<story><title>Cruise slashes 24% of self-driving car workforce in sweeping layoffs</title><url>https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/14/cruise-slashes-24-of-self-driving-car-workforce-in-sweeping-layoffs/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ericmay</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not so sure. Slow and steady in this case might just be a failure to &lt;i&gt;fail fast&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;The future isn&amp;#x27;t in cars or autonomous cars, it&amp;#x27;s in sidewalks, trains, bike lanes, and other forms of transit. The best ride in a car isn&amp;#x27;t one in which I&amp;#x27;m driving or not driving, it&amp;#x27;s one in which I don&amp;#x27;t get in the car in the first place.</text></item><item><author>hiddencost</author><text>This whole saga has been really vindicating for Waymo&amp;#x27;s theory of slow-and-steady.&lt;p&gt;Uber and Cruise both tried to cut corners and mistakes caused their operations massive set backs.&lt;p&gt;Tesla&amp;#x27;s efforts have killed the most people, but seem relatively resilient.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>nytesky</author><text>I was a huge proponent of urban planning and smart growth, loved trains.&lt;p&gt;But I feel the pandemic has upended any momentum for public transit for a generation. Less frequent commmutes make long drives more tolerable and parking more affordable and available, and transit now seems like a disease vector as well as rolling homeless shelter.&lt;p&gt;For me personally, I hate the smell of weed and it is EVERY where in many downtown areas and transit hubs.&lt;p&gt;Bikes? So weather dependent, little cargo space, hard to secure, and no way to carry a family readily.&lt;p&gt;It’s a sad state of affairs.&lt;p&gt;Autonomous cars will be a travesty as everyone starts sending them on non stop errands or run double commutes to save on parking…</text></comment>
<story><title>Cruise slashes 24% of self-driving car workforce in sweeping layoffs</title><url>https://techcrunch.com/2023/12/14/cruise-slashes-24-of-self-driving-car-workforce-in-sweeping-layoffs/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>ericmay</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m not so sure. Slow and steady in this case might just be a failure to &lt;i&gt;fail fast&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;p&gt;The future isn&amp;#x27;t in cars or autonomous cars, it&amp;#x27;s in sidewalks, trains, bike lanes, and other forms of transit. The best ride in a car isn&amp;#x27;t one in which I&amp;#x27;m driving or not driving, it&amp;#x27;s one in which I don&amp;#x27;t get in the car in the first place.</text></item><item><author>hiddencost</author><text>This whole saga has been really vindicating for Waymo&amp;#x27;s theory of slow-and-steady.&lt;p&gt;Uber and Cruise both tried to cut corners and mistakes caused their operations massive set backs.&lt;p&gt;Tesla&amp;#x27;s efforts have killed the most people, but seem relatively resilient.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>poisonborz</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m a car convert, and I&amp;#x27;m someone who generally hates driving, and used only public transport for decades. It&amp;#x27;s just no match. PT is only more effective in theory.&lt;p&gt;Car infra takes next to nothing to plan and build. Trains, trams, metro, anything big at all really, takes decades, riddled with corruption, environment destruction, landscape change. State actors, maybe society, is just plain bad at organising this. Maintaining and switching cars is easy, maintaining public infra, keeping timetables (!!!), organising upgrades and extensions, keeping workforce happy and not striking is the same as above. And I live in a fat rich western country.&lt;p&gt;I get that cars don&amp;#x27;t scale, and ok, downtown of 1m+ cities should be park &amp;amp; ride. But maybe we should just spread out our living area more, and outside of megapolises just admit defeat and improve car infra.</text></comment>