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Google veterans head off on their own to work on self-driving trucks

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Re: Google veterans head off on their own to work on self-driving trucks

#2

Post by B1FF_PSUVM »

"Many of Otto's founders have done well for themselves over the years, and it shows: the company is entirely self-funded right now without any external investment. (In the wake of the reported $1 billion Cruise Automation sale to General Motors, I ask Ron if the plan is to get acquired, but he's insistent that they're focused on bringing a product to market.) Even George Hotz's scrappy upstart Comma.ai has recently taken on venture funding from Andreesen Horowitz."

My crystal ball tells me that they'll soon find this course of action unwise.

Re: Google veterans head off on their own to work on self-driving trucks

#3

Post by monk_e_boy »

It'd be interesting if they could sell the customer a little 'truck' so when I order something and that thing gets to a local warehouse my little truck could drive off and collect it. It could collect from various places (depending on how I prioritize my items) and then drive back home. I don't have a private parking space and I'm rarely in my house when deliveries are being made, so a mini 'collection truck' would hold my items in a secure way for me. I suppose it could be tiny, maybe only a couple of meters long.

Re: Google veterans head off on their own to work on self-driving trucks

#4

Post by xiphias »

B1FF_PSUVM wrote: post #2

"Many of Otto's founders have done well for themselves over the years, and it shows: the company is entirely self-funded right now without any external investment. (In the wake of the reported $1 billion Cruise Automation sale to General Motors, I ask Ron if the plan is to get acquired, but he's insistent that they're focused on bringing a product to market.) Even George Hotz's scrappy upstart Comma.ai has recently t…

I wanted to ask the same thing: did they quit because they didn't get enough money/stocks at the companies that they were at, or were not working on important enough stuff, or just wanted more risk for the sake of getting into more risk? Or do they think that their business model is so much better than Google's? (facilitating drivers to drive even longer without sleeping)

The salary of a truck driver is about $50000, I guess he costs at least $80000 for the employer. Buying a new self-driving truck for $200000 should pay for itself in at most 3 years. Retrofitting may work, but it's quite short term business.

Re: Google veterans head off on their own to work on self-driving trucks

#5

Post by xiphias »

monk_e_boy wrote: post #3

It'd be interesting if they could sell the customer a little 'truck' so when I order something and that thing gets to a local warehouse my little truck could drive off and collect it. It could collect from various places (depending on how I prioritize my items) and then drive back home. I don't have a private parking space and I'm rarely in my house when deliveries are being made, so a mini 'collection truck' would h…

They can't, as they are not planning to get license for being fully autonomous without a driver.

Re: Google veterans head off on their own to work on self-driving trucks

#8

Post by reustle »

monk_e_boy wrote: post #3

It'd be interesting if they could sell the customer a little 'truck' so when I order something and that thing gets to a local warehouse my little truck could drive off and collect it. It could collect from various places (depending on how I prioritize my items) and then drive back home. I don't have a private parking space and I'm rarely in my house when deliveries are being made, so a mini 'collection truck' would h…

In theory, this sounds cool, but I feel like in practice it would be pretty wasteful. Does a town of 500 people really need 500 trucks sitting around doing nothing most of the time? Isn't one of the main promises of autonomous vehicles that we can all share vehicles and we don't need to let them sit parked for days on end?

Regarding the safe storage of your items, I think that can be solved with something similar to what Amazon Lockers attempted.

Re: Google veterans head off on their own to work on self-driving trucks

#9

Post by uola »

reustle wrote: post #8
monk_e_boy wrote: post #3

It'd be interesting if they could sell the customer a little 'truck' so when I order something and that thing gets to a local warehouse my little truck could drive off and collect it. It could collect from various places (depending on how I prioritize my items) and then drive back home. I don't have a private parking space and I'm rarely in my house when deliveries are being made, so a mini 'collection truck' would h…

In theory, this sounds cool, but I feel like in practice it would be pretty wasteful. Does a town of 500 people really need 500 trucks sitting around doing nothing most of the time? Isn't one of the main promises of autonomous vehicles that we can all share vehicles and we don't need to let them sit parked for days on end? Regarding the safe storage of your items, I think that can be solved with something similar to…

Some buildings have integrated lockers. In some countries you can order things to your nearest convenience store. It a fairly solved problem.
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