
Detroit is kicking Silicon Valley’s ass in the race to build self-driving cars - stevenmays
http://www.theverge.com/2017/4/3/15164336/detroit-vs-silicon-valley-self-driving-car-navigant-ranking?utm_campaign=theverge&utm_content=chorus&utm_medium=social&utm_source=twitter
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FullMtlAlcoholc
We'll see if it lasts. I grew up in Detroit and saw how they operated...
encouraging "japan bashing" in the early 90's recession and doubling down on
gas guzzlers when the future was in high mileage cars.

Have they really changed? I seem to recall recently that they received a
sweetheart deal from the current administration where as a prerequisite for
actually investing in new plants, they received a promise that fuel efficiency
standards would be lowered. They want to sell comparative gas guzzlers
again... bigger cars mean. more profits! Who cares if the extra. emissions
causes premature deaths in the largest market in the US
([https://www.google.com/amp/www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-
me...](https://www.google.com/amp/www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-pollution-
deaths-20160810-snap-story,amp.html)).

Sigh, they are not only being subsidized, but they are heaping the costs on
the very same public that bailed them out of certain death.

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mc32
Detroit is in it for the long-haul. They have the hardware and they have the
pockets to sustain something without having to have a return for investors or
aiming for an IPO.

That said, these tech rags can't seem to be able to decide who is ahead and
who's not. Or rather, they get more page views by one day saying SV is ahead,
and then, another day declare Detroit is ahead. I don't think anyone knows for
sure, it's all bets and future execution, but I wish the tech media were a
little more journalistically drive when reporting these things.

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BoiledCabbage
It's nice to see some different perspectives in the race to autonomous cars.

I do wish the axes of the graph were a bit different. Possibly "Technology Adv
vs. Business Adv".

They had a great insight on how some companies may able to deliver a working
product to the masses much easier, while others may be ahead on tech but may
have trouble on scaling or production or rolling out a way to make it
profitable and grow. I think that was a major insight of the article those two
dimensions, but the graph picks two other dimensions to compare companies on.

For example Waymo is listed as being "way out in front of everyone" in tech.
I'd expect to seem them at the extreme of on of the two axes.

They don't have the existing business of uber, nor the production line of
ford, so I'd expect them lower in the other axis.

That graph I feel would've been a better presentation of the data. Now I'm
just left wondering how their huge tech advantage leaves them in the "middle"
of each axis.

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apahwa
production line: they are building on third party cars, Chrysler definitely
has a strong production line.

existing business: Google maps is already taking some share of the initial
ride request by providing users a way to compare prices between Lyft and Uber
and doing lead gen. they now have plenty of data points to know what price
points they need to hit in order to complete and they can easily add in Waymo
in front. they will benefit from all the marketing dollars Uber and Lyft burn
through.

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sounds
The click bait title is clickbait.

But there is an interesting nugget in there: the article claims Detroit plans
to start doing ride sharing and other services where they can lease their
autonomous tech as a fleet.

Uber seems to be behind on autonomy, and Detroit won't need drivers if they
can ship autonomy.

That actually seems somewhat credible.

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Aloisius
Did I miss something?

Last I checked the "leaders" group here, Daimler, Ford and GM all have rather
large R&D centers in Silicon Valley.

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tim333
And of course their leader GM acquired the YC funded Cruise Automation.

