<story><title>Amazon to pay $1B+ for Zoox</title><url>https://www.axios.com/report-amazon-to-pay-1-billion-for-self-driving-tech-firm-zoox-719d293b-3799-4315-a573-a226a58bb004.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>achow</author><text>How did Zoox start?&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;In 2012, Kentley-Klay stumbled on a blog post about Google’s self-driving car project, then pretty much the only one in the field. He saw the company’s prototypes as unsightly half-measures.. Then, one day, he walked into his Melbourne office (animation, video production) and announced he was off to America to fulfill his driverless dreams.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;In a move that some will call devious and others will call ingenious, Kentley-Klay reached out to some of the biggest names in the field and told them he was making a documentary on the rise of self-driving cars. The plan was to mine these people for information and feel out potential partners. His first “interviewee” was Sterling Anderson, then a robotics researcher at MIT and later Tesla Inc.’s self-driving car chief. “I played the oldest trick in the director’s book: the vanity card,” Kentley-Klay says. “I showed up at MIT with a Canon and a bullshit microphone and interviewed Sterling for two hours in a grassy field...&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;features&amp;#x2F;2018-07-17&amp;#x2F;robot-taxi-startup-zoox-has-800-million-and-a-wild-pitch&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;features&amp;#x2F;2018-07-17&amp;#x2F;robot-tax...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>crazygringo</author><text>This reminds me how shoemaker Kenneth Cole started, who also used &amp;quot;making a film&amp;quot; as a cover story:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; &lt;i&gt;Wanting to preview his line of shoes at Market Week at the New York Hilton, but unable to afford the purchase of a hotel room or showroom to display his items, Kenneth Cole inquired about parking a trailer two blocks from the Hilton Hotel. Upon discovering that permits for trailers were only granted to utility and production companies, Cole changed the name of his company from Kenneth Cole Incorporated to Kenneth Cole Productions, and applied for a permit to film the full-length film, &amp;quot;The Birth of a Shoe Company&amp;quot;. In two and a half days, Kenneth Cole Productions sold forty thousand pairs of shoes, while chronicling the beginning of the company on film.&lt;/i&gt; [1]&lt;p&gt;Which is why it&amp;#x27;s still called Kenneth Cole &amp;quot;Productions&amp;quot; to this day.&lt;p&gt;[1] &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Kenneth_Cole_(designer)#Birth_of_a_shoe_company&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Kenneth_Cole_(designer)#Birth_...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Amazon to pay $1B+ for Zoox</title><url>https://www.axios.com/report-amazon-to-pay-1-billion-for-self-driving-tech-firm-zoox-719d293b-3799-4315-a573-a226a58bb004.html</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>achow</author><text>How did Zoox start?&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;In 2012, Kentley-Klay stumbled on a blog post about Google’s self-driving car project, then pretty much the only one in the field. He saw the company’s prototypes as unsightly half-measures.. Then, one day, he walked into his Melbourne office (animation, video production) and announced he was off to America to fulfill his driverless dreams.&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;In a move that some will call devious and others will call ingenious, Kentley-Klay reached out to some of the biggest names in the field and told them he was making a documentary on the rise of self-driving cars. The plan was to mine these people for information and feel out potential partners. His first “interviewee” was Sterling Anderson, then a robotics researcher at MIT and later Tesla Inc.’s self-driving car chief. “I played the oldest trick in the director’s book: the vanity card,” Kentley-Klay says. “I showed up at MIT with a Canon and a bullshit microphone and interviewed Sterling for two hours in a grassy field...&amp;quot;&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;features&amp;#x2F;2018-07-17&amp;#x2F;robot-taxi-startup-zoox-has-800-million-and-a-wild-pitch&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.bloomberg.com&amp;#x2F;news&amp;#x2F;features&amp;#x2F;2018-07-17&amp;#x2F;robot-tax...&lt;/a&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>orbifold</author><text>Fake it until you raise 1 billion and then sell your company for 1 billion?</text></comment>