Since the news of Cruise Automation’s billion-dollar acquisition broke, several other self-driving car startups have surfaced.
Varden Labs is one of these groups. The company, which appears to be a spinout of Canada’s University of Waterloo, is building self-driving golfcarts for college campuses.
This is an interesting approach that has some distinct advantages and disadvantages.
The advantages include a target user base of young, tech-savy passengers, a clear geo-fenced area, and slow speeds.
The disadvantages include pricing, volume, and mapping (I’m assuming college campuses are not as well mapped as roads, and suffer from more obscure desire paths).
The company is currently touring college campuses in California, and it’s worth keeping an eye on.
David Silver 