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Re:The 5th-generation Waymo Driver by sangnoir on Thursday March 05, 2020 @10:23AM (#22494246)
Why should we pursue biomimicry to that extent? My go to example is to compare aircraft to birds, so I could rephrase your question as why are the engine/fixed wings necessary? Is it solely because material engineering hasn't advanced yet to enable airplanes to flap their wings to stay airborne like birds?

Human eyes and brains are completely different from solid state electronics with different constraints and advantages.

Re:The 5th-generation Waymo Driver by 0xffff2 on Thursday March 05, 2020 @11:51AM (#22495304)
There is in fact a pretty long history of biomimicry in aviation though. I've met many aerospace engineers (including a former NASA chief scientist) who would take your question very seriously. The answer may well be "no, that isn't the only reason", but it's not trivial to arrive at that answer.