Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Another Group of Google Veterans Starts a Self-Driving Technology Company

bloomberg.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 80 posts

Re: Another Group of Google Veterans Starts a Self-Driving Technology Company

#41

Post by ryandrake »

poikniok wrote: post #36
joshvm wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't Google recently on the opposite end of this? They paid their engineers so much that some of them left because they had the financial security to take riskier options.

The logic on this statement doesn't really check out, as if this were the case it would be impossible to retain CEOs, they would all leave after a month. Yet somehow companies do so ...

To be honest, I don't have any idea why ANYONE keeps working after they have F-YOU money, CEOs or otherwise.

Re: Another Group of Google Veterans Starts a Self-Driving Technology Company

#42

Post by npelly »

malandrew wrote: post #9

When companies pay each engineer X and earn 10 times X on each engineer, this is inevitable. Near as I can tell, this is a strategy that is helping engineers retain more of the value they are creating. If the difference was more subtle such as 2 to 3 times X, then the incentive to go through this much trouble to retain much of the value you create is much smaller.

A lot of comments suggesting this is cynical compensation arbitrage by the DeepMap founders. I don't buy it.

I expect a startup was the only option to execute on the idea with a decent level of autonomy. Google/Alphabet already have well established teams in the areas of mapping & autonomous driving so you can't just go ahead and start your own multi-engineer effort.

Re: Another Group of Google Veterans Starts a Self-Driving Technology Company

#43

Post by malandrew »

npelly wrote: post #42
malandrew wrote: post #9

When companies pay each engineer X and earn 10 times X on each engineer, this is inevitable. Near as I can tell, this is a strategy that is helping engineers retain more of the value they are creating. If the difference was more subtle such as 2 to 3 times X, then the incentive to go through this much trouble to retain much of the value you create is much smaller.

A lot of comments suggesting this is cynical compensation arbitrage by the DeepMap founders. I don't buy it. I expect a startup was the only option to execute on the idea with a decent level of autonomy. Google/Alphabet already have well established teams in the areas of mapping & autonomous driving so you can't just go ahead and start your own multi-engineer effort.

I believe it's both actually. With the exception of maybe a few small corners, Google no longer has the reputation of a place where you have autonomy.

Re: Another Group of Google Veterans Starts a Self-Driving Technology Company

#44

Post by alphonsegaston »

andrewfong wrote: post #33
SEJeff wrote: post #29

Am I the only person genuinely shocked Google doesn't slap their self driving car engineers with non-competes? I realize that non-competes are illegal by CA law, but perhaps they should do the engineering in a different state to stop hemorrhaging talent that tries to compete with them?

(1) When most of your existing operations are already in CA, moving to a different state isn't exactly trivial. And if the primary reason you're moving is to enforce a non-compete, I bet it'd make recruitment of the better engineers more difficult. (2) Even if Google did their engineering in another state, let's say the engineer in question then moves to CA. There's a good chance that CA law would still apply.

#2 Really depends on how bad they want to come after you. There have been cases where non-competes originating out of state have been enforced here in California. I personally wouldn't want to go up against Google's legal team and their war chest.

Re: Another Group of Google Veterans Starts a Self-Driving Technology Company

#45

Post by qordoba »

A bit unrelated to the subject I have a question. As far as I know Google started self-driving tech development much earlier (?) than any other group. However Tesla did it in much quicker timeframe and it is used now as opposed to Google which is still in the lab (?). What took so long for Google? or there is some nuance from their competitors?

Re: Another Group of Google Veterans Starts a Self-Driving Technology Company

#46

Post by harmegido »

ryandrake wrote: post #41
poikniok wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The logic on this statement doesn't really check out, as if this were the case it would be impossible to retain CEOs, they would all leave after a month. Yet somehow companies do so ...

To be honest, I don't have any idea why ANYONE keeps working after they have F-YOU money, CEOs or otherwise.

At some point, the work becomes the hobby. If you had fyou money, what would you do? Presumably not sit and stare at a wall all day. You'd do something you enjoy I assume. And for some, running one of the world's most powerful entities is enjoyable.

Re: Another Group of Google Veterans Starts a Self-Driving Technology Company

#47

Post by [deleted] »

poikniok wrote: post #36
joshvm wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't Google recently on the opposite end of this? They paid their engineers so much that some of them left because they had the financial security to take riskier options.

The logic on this statement doesn't really check out, as if this were the case it would be impossible to retain CEOs, they would all leave after a month. Yet somehow companies do so ...

[deleted]

Re: Another Group of Google Veterans Starts a Self-Driving Technology Company

#48

Post by dragonwriter »

poikniok wrote: post #36
joshvm wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wasn't Google recently on the opposite end of this? They paid their engineers so much that some of them left because they had the financial security to take riskier options.

The logic on this statement doesn't really check out, as if this were the case it would be impossible to retain CEOs, they would all leave after a month. Yet somehow companies do so ...

> The logic on this statement doesn't really check out, as if this were the case it would be impossible to retain CEOs, they would all leave after a month.

Or, CEOs don't have the same set of options engineers have, or, CEOs are drawn from a pool with different preferences than engineers have, or...

Well, lots of other reasons your dismissal of the claim about engineers based on CEO behavior is unconvincing.

Re: Another Group of Google Veterans Starts a Self-Driving Technology Company

#49

Post by dragonwriter »

SEJeff wrote: post #29

Am I the only person genuinely shocked Google doesn't slap their self driving car engineers with non-competes? I realize that non-competes are illegal by CA law, but perhaps they should do the engineering in a different state to stop hemorrhaging talent that tries to compete with them?

> I realize that non-competes are illegal by CA law, but perhaps they should do the engineering in a different state to stop hemorrhaging talent that tries to compete with them?

Doing engineering in a different state might make it more problematic to attract talent, as might the non-competes separately.

OTOH, maybe Waymo needs to be spun off and be able to offer employees Waymo stock, so it can be a "high-upside startup" option for engineers.

Re: Another Group of Google Veterans Starts a Self-Driving Technology Company

#50

Post by CardenB »

return0 wrote: post #16

From their website https://www.deepmap.ai/ it seems they are focusing on high-definition, centimeter-accuracy maps. Why is that important? It seems with a rough map and training, a robot can find its destination.

Your assumption is wrong. It's still really difficult for vehicles to navigate without high definition maps.
Post reply on HN