It demands that google’s mopnshots need to be something no other investor has considered.
The same comment translated to 1965 — “The US is trying to get to the moon? Well Russia is trying too. So I’d hardly call it a “moonshot” “
(Edited to change typo of “potential layoffs” to “potential payoffs”, possibly more fitting though)
It only feels normal now because they took the risk and pulled everyone else in the industry forward.
Levandowski had already created a self driving motorcycle for a DARPA challenged in 2004. In 2008 Discovery contacted him for a show about it, but being unable to lend them the vehicle - he instead built a new self driving pizza delivery car for them. He asked Google if they wanted to participate in the show or get involved in self driving, but they were uninterested due to liability. After they show aired and went off without a hitch, they decided to get involved.
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_self-driving_cars
And so when you look at this sort of selection process it ends up being unsurprising that Google's 'moonshots' ended up being things like Waymo, Google watches, glasses, drone delivery, and so on. One of the largest companies in the world, with some of the deepest pockets in the world, and their 'moonshots' are things dozens of other companies are building as well. It seemed quite telling of the present and future of Google.
[1] - https://spectrum.ieee.org/astro-teller-captain-of-moonshots-...