
Baidu's Boffin Describes Beijing's Homegrown Self-Driving Car - jonbaer
http://spectrum.ieee.org/cars-that-think/transportation/self-driving/baidus-boffin-describes-beijings-homegrown-selfdriving-car-
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nkurz
I'm surprised that Spectrum is using "boffin" in their headline. IEEE is
American, and "boffin" is rarely used in American English --- although it
seems like it's been gradually increasing in popularity over the last few
years. What exactly does "boffin" connote, and why is IEEE using it here?

I've never liked the word, but maybe (as an American) I don't understand the
connotation correctly. I group it with "nerd" and "geek", which are originally
negative slang that have been more recently adopted with pride by their
targets. But I don't expect that Spectrum would run a headline quoting
"Google's Geek" or "Nokia's Nerd".

~~~
narrator
I think the reason they used it is that it starts with "B" as does "Baidu" and
thus it adds a bit of Dr. Seuss like whimsy to the headline. Boffin has a very
positive connotation in British English. It's connotation is an eccentric,
extremely smart, almost wizardly scientist. Think "Doc" in Back to the Future.

"Boffin continued, in this immediate postwar period, to carry its wartime
connotations: a modern-day wizard who labours in secret to create
incomprehensible devices of great power."[1]

[1] [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boffin](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boffin)

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ignoramous
I fully expect Baidu and other tech giants on the Chinese shores to try and
push the boundaries of technology. Silicon Valley (and the US) in general has
always been the hot-bed of innovation. But with enormous increase in wealth in
China (and to an extent in India), I can see these companies being more and
more ambitious. Not long ago Andrew Ng of Coursera and Stanford AI Lab fame
joined Baidu to further their rival to the 'Google Brain' project. Xiaomi has
long been positioning itself as a company with design chops of Apple,
engineering chops of Google, and e-commerce chops of Amazon, all rolled into
one-- and I can see where they are coming from. If they manage to pull it off,
I guess that's when we'd start seeing the proverbial "Death of Silicon Valley"
as in, it loosing its strange monopoly and strangle hold on tech world in
terms of both talent and innovation.

Another interesting development here in India is Flipkart has been attracting
top talent from Silicon Valley companies. They're valued at $12bn but have
their sights sets on much bigger things. They aren't shying away from claiming
they want to be the Indian version of Google. These ambitions are lofty, sure,
but aren't without substance. Not to mention the growth the start-up scene has
seen in India in light of a few Multi-billion dollar companies (Flipkart, Ola,
Zomato, Snapdeal, MuSigma, InMobi, PayTm, JustDial, MakeMyTrip, Info-Edge)
springing up in space of last 12-24 months, and more (PubMatic, Zoho Corp,
Freshdesk, Knowlarity, Jabong, Housing, Goibibo, CommonFloor, Quickr, Sokrati,
Micromax) waiting to enter that exclusive club in the coming 12. With wealth
creation at an all-time high in the Indian tech circles, we're seeing an
unprecedented situation where a high number of people that aren't afraid of
starting their own ventures anymore, enter the start-up world with audacious
ideas (with experience and enough talent around them to execute) that once
were prerogative of Silicon Valley.

I think Mobile has fueled a much of this revolution (particularly, Android and
its low-cost variants). It has made tech and internet available to half-a-
billion (or perhaps even more) people in an instant. A local hardware company
(Micromax) was recently in the news because it had overtaken Samsung as #1
seller of Smartphones in India.

Either we're about to enter a horrible bubble, or The Times... They're
a-Changin'

Nasscom's 10000 startups report: [http://goo.gl/KNozT6](http://goo.gl/KNozT6)
(via dropbox)

~~~
drzaiusapelord
>positioning itself as a company with design chops of Apple

Are you kidding? Xaiomi is a classic copycat Chinese company that lifts
designs and ideas from elsewhere, but sits pretty with the CCP so has access
to the local market.

[http://www.cultofandroid.com/66569/xiaomi-dont-copy-
apple/](http://www.cultofandroid.com/66569/xiaomi-dont-copy-apple/)

Heck they cant even make an invite without copying Apple

[http://ibnlive.in.com/news/xiaomis-apple-fixation-goes-
to-a-...](http://ibnlive.in.com/news/xiaomis-apple-fixation-goes-to-a-whole-
new-level-now-copies-apples-media-invite-design/541378-11.html)

>engineering chops of Google,

Reselling a skinned Android that looks a lot like iOS isn't exactly the
"engineering chops of Google."

I'd be VERY surprised if this Baidu car is remotely competitive with its
Western counterparts, especially when companies like Mercedes have been
working on this stuff for decades.

~~~
ignoramous
Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

I don't see what's wrong with copying, to be honest. People copy successful
business models and best practices all the time-- some even write books about
it. And a belief that's long held in tech circles is that ideas are worth
nothing, and that execution is what matters. To give credit to Xiaomi, they're
setting up themselves a very high bar when they set out to imitate Apple.
Google tried it with its initial launch of Android, and if it weren't for M
Duarte joining Google in the wake of Palm falling apart, who knows how Android
would have looked today. In developing countries, to be able to own a phone
that looks ever so similar to iPhone but costs a fraction of the cost is an
instant hit. It results in a very good business [0].

I'd give you another example: Flipkart, in its early days, had a website that
looked very much like Amazon's. They've since carved out their own identity
and were among top 20 well designed apps on iOS Appstore last year (one of the
many India-based apps to make the list) [1].

UX is another prime example of how often companies copy each other. Steve Jobs
once famously quoted Picasso "Good artists copy, great artists steal" [2]
Copying is rampant in the software side of the industry... websites look
alike, marketing emails look alike, business models look alike, approaches to
solve problems are alike... I am not trying to argue that Xiaomi is anywhere
near Google or Apple, what I am saying is that they might just get there or
thereabouts; or someone else might outside of the SV.

[0] [http://www.businessinsider.com/xiaomi-mi-note-apple-
samsung-...](http://www.businessinsider.com/xiaomi-mi-note-apple-samsung-
china-2015-4) | [http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2015/04/21/xiaomi-
to-m...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/kenrapoza/2015/04/21/xiaomi-to-make-
things-even-harder-for-apple-in-india/)

[1] [http://www.nextbigwhat.com/top-top-made-in-india-ios-
apps-20...](http://www.nextbigwhat.com/top-top-made-in-india-ios-
apps-2014-297/)

[2] [http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/what-steve-jobs-really-meant-
whe...](http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/what-steve-jobs-really-meant-when-he-said-
good-artists-copy-great-artists-steal/)

~~~
icebraining
I think the point is that being able to copy does not show (though doesn't
disprove either) that you have the technical prowess to surpass the copied.

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BenTheElder
Unfortunately not very descriptive. From a quick search, it looks like Baidu
previously announced[0] a partnership with BMW to work on driverless cars. [0]
[http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2014/10/03/an-...](http://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2014/10/03/an-
update-on-the-baidu-bmw-driver-less-car-deal-as-further-details-emerge/)

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yellowapple
What is it with search engines and self-driving cars?

