Re:Can any one explain the Si Valley fascination with (drive...
by nabla9 on Wednesday October 25, 2017 @07:44PM
(#15555270)
Two things
1. Economic productivity gains are measured in trillions per year globally. Expected value for the research is good. Transportation costs are significant bottleneck in the economy. They make up roughly 8-9 percent of GDP. Wages are becoming the bottleneck in transportation costs. Internet economy can increase productivity but but if the end people who deliver packets, move pizzas, or transport anything have hourly wages.
2. R&D into autonomous cars is related to autonomous robots, robot vision etc. Google is betting heavily into AI and driversless cars can be seen as one piece of the puzzle. Navigation in real environment and spatial understanding of surroundings is core technology in many other things.
1. Economic productivity gains are measured in trillions per year globally. Expected value for the research is good. Transportation costs are significant bottleneck in the economy. They make up roughly 8-9 percent of GDP. Wages are becoming the bottleneck in transportation costs. Internet economy can increase productivity but but if the end people who deliver packets, move pizzas, or transport anything have hourly wages.
2. R&D into autonomous cars is related to autonomous robots, robot vision etc. Google is betting heavily into AI and driversless cars can be seen as one piece of the puzzle. Navigation in real environment and spatial understanding of surroundings is core technology in many other things.