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Amazon to pay $1B+ for Zoox

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Re: Amazon to pay $1B+ for Zoox

#71
post #49

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…

"You always seem to play the vulture @Kvogt — we all know the @cruise Origin’s origin is @zoox . While flattered, you do make a valid point in seeking the best: Zoox engineers are better than yours, and soon better funded :)"

https://twitter.com/TimKentleyKlay/status/126933132126166630...

Re: Amazon to pay $1B+ for Zoox

#72

I work in an office that shares space with Zoox. I've never told anyone this but I find them incredibly annoying. Whenever they take their cars out for a test drive, they sit in the middle of the road in the parking lots. If you aren't going to be driving around anytime soon, just pull into a parking spot, instead of blocking all the empty spots and making it more difficult for people to drive around you.

Funny, in their SF driving video, they tout their ability to go around 3 double parked cars in the road. They admit those 3 cars are Zoox cars.

https://youtu.be/6r7vDhPXmiM?t=1212

Re: Amazon to pay $1B+ for Zoox

#73
post #59
post #49

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.

It also reminds me of Shenzhen, with their fail fast, fail often, chabuduo for now grit.

Re: Amazon to pay $1B+ for Zoox

#74

I work in an office that shares space with Zoox. I've never told anyone this but I find them incredibly annoying. Whenever they take their cars out for a test drive, they sit in the middle of the road in the parking lots. If you aren't going to be driving around anytime soon, just pull into a parking spot, instead of blocking all the empty spots and making it more difficult for people to drive around you.

These sort of behaviours never exist in a vacuum, I expect the ones doing this are arseholes in plenty of other ways as well.

Re: Amazon to pay $1B+ for Zoox

#75
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what do you mean by 'add a maker element to it'?

It’s a reference to Klay Thompson, a shooting guard for the Warriors who “makes” a lot of three point shots.

Thanks, if that isn't a joke reply I can confidently say I would have never made that connection in a million years

Re: Amazon to pay $1B+ for Zoox

#77
post #71
post #49

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…

"You always seem to play the vulture @Kvogt — we all know the @cruise Origin’s origin is @zoox . While flattered, you do make a valid point in seeking the best: Zoox engineers are better than yours, and soon better funded :)" https://twitter.com/TimKentleyKlay/status/126933132126166630...

Wow that's pretty funny, but what's the context for that tweet? Did Cruise try to poach talent from Zoox ? The tweet definitely gives me an early 2000's Dotcom over the top rivalry/ceo vibe!

Re: Amazon to pay $1B+ for Zoox

#79
post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

what do you mean by 'add a maker element to it'?

It’s a reference to Klay Thompson, a shooting guard for the Warriors who “makes” a lot of three point shots.

Ha! I thought it was a reference to clay, the material as being a substance for "making stuff"

Re: Amazon to pay $1B+ for Zoox

#80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually if you pay a little attention to Bezos, it's clear that his focus has been outer space at least since he was a college student. IMO Amazon was an opportunity that Bezos saw while Blue Origin is the fulfillment of his lifelong dream.

So if it’s his dream when does he start actually focusing on it?

About 9 years ago when they started development of the BE-4. Up until then Blue Origin was mainly a think tank and research project.

I've been quite dismissive of Blue Origin in the past, their pace of development seemed so sluggish compared to SpaceX, but I think that was somewhat unfair. It seems Bezos only really started pouring money into the project a few years ago though. BE-34 does seem to be behind schedule, or at least the launch vehicles are by a year or two, but that's par for the course for big rockets.

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