61–70 of 200 posts
How did Zoox start? In 2012, Kentley-Klay stumbled on a blog post about Google’s self-driving car project, then pretty much the only one in the field. He saw the company’s prototypes as unsightly half-measures.. Then, one day, he walked into his Melbourne office (animation, video production) and announced he was off to America to fulfill his driverless dreams. In a move that some will call devious and others will cal…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apparently he added the ‘Klay’ to his name because he wanted to add a ‘maker’ element to it. I mean, this a bad prognostic sign if there ever was one in an engineering company.
what do you mean by 'add a maker element to it'?
Suffice it to say that I don't think self-driving car tech is ready for city streets. Zoox never put anyone in harms way, but damn did it hold up traffic if there was an "out of place" person.
Self-driving tech may be close to cruise control 2.0 - that is highway exit to highway exit navigation - but I have yet to see a self driving car handle a city street with actual people on it.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Also kind of interesting that they are an opportunistic buyer (almost vulturous) that most of the times only pulls the trigger when the acquisition target is in their lows. Unsurprising since Bezos himself worked in a Hedge fund. The Autonomous Driving hype train is slowing down, so this is the perfect opportunity for this move. Interestingly, with this move, Bezos can soon rival Musk for the next 'billionaire supe…
They both want a planet. Musk wants to take over Mars. Bezos wants to take over Earth .
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Investors often have 2x liquidation preferences, if not more. Exceedingly unlikely common stockholders would have any value.
Sorry for the naive question, how is this not illegal? I would understand if you get 2X after all the capital raised has been cleared, but in this case? You get 2x while other people lose their shirts off?
Because investors are assumed to be sophisticated adults who can read and do their own research, or hire lawyers to do so on their behalf if they are incapable. Every investor, those who put in money and those who put in labor hours are assumed to have gotten the best deal available to them.
How did Zoox start? In 2012, Kentley-Klay stumbled on a blog post about Google’s self-driving car project, then pretty much the only one in the field. He saw the company’s prototypes as unsightly half-measures.. Then, one day, he walked into his Melbourne office (animation, video production) and announced he was off to America to fulfill his driverless dreams. In a move that some will call devious and others will cal…
That's the most Silicon Valley way of doing things. For one, I'm glad to live in a world where those kind of things still exist.
What’s the logic of them selling to Amazon? Why didn’t they just continue on and try to raise more money? I assume this was purely a move of desperation and they couldn’t. Is this just a full blown acquihire? Also, what happens to employees? Presumably, their stock is worthless. Will Amazon just give them all new stock packages to keep them on?
They sold for what they raised so it's a loser for investors. Likely they didn't have a business model and so were a fire sale. Amazon will almost assuredly eye this for autonomous delivery. They have the cash, the legit need, the ambition ability to make it work. So it can be commercialised 'internally'. Unlike Google who have to build a business around their self-driving cars. This is one of those 'tech may eat the…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
To me the future of SDC tech is clear: General public expects driverless cars, car companies want level 3 automation, Google says there is only level 2 and 4 which is probably right, and the technology is going to stay level 2 for at least better part of next decade if not couple decades. What’s working is Level 4 betas in Level 2 mode with driver monitoring for safety, what I would call a “driving simplification”. “…
I rode in a Zoox car two years ago. It was already at level 3, almost 4. The driver took over once but didn’t even have to. The car was about to do the same thing the driver did, he just got nervous.
Level 2: driver always pays attention
Level 3: car pays attention, may request driver
Level 4: car do not require driver
This seems simple enough, but Level 3 requires car to be able to drive entirely by itself + be able to predict situations minutes into the future, including situations that cannot be predicted. That requirement far surpasses Level 4, or laws of physics known to humans, Level 3 classification is thus invalid and there are only Level 2 and 4.
How did Zoox start? In 2012, Kentley-Klay stumbled on a blog post about Google’s self-driving car project, then pretty much the only one in the field. He saw the company’s prototypes as unsightly half-measures.. Then, one day, he walked into his Melbourne office (animation, video production) and announced he was off to America to fulfill his driverless dreams. In a move that some will call devious and others will cal…
How did Zoox start? In 2012, Kentley-Klay stumbled on a blog post about Google’s self-driving car project, then pretty much the only one in the field. He saw the company’s prototypes as unsightly half-measures.. Then, one day, he walked into his Melbourne office (animation, video production) and announced he was off to America to fulfill his driverless dreams. In a move that some will call devious and others will cal…
That's the most Silicon Valley way of doing things. For one, I'm glad to live in a world where those kind of things still exist.
Lying your way to success?