Re:California halts Pony.ai's driverless testing permit afte...
by TaylorAlexander on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @05:17AM
(#29550126)
> Where else would you put your car tech startup in SF? Software engineers aren’t going to work out of a garage
At the same time as the $10m mansion place I interviewed for a self driving truck company and they had their office located in an industrial park in a shop that looks like it used to be an auto mechanic with upstairs offices. That place was fine but I didn’t feel like working for a 22 year old CEO who had just left college. Back in 2016 investors were dumping money on self driving car startups but I wanted something stable.
Re:California halts Pony.ai's driverless testing permit afte...
by a_t48 on Tuesday December 14, 2021 @07:31AM
(#29550893)
> Where else would you put your car tech startup in SF? Software engineers aren’t going to work out of a garage, and good luck finding a traditional office space with decent facilities for working on cars.
In…a garage. I’m serious - there are spaces big enough in SOMA and other places that can fit a garage space plus open office space plus some conference rooms (I’ve worked in several of them).
Don’t get me wrong, I’d never work with the manchildren at comma.ai. I’ve interacted extensively with George Hotz in the past and he’s certainly not a person I’d want to spend any time in the same room with.
I just don’t see any issue with their choice of office space, it just seems like a perfect fit for their business.
> To me a mansion as a startup HQ screams tech-bro 24-7 party culture with some major WLB issues
Where else would you put your car tech startup in SF? Software engineers aren’t going to work out of a garage, and good luck finding a traditional office space with decent facilities for working on cars.
FWIW this is hardly a mansion https://www.redfin.com/CA/San-Francisco/41-Santa-Monica-Way-...
Comma.ai has a “proper” facility now, but they had to move off to San Diego for that.