4 ms·

"It doesn't need a cool factor" That was the death knell of Google Glass (at least in its current incarnation). Seems that Google hasn't learned much.

zanny 12y ago
Google Glass is a camera on your face. The self driving car revolutionizes transportation internationally forever. One makes you look like a hipster. The other is primed to save tens of thousands of lives a year if it gets rapidly adopted. One weighs grams. The other can run you over and crush your skull. Perception matters. This initial design is so insanely non-threatening it achieves its appearance goals. It does not need to sell units, it needs to sell the idea.
derefr 12y ago
AFAIK, Google Glass was explicitly a prototype, meant to visually advertise itself as a prototype to anyone who looked at it—in the same way that, say, a breadboard or a caseless Arduino visually advertises itself as a prototype. Seeing someone wearing Google Glasses was meant to put you in mind that they were testing something and you could help them test it, not that they were using a piece of everyday consumer electronics. And this car is pretty much the same: it's meant to stand out (see my other comment above: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8785463 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8785463). So I wouldn't say they needed to learn anything. As the technologies are accepted and commercialized by other parties, then they can make one that looks normal-ish.
- millstone 12y ago
  Google has tried hard to make Google Glass fashionable in its current incarnation. That's why they are inserting it into New York Fashion Week, getting designer frames, etc.
  - eru 12y ago
    That's back when they tried to be like Apple.
anigbrowl 12y ago
/pedant mode Death knell, not death nail. A 'knell' is the slow solemn tolling of a bell at a church funeral. This has been a public service announcement.
- krschultz 12y ago
  +1

zanny 12y ago

Google Glass is a camera on your face. The self driving car revolutionizes transportation internationally forever. One makes you look like a hipster. The other is primed to save tens of thousands of lives a year if it gets rapidly adopted. One weighs grams. The other can run you over and crush your skull. Perception matters. This initial design is so insanely non-threatening it achieves its appearance goals. It does not need to sell units, it needs to sell the idea.

derefr 12y ago

AFAIK, Google Glass was explicitly a prototype, meant to visually advertise itself as a prototype to anyone who looked at it—in the same way that, say, a breadboard or a caseless Arduino visually advertises itself as a prototype. Seeing someone wearing Google Glasses was meant to put you in mind that they were testing something and you could help them test it, not that they were using a piece of everyday consumer electronics. And this car is pretty much the same: it's meant to stand out (see my other comment above: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8785463 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=8785463). So I wouldn't say they needed to learn anything. As the technologies are accepted and commercialized by other parties, then they can make one that looks normal-ish.

millstone 12y ago
Google has tried hard to make Google Glass fashionable in its current incarnation. That's why they are inserting it into New York Fashion Week, getting designer frames, etc.
- eru 12y ago
  That's back when they tried to be like Apple.

anigbrowl 12y ago

/pedant mode Death knell, not death nail. A 'knell' is the slow solemn tolling of a bell at a church funeral. This has been a public service announcement.

krschultz 12y ago
+1