This is my personal opinion, so take it with a grain of salt.
Hotz never seemed like the guy who would do things similar to what Cruise did. Vogt had already sold two startups prior to Cruise, and he was well versed in the tactics of the startup world. Have great articles put out, polished PR touches, the whole works.
OTOH, Hotz had this 'Hacker' air to whatever he does. From the iPhone, to PlayStation, to even hacking the cars he was building the tech with, he had a very different attitude compared to the let's-be-poised-for-a-buyout vibe that many startups give. Startups like Cruise are scared of breaking rules, worrying about how it might bite them later in the day.
If you ask me, Cruise was never going to make it on its own. The major car companies have decades of supply chain process management and huge amounts of capital behind them. Cruise couldn't never do what it said it would do, and I would imagine, a buy out was always on the founders minds.
Comma.ai is a different beast. They aren't really worried about rules. That's terrible attitude for a 'startup', I agree. People here have valid arguments about thinking about the NHTSA before hand, but I think they just dared to go ahead without giving a crap. It backfired, but I wouldn't attribute his decision to failure in building a working product.
Hotz never seemed like the guy who would do things similar to what Cruise did. Vogt had already sold two startups prior to Cruise, and he was well versed in the tactics of the startup world. Have great articles put out, polished PR touches, the whole works.
OTOH, Hotz had this 'Hacker' air to whatever he does. From the iPhone, to PlayStation, to even hacking the cars he was building the tech with, he had a very different attitude compared to the let's-be-poised-for-a-buyout vibe that many startups give. Startups like Cruise are scared of breaking rules, worrying about how it might bite them later in the day.
If you ask me, Cruise was never going to make it on its own. The major car companies have decades of supply chain process management and huge amounts of capital behind them. Cruise couldn't never do what it said it would do, and I would imagine, a buy out was always on the founders minds.
Comma.ai is a different beast. They aren't really worried about rules. That's terrible attitude for a 'startup', I agree. People here have valid arguments about thinking about the NHTSA before hand, but I think they just dared to go ahead without giving a crap. It backfired, but I wouldn't attribute his decision to failure in building a working product.