Uber CEO says Uber and Alphabet are discussing working together on self-driving

Another way of looking at this: after the Phoenix accident, Uber realized that its own autonomous tech is woefully inadequate and years behind Waymo's, so now they're trying to play nice to not get left behind.

Re: Uber CEO says Uber and Alphabet are discussing working together on self-driving

#6

Post by eric_h » Thu, May 31, 2018, 2:25 PM UTC

jayess wrote: post #4

JasonFruit wrote: post #3

'Autonomous' is an adjective.

I guess it's sorta like how "architect" has become a verb.

According to [0], the use of architect as a verb goes back to at least 1818.

0) https://english.stackexchange.com/a/212273

Re: Uber CEO says Uber and Alphabet are discussing working together on self-driving

#7

Post by cfadvan » Thu, May 31, 2018, 2:47 PM UTC

mdorazio wrote: post #5

Another way of looking at this: after the Phoenix accident, Uber realized that its own autonomous tech is woefully inadequate and years behind Waymo's, so now they're trying to play nice to not get left behind.

I think that everyone in this industry is also starting to realize that far from a quick race to be first, this is actually the start of a long slog. With the realization that full autonomy isn’t a few years, but at least a few decades away, collaboration rather than throat-slitting becomes a more sensible strategy.

Re: Uber CEO says Uber and Alphabet are discussing working together on self-driving

#8

Post by repsilat » Thu, May 31, 2018, 2:55 PM UTC

JasonFruit wrote: post #3

'Autonomous' is an adjective.

So is "mobile". It used to be awkward and embarrassing when someone said things like "focusing on mobile" but then we got used to it I guess. The same might happen here (though "driverless" will probably be more common than "autonomous".)

Re: Uber CEO says Uber and Alphabet are discussing working together on self-driving

#9

Post by ocdtrekkie » Thu, May 31, 2018, 2:57 PM UTC

mdorazio wrote: post #5

Another way of looking at this: after the Phoenix accident, Uber realized that its own autonomous tech is woefully inadequate and years behind Waymo's, so now they're trying to play nice to not get left behind.

As the case is, they've always wanted to use Google's cars. They only started investing in their own program because they felt like Google had shut them out.

Re: Uber CEO says Uber and Alphabet are discussing working together on self-driving

#10

Post by ghaff » Thu, May 31, 2018, 2:59 PM UTC

cfadvan wrote: post #7

mdorazio wrote: post #5

Another way of looking at this: after the Phoenix accident, Uber realized that its own autonomous tech is woefully inadequate and years behind Waymo's, so now they're trying to play nice to not get left behind.

I think that everyone in this industry is also starting to realize that far from a quick race to be first, this is actually the start of a long slog. With the realization that full autonomy isn’t a few years, but at least a few decades away, collaboration rather than throat-slitting becomes a more sensible strategy.

I'm still unsure if all the people claiming that they're going to be able to order an autonomous cab in a random US city within the next year or two are just irrationally optimistic or if they have a totally cynical interest in telling a bigger whopper than the next guy.