It’s articles like this that make me glad there are numerous horses in the race.
Autonomous driving is an incredibly complex problem. We have people like Musk who thought they could throw money at the problem and have it solved in a few years, with disastrous results.
We’ve lost Uber, and Cruise is flagging. Both had been touted as examples to follow. Both have had some serious safety problems from moving too quickly and lacking caution.
Behind all of this is Waymo. Plodding along, gathering vast amounts of data and experience and iterating slowly.
I think they, out of all these players, understand the stakes at hand, and the potential profit on the other end. But you have to get it right. It has to be nearly perfect, because people need to trust it, and our emotions are fickle.