I'm not onboard with the idea that Silicon Valley holds a monopoly on technical innovation. Getting people to click on ads on smartphones doesn't capture the entire scope of technology. Europe's economy is roughly as large as that of the United States. Many world-leading companies from the car industry, to chemicals, to biotech reside in Europe.

The US holds one dominating advantage in one subset of technology. Consumer-facing internet tech. While a lot of people employed in this field commentate on this website, it's a marginal part of the tech industry, and it's not worth sacrificing privacy for, Europe does not need Silicon Valley to produce high-value products.

And if adtech is supposed to be the definition of the future, rather than genomics, complex manufacturing and the life sciences than I'm okay with us skipping that part. There are business models that don't rely on sacrificing the attention and privacy of consumers.

That's exactly my point. The EU is built for entrenched institutions. There is no entrepreneurial spirit -- and that's why there's N-number of self driving car companies in the US and zero(?) in the EU, for example.

The EU had self-driving cars in the 1980s (Ernst Dickmanns & Mercedes, demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I39sxwYKlEE ). The most expensive robot car project was in Europe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_Prometheus_Project).

I do agree that the EU has less of an entrepreneurial spirit. Some cultural elements, but also practical: It is difficult to scale an app, since there are such large language and culture barriers between EU member states. There is a decades long brain-drain of highly technical (AI) people. Finally, it is very hard to compete with US companies, as they skirt the rules, winning all network effects with huge VC infusions.

I always suspected some of that was accomplished with military and intelligence support: The American economy and intelligence apparatus stands to benefit a lot with the entire world using Google and Facebook. The other side of this coin is that the pro-privacy anti-surveillance movement may also be supported by foreign intelligence agencies in an attempt to hurt US economic and military interests. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lernout_%26_Hauspie#History was close to establishing an AI-type Silicon Valley in Belgium in the early 2000's, but was unsuccessful.

All (or most?) of the big European car manufacturers in Europe provide and actively research self-driving technology. Volkswagen's research budget is five times as large (iirc correctly) as Tesla's.

You are succumbing to a lot of stereotypes here, which I might add is fuelled by a cargo cult tendency within Silicon Valley.

No, you see, if it's not a startup, it cannot be innovative.

You think you're being funny, but it took silicon valley to invent a machine to press juice of proprietary only bags of pre-chopped fruit, so I think you look rather foolish now!

But they're all providing that technology to American firms who are implementing the technology rather than developing it at home. See what I'm driving at?

So they do some research and then let some american companies that can't even imagine why you'd create safety regulations do the practical testing which kills American citizens instead of European ones when the inevitable mistakes happen.

Then they get access to the technology through partnerships. This sounds like a win-win for the EU companies

Indeed, it’s a win for the American economy too, when the IP is owned by American companies and the majority of profits go there.

Sounds like the Tesla and Mobileye partnership.

Apple recently gave up their self driving shuttle and told Volkswagen to do it for them. So yeah...cargo cult and tunnel vision.

European car companies sell identical technology to Tesla, it's just they call it lane assist (accurately), not autopilot.

You are mistaken. Lane assist is not the same level as available in a Tesla. No European car has or has ever had the higher autonomous level than the late model Tesla has. https://medium.com/iotforall/the-5-autonomous-driving-levels...

Tesla has ambitious goals, especially when it comes to reusing existing hardware, but right now the software is level 2.

>"There is no entrepreneurial spirit"

That betrays a deep lack of knowledge of what happens in Europe. There are a ton of innovative ideas and services that originated here.

Just off the top of my head, Skype and Spotify are huge and well-known.

Famously French has no word for entrepreneur.

/s

Whereas the US with its ISP, fossile fuel, pharmaceutical monopolies, it’s GM and Apple, Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook, Lockheed, and Boeing is obviously a Randian utopia. Yes indeed, no entrenched institutions in the US!

/s In cased you missed it.

> Getting people to click on ads on smartphones

Clicking on ads is how they fund AI research. Not all tech is equally profitable but you need all kinds. Meanwhile EU is still debating whether it's worth getting into the AI game.

>The US holds one dominating advantage in one subset of technology. Consumer-facing internet tech. While a lot of people employed in this field commentate on this website, it's a marginal part of the tech industry, and it's not worth sacrificing privacy for, Europe does not need Silicon Valley to produce high-value products.

> it's a marginal part of the tech industry

Hilarious

Is it?

Visit Germany sometime. Drive through the countryside. Most parts of the US look like a hollowed out shell by comparison.

That might have something to do with the fact that Germany has 7x higher population density.

You may or you may not have an argument - but you only present the most cliché, most superficial version. You merely divide total population by total area, which is utterly useless and misleading. Why does that keep happening on a supposedly "better" forum like HN? Each time this topic is touched this exact same tired and wrong pseudo-argument is presented as if population follows an equal distribution per area.

Just like in the rest of the world, in the US too the vast majority of people are clustered in and around urban areas. In order to achieve your goal/argument you counted vast stretches of nothingness. At least since the early 20th century migration to cities has been going on, and it still does - large urbanized areas continue to suck in people from the already emptier areas of the country.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Megaregions_of_the_United_Stat...

> Drive through the countryside. Most parts of the US look like a hollowed out shell by comparison.

In what way do you mean? Wind power?

Basic housing is the thing that stands out most for me. I'm originally an American, and now live in a rural area in Europe. Rural parts of the more affluent Western European countries aren't advanced per se, but they're, I dunno, reasonably modern. Decent housing and decent internet access. The U.S. countryside is just incredibly backward in this weirdly visible way by comparison. Entire swaths of countryside, especially in the southern US, but not exclusively there, are full of a mix of trailer parks on the one hand, and questionably habitable shacks with missing wallboards and plastic-tarp roof patches on the other (parts of Louisiana are seriously shocking). And good luck getting broadband.

I used to live in Europe and have also lived in many parts of the US. Just trying to understand, since I didn't notice much visible difference other than wind power. I'm from a rural area in the US, and it was a great place. I haven't spent much time in rural areas of the south though.

Small and especially medium business is vaporized.

Textiles? Gone

Light industrial? Gone

Regional banks? Dying

Local banks? Dead

Small retail? Dead

Dairy agriculture? Dying

Family agriculture? Dead

I grew up in a small town. 20 operating farms circa 1990. 2 today. 3 agricultural/equipment dealers, today 0. 5 small/medium manufacturers... 1 today, because of a military contract. School enrollment? -25%.

I watched the beginning of decline when I was in high school. There is no anchor businesses that sustain local economies, and no access to capital. Without government spending, either indirect or direct transfer payments, a shockingly high number of US localities would be in a state of complete implosion.

This is an inevitable consequence of globalization and conglomeration (especially of agriculture).

It’s an inevitable consequence of our current economic policy.

Conglomerates are all about capital, not efficiency. We are paying more, not less, by eliminating market participants.

Here's a thought: You don't know what you're talking about and I applaud the EU for protecting me against people like you.

GDPR only has an effect starting from yesterday, I highly doubt it had a retroactive effect up to the early 2000's to wipe out EU startups, that point is moot.