Earlier quoted context omitted.
One of their execs literally pitched me this very vision when I turned Uber down for an eng mgr position several years ago. I thought it was comical that his pitch was "The reason we're going to be successful at Problem 1 (taxis) is because we're going to be successful at ridiculously-difficult Problem 2 (self-driving) which we're not close to solving". Pass.
Not to mention, a ridiculously difficult problem that can't only be solved by technical breakthroughs, but also relies on legal and social advancements in order to see widespread adoption.
Uber sells self-driving unit in deal that will push Aurora’s valuation to $10B
101–110 of 376 posts
Re: Uber sells self-driving unit in deal that will push Aurora’s valuation to $10B
#102Wasn't Uber's whole money losing strategy based on the vision that one day they'll use their self-driving cars to get the driving done for cheaper?
No, that was never the strategy, no matter how many times people on HN claimed it was. Both Uber and Lyft are aiming for profitability next year with human drivers. (Disclaimer, I work for Lyft but this has been said in public many, many times by both companies.)
Re: Uber sells self-driving unit in deal that will push Aurora’s valuation to $10B
#103Is it possible that just having an app doesn't make you a tech company? Anyone else ready to think Uber might just be an overvalued taxi company?
Re: Uber sells self-driving unit in deal that will push Aurora’s valuation to $10B
#104Is it possible that just having an app doesn't make you a tech company? Anyone else ready to think Uber might just be an overvalued taxi company?
Re: Uber sells self-driving unit in deal that will push Aurora’s valuation to $10B
#105I don't understand the current state of self driving cars. First we have tesla which already has a self driving car. They were the first to build one and now everyone is playing catch up, or are they? Waymo has been building something for a really long time too but I have no idea how close they are to an actual product. Now there is this new company that gets a bunch of money to build something. It feels to me like t…
> First we have tesla which already has a self driving car. What 'self driving car'? I think you meant 'semi-autonomous cruise control' as there is no Tesla car that is fully 'self driving'. As for Uber's situation, they had no chance. Mounted losses everywhere caused by the pandemic, government lockdowns and drivers who are now classified as Uber employees make the costs of it all unsustainable for them to justify k…
Re: Uber sells self-driving unit in deal that will push Aurora’s valuation to $10B
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
No, that was never the strategy, no matter how many times people on HN claimed it was. Both Uber and Lyft are aiming for profitability next year with human drivers. (Disclaimer, I work for Lyft but this has been said in public many, many times by both companies.)
That seems disingenuous and intended to save face. I liken this to the Soviets claiming they never lost the space race after the US moon landing because "landing humans was never the goal" and they denied ever building a lunar lander. I think the kids these days call it gaslighting. Statements from key executives at uber like Meyhofer who said “The ultimate north star for the company is Level 4 autonomy” are proof of…
Re: Uber sells self-driving unit in deal that will push Aurora’s valuation to $10B
#107I don't understand the current state of self driving cars. First we have tesla which already has a self driving car. They were the first to build one and now everyone is playing catch up, or are they? Waymo has been building something for a really long time too but I have no idea how close they are to an actual product. Now there is this new company that gets a bunch of money to build something. It feels to me like t…
Waymo seems to be closest to a robust 3D lidar based solution, but Tesla maybe be closest to 'a' solution, but the community is split on whether their 2D approach will work.
Then there seem to be a laundry list of companies that entered the market late, and are propped up panicking car companies which aren't sure which one of these companies is the real thing. So, they hedge their bets by taking a piece of all of them.
The solution will come out of 1 of the following:
1. A slow race to making a more and more robust vision system that is eventually good enough to get through regulation. In this case, the earliest to start and one with the most data will win. So, either Waymo or Tesla. By the time others get there, they will have captured the market and made billions.
2. Some smaller company has an 'a-ha' moment. Waiting for an a-ha moment doesn't sound like the most prudent investment decision, but the one that finds it will become a billionaire overnight. This change is so important (like Mapreduce) that it will quickly be reverse engineered and one of Google/Uber/etc. will release a self driving hardware kit + api or come pre-installed in cars like android auto. The solution transforms the vision field with a reach far beyond just cars.
Re: Uber sells self-driving unit in deal that will push Aurora’s valuation to $10B
#108Is it possible that just having an app doesn't make you a tech company? Anyone else ready to think Uber might just be an overvalued taxi company?
They are a logistics and pricing company. If they would license this tech they'd be rich beyond belief. They companies could really be Uber-for-X.
Re: Uber sells self-driving unit in deal that will push Aurora’s valuation to $10B
#109I don't understand the current state of self driving cars. First we have tesla which already has a self driving car. They were the first to build one and now everyone is playing catch up, or are they? Waymo has been building something for a really long time too but I have no idea how close they are to an actual product. Now there is this new company that gets a bunch of money to build something. It feels to me like t…
As someone who worked in the industry, there are a couple of different approaches, incredible amounts of hype, and disappointing amounts of progress to fully autonomous vehicles. * Tesla driver assistance features that they market as self-driving features. You need a driver that is alert and monitoring the vehicle because it can return control to the driver without warning. * Waymo has launched limited L4 pilot in th…
My suspicion is that the thing everyone's going to founder on is that a large part of safely operating a motor vehicle on the public roadways consists of observing and then predicting the behavior of all the drivers, cyclists and pedestrians. So you need to either have true AI, or somehow get all the humans on those roadways to stop behaving so erratically. The problem is, one of those is currently impossible and the other is currently infeasible.
(I'm not sure which is which, and I'm not sure it matters.)
Re: Uber sells self-driving unit in deal that will push Aurora’s valuation to $10B
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
Maybe. The amount of work to make a taxi service is much, much smaller than that to make a self driving car. I could see Waymo entering lots of industries like that to capture easy profits.
Technical work is relatively easy to copy. But what Uber has and what the market reliably undervalues is how expensive it is to acquire customers. Furthermore they have an actually competent customer support team to deal with problems encountered while providing the service.