3 ms·

Exxon was involved in a lot of side ventures in the 70s and 80s, largely due to an excess of capital with few places in the industry to invest it and a fear tha

by saryant 12y ago

Exxon was involved in a lot of side ventures in the 70s and 80s, largely due to an excess of capital with few places in the industry to invest it and a fear that the rise of oil nationalism could fatally deprive Exxon of the booked reserves it needs. Most of that ended after Valdez and was accelerated when Lee "Iron Ass" Raymond became CEO in 1993. He was not amused by Exxon's non-oil ventures.

adventured 12y ago
GM went through a similar phase with EDS and Hughes in the mid 1980s (which is of course how GM ended up owning DirecTV). I can't help but think Google is behaving similarly today, at the height of its power. Cars, Nest, fiber, wireless, robotics, biotech; and I suspect that will continue to expand.
- jn1234 12y ago
  Except Google's core competency is software. Google has the advantage of being essentially controlled by Sergey Brin and Larry Page. They only need one of those things to succeed (cars). It's hard to imagine that one of the existing car companies has developed a reliable urban self-driving, that is better than Google's. Google's fiber play has nothing to do with actually making money. It is about making sure that cable companies abide by net neutrality and not cutoff or strangle Google's bandwidth intensive services like YouTube.
  - icebraining 12y ago
    It's hard to imagine that one of the existing car companies has developed a reliable urban self-driving, that is better than Google's. I don't know, some are pretty good, and they don't even need the LIDAR: https://youtu.be/r_RFzC_G5BA https://youtu.be/r_RFzC_G5BA
    - jn1234 12y ago
      Highway self-driving is pretty much consumer-grade now. Infiniti already has it in their vehicles. Telsa is planning on rolling it out this summer. The main problem is urban and suburban driving and dealing with unexpected situations such as jaywalkers or a cyclists running stoplights or a kid running out after a ball.
      - icebraining 12y ago
        That wasn't just highway, but here's a more urban setting, with pedestrian avoidance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AihC5flC-38 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AihC5flC-38

by saryant 12y ago

adventured 12y ago

GM went through a similar phase with EDS and Hughes in the mid 1980s (which is of course how GM ended up owning DirecTV). I can't help but think Google is behaving similarly today, at the height of its power. Cars, Nest, fiber, wireless, robotics, biotech; and I suspect that will continue to expand.

jn1234 12y ago
Except Google's core competency is software. Google has the advantage of being essentially controlled by Sergey Brin and Larry Page. They only need one of those things to succeed (cars). It's hard to imagine that one of the existing car companies has developed a reliable urban self-driving, that is better than Google's. Google's fiber play has nothing to do with actually making money. It is about making sure that cable companies abide by net neutrality and not cutoff or strangle Google's bandwidth intensive services like YouTube.
- icebraining 12y ago
  It's hard to imagine that one of the existing car companies has developed a reliable urban self-driving, that is better than Google's. I don't know, some are pretty good, and they don't even need the LIDAR: https://youtu.be/r_RFzC_G5BA https://youtu.be/r_RFzC_G5BA
  - jn1234 12y ago
    Highway self-driving is pretty much consumer-grade now. Infiniti already has it in their vehicles. Telsa is planning on rolling it out this summer. The main problem is urban and suburban driving and dealing with unexpected situations such as jaywalkers or a cyclists running stoplights or a kid running out after a ball.
    - icebraining 12y ago
      That wasn't just highway, but here's a more urban setting, with pedestrian avoidance: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AihC5flC-38 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AihC5flC-38