Recently a friend asked me why I decided to work on self-driving cars. I’m sure I’ve written the answer to this at some point, but I’m not sure I’ve done it recently. So I’ll do it here.
There are two reasons I decided to work on self-driving cars: changing the world and getting a win.
I’m a huge believer in the opportunity for self-driving cars to change the world in everything from real estate to agriculture to human resources to travel to childcare. Removing the constraint on our lives due to travel time and cost is going to change the world in ways we can’t even imagine.
My desire to get a win is perhaps less noble, but more personal. I’ve worked for different companies in networking software, enterprise software, mobile software, and recruiting software, and the common theme is that they have all had average performance. I want great performance.
Maybe I’m an average influence!
I think more likely it’s been a combination of bad luck and perhaps some poor decisions on my part as far as which companies to work at.
Smart people say that the best thing you can do for your career is to work in a good industry, for a good company.
It seems to me like self-driving cars are a great industry, or at least they will be one.
So wish me luck.
David Silver 