Monday, July 20, 2015

"Uber CEO To Tesla: Sell Me Half A Million Autonomous Electric Cars In 2020"

Well there goes the "Employee-or-Contractor" problem.
From Green Car Reports:
Tesla Motors is one of several automakers planning to put a self-driving car on sale sometime in the next few years, and it already seems to have at least one big fan.

This person isn't a celebrity owner or safety advocate, but rather the CEO of preeminent ride-sharing company Uber.

If Tesla can build a fully-autonomous car by 2020, Uber CEO Travis Kalanick says his company would buy it. In fact, he'd buy every one Tesla builds.

Yes, all 500,000 electric cars Tesla expects to produce in that year, according to Forbes (via Charged EVs).

That boast comes not directly from Kalanick himself, but from Steve Jurvetson--an early Tesla investor and board member....MORE
This raises the question, "If Kalanick is buying vehicles why did Uber basically destroy Carnegie Mellon's robotics program?"
Oh yeah, "Uber Is Stealing Scientists, But Only So It Can Lay Off Drivers"

If I didn't get the point across regarding the tinpot totalitarian, here's the intro from the Carnegie Mellon link:
Raising money at a $600 illion zillion fafillion valuation allows you to buy pretty much anything.
The way this is going to pan out is: you won't be able to own the vehicle but its use will be mandated. The car is autonomous but the people aren't.
Mark my words.