasons, as compared to Santa Clara County which has pretty moderate weather year round. But I don't think Marc was specifically saying that Detroit is for drones. I think that was merely an alliteration. I do think Marc is right in that specialization is the key.
- rdl 12y ago
  There's an argument that autonomous vehicles will cannibalize vehicle sales overall, or at least destroy the existing investments of automakers, so it's in Detroit's interest to delay them as long as possible.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
- l33tbro 12y ago
  Specialization may be key. Detroit certainly has a long history of it. Before motor manafacturing, the area was one of the largest hubs in the fur trade. But I still think, eventually, that the Detroit renaissance will be brought on by a broader set of influences (a combination of artists, startups, and tech manufacturing moving in and redefining the city).
- wallflower 12y ago
  Also, Michigan is one of those states where you can drive literally anything, even experimental, on the road (no state car inspection). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_inspection_in_the_United_States#States_without_safety.2C_emissions.2C_or_VIN_inspections http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_inspection_in_the_Unite...
- technotony 12y ago
  A great example is Colorado which has become the silicon valley of cannabis
h1karu 12y ago
>Provide incentives to attract scientists, firms and users; > Establish a favorable business environment and regulations. > Except … this approach to innovation clusters hasn’t really worked. Some have even dismissed these government-driven efforts as “modern-day snake oil.” I would argue that such an approach has never actually been attempted only lip service has been paid. The types of solutions you describe above are politically untenable because they involve significantly lowering taxes. I would say that Nevada is an example of a place where this kind of approach has worked. Look at Las Vegas it's a metropolis that sprung up out of nowhere in the middle of a vast desert wasteland. Maybe Michigan could learn a thing or two from Nevada and begin by lowering it's state income tax to 0%.
- judk 12y ago
  Las Vegas is big because of the gambling money, not tax structure. Compare to the rest of the state.
  - h1karu 12y ago
    Las Vegas got it's start because of the gambling money, but it has maintained itself as nationally relevant over the years despite it's inhospitable weather and isolated environs due to low taxation but also because of the "hands off of business" stance that the state has taken which is helpful to a diversity of industries other than just gambling, ask Zappos CEO about it. In my opinion it's not a terrible choice of a place to launch a startup either because you could poach employees away from both the Bay Area and LA job markets by showing them what kind of spacious luxury highrise accommodations they could be enjoying for similar money to what they spend on their 600square foot rental in the City. The fact that they'd pay no state income taxes just makes the job offer all the more enticing. I suspect there's going to be more of this kind of thing going on in the future especially as Zappos continues to invest significant funds into renovation of certain districts.
pistle 12y ago
Definitely. If there is a municipality which, for a myriad of reasons, isn't winning the current cycle of competition for industry, definitely deregulate the crap out of it and use it as a test bed for the products designed and built by Silicon Valley. It's the closest thing to the third world, am I right? The more he tweetstorms and drops half-baked opinion pieces, the more I see him as having been smoking crack while watching TED talks on repeat. Detroit is not some one-dimensional shit hole ripe (it's multidimensional and not ripe) for taking on the burden of someone's experiments. It's like municipal eugenics or something?
adc82 12y ago
Detroit has a myriad of problems, but I think this could be great for the city. A big problem with Detroit is that it's a huge city, but a lot of people have left, so there are whole neighborhoods with only a few residents. This makes it hard common government services such as garbage pick up and police force to cover the whole city. The government could provide incentives for any entrepreneurs willing to come to Detroit and help solve these problems using drones and/or autonomous cars. The pay off would be huge on both sides. Autonomous cars would especially click with the culture in Detroit too, being that it is the motor city.
- judk 12y ago
  Instead of drones and cars, perhaps it would be simpler to just relocate individuals and businesses toward downtown.
  - adc82 12y ago
    I would agree, but the problem is that many of the individuals don't want to be reallocated and refuse to the leave their homes.
jqm 12y ago
"if we think of airspace as the next Internet-like platform.." What? Did I read the correctly? No offense but this piece seems a bit off kilter. It's one thing to make money investing in things like social network websites, yet another to demand some kind of government sanctioned libertarian utopia and expect all kinds of foolish (and sometimes outright anti-social) schemes will bear fruit or even ever be permitted to grow beyond a certain socially tolerable size... Galt's Gulch was a fictional place and likely always will be. As long as the current system (on which the "innovators" rely) is in place anyway.
kajarya 12y ago
The author forgot that one of the impetus for Silicon Valley becoming what it is in an influx of government money.
- orbifold 12y ago
  It all began with army proving grounds and military research right?
steele 12y ago
At least he acknowledges a weakness of the Silicon Valley clone efforts.
rmason 12y ago
There are already a group of drone companies in Detroit. I've met several of them. They want to be able to fly over the city but so far have been blocked. http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20140330/NEWS/303309969/firms-set-drone-flight-plans http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20140330/NEWS/303309969... Giving them a large area to test would give the city a huge advantage over the rest of the US and I believe drive more drone companies to relocate in Detroit where they would find cheap real estate and an abundance of engineering talent. I think Mark Andreesen undoubtedly knows this and that is why he picked Detroit for his example.

58 points by kloncks 12y ago

_Zach 12y ago

Agreed. Make Robocop a reality in Detroit. They need it now, more than ever.

IvyMike 12y ago

I wonder if he picked Robocop city on purpose.

qbrass 12y ago
The prophecy must be fulfilled. Joking aside, the reasoning behind choosing Detroit in real life isn't much different than OCP choosing it in the movies. The city's broke, has crime problems, and you sell people on the idea of bringing it back to it's former glory.
- ekianjo 12y ago
  "The Future has a Silver Lining" :)
- eli_gottlieb 12y ago
  > The prophecy must be fulfilled. No, that will interfere with the fulfillment of the other prophecies.
ekianjo 12y ago
By the way did they actually build that Robocop statue in Detroit ?

briantakita 12y ago

I would request that Mr. Andreessen ensure that the companies that he invests in are transparent & ethical with their interactions, particularly with the US Government. Drones can be a wonderful tool to empower us. They can also be a powerful tool to enslave us. Skynet anyone? Some sort of effective regulation is probably necessary. Not the kind of regulation involving a former/future Drone Manufacturing executive/lobbist being the chair of the regulatory body.

deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
madaxe_again 12y ago
Based on his stance on how terrorists are bad because they're bad, I wouldn't hold your breath.

msujaws 12y ago

Why drone valley and not autonomous vehicle valley? Seems more prime for the motor city. Not to mention, Detroit already has some large neighborhoods that are mostly vacant and the roads could be shifted over to test grounds for the autonomous vehicles. Michigan endures extremes in all four seasons, as compared to Santa Clara County which has pretty moderate weather year round. But I don't think Marc was specifically saying that Detroit is for drones. I think that was merely an alliteration. I do think Marc is right in that specialization is the key.

rdl 12y ago
There's an argument that autonomous vehicles will cannibalize vehicle sales overall, or at least destroy the existing investments of automakers, so it's in Detroit's interest to delay them as long as possible.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
l33tbro 12y ago
Specialization may be key. Detroit certainly has a long history of it. Before motor manafacturing, the area was one of the largest hubs in the fur trade. But I still think, eventually, that the Detroit renaissance will be brought on by a broader set of influences (a combination of artists, startups, and tech manufacturing moving in and redefining the city).
wallflower 12y ago
Also, Michigan is one of those states where you can drive literally anything, even experimental, on the road (no state car inspection). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_inspection_in_the_United_States#States_without_safety.2C_emissions.2C_or_VIN_inspections http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vehicle_inspection_in_the_Unite...
technotony 12y ago
A great example is Colorado which has become the silicon valley of cannabis

h1karu 12y ago

>Provide incentives to attract scientists, firms and users; > Establish a favorable business environment and regulations. > Except … this approach to innovation clusters hasn’t really worked. Some have even dismissed these government-driven efforts as “modern-day snake oil.” I would argue that such an approach has never actually been attempted only lip service has been paid. The types of solutions you describe above are politically untenable because they involve significantly lowering taxes. I would say that Nevada is an example of a place where this kind of approach has worked. Look at Las Vegas it's a metropolis that sprung up out of nowhere in the middle of a vast desert wasteland. Maybe Michigan could learn a thing or two from Nevada and begin by lowering it's state income tax to 0%.

judk 12y ago
Las Vegas is big because of the gambling money, not tax structure. Compare to the rest of the state.
- h1karu 12y ago
  Las Vegas got it's start because of the gambling money, but it has maintained itself as nationally relevant over the years despite it's inhospitable weather and isolated environs due to low taxation but also because of the "hands off of business" stance that the state has taken which is helpful to a diversity of industries other than just gambling, ask Zappos CEO about it. In my opinion it's not a terrible choice of a place to launch a startup either because you could poach employees away from both the Bay Area and LA job markets by showing them what kind of spacious luxury highrise accommodations they could be enjoying for similar money to what they spend on their 600square foot rental in the City. The fact that they'd pay no state income taxes just makes the job offer all the more enticing. I suspect there's going to be more of this kind of thing going on in the future especially as Zappos continues to invest significant funds into renovation of certain districts.

pistle 12y ago

Definitely. If there is a municipality which, for a myriad of reasons, isn't winning the current cycle of competition for industry, definitely deregulate the crap out of it and use it as a test bed for the products designed and built by Silicon Valley. It's the closest thing to the third world, am I right? The more he tweetstorms and drops half-baked opinion pieces, the more I see him as having been smoking crack while watching TED talks on repeat. Detroit is not some one-dimensional shit hole ripe (it's multidimensional and not ripe) for taking on the burden of someone's experiments. It's like municipal eugenics or something?

adc82 12y ago

Detroit has a myriad of problems, but I think this could be great for the city. A big problem with Detroit is that it's a huge city, but a lot of people have left, so there are whole neighborhoods with only a few residents. This makes it hard common government services such as garbage pick up and police force to cover the whole city. The government could provide incentives for any entrepreneurs willing to come to Detroit and help solve these problems using drones and/or autonomous cars. The pay off would be huge on both sides. Autonomous cars would especially click with the culture in Detroit too, being that it is the motor city.

judk 12y ago
Instead of drones and cars, perhaps it would be simpler to just relocate individuals and businesses toward downtown.
- adc82 12y ago
  I would agree, but the problem is that many of the individuals don't want to be reallocated and refuse to the leave their homes.

jqm 12y ago

"if we think of airspace as the next Internet-like platform.." What? Did I read the correctly? No offense but this piece seems a bit off kilter. It's one thing to make money investing in things like social network websites, yet another to demand some kind of government sanctioned libertarian utopia and expect all kinds of foolish (and sometimes outright anti-social) schemes will bear fruit or even ever be permitted to grow beyond a certain socially tolerable size... Galt's Gulch was a fictional place and likely always will be. As long as the current system (on which the "innovators" rely) is in place anyway.

kajarya 12y ago

The author forgot that one of the impetus for Silicon Valley becoming what it is in an influx of government money.

orbifold 12y ago
It all began with army proving grounds and military research right?

steele 12y ago

At least he acknowledges a weakness of the Silicon Valley clone efforts.

rmason 12y ago

There are already a group of drone companies in Detroit. I've met several of them. They want to be able to fly over the city but so far have been blocked. http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20140330/NEWS/303309969/firms-set-drone-flight-plans http://www.crainsdetroit.com/article/20140330/NEWS/303309969... Giving them a large area to test would give the city a huge advantage over the rest of the US and I believe drive more drone companies to relocate in Detroit where they would find cheap real estate and an abundance of engineering talent. I think Mark Andreesen undoubtedly knows this and that is why he picked Detroit for his example.