Fast Times at Self-Driving High

The movie Fast Times at Ridgemont High brilliantly captures the angst, awkwardness, and uncertainty of the teenage years. Growing up is not a phenomenon unique to people — industries do too, and the autonomous vehicle industry is about 15 years old (counting from the 2004 DARPA Grand Challenge¹), and it’s as uncertain about how to grow up as any high schooler.

The teenage years are hard for humans — and, as it turns out — the autonomous vehicle industry. The AV industry has both cool kids (often idolized with enormous valuations) but also a new crop of younger companies finding their own path.

Identity crisis is at the heart of any teenage movie: who am I and what should I do with my life? Most AV companies have focused on becoming robo-taxis — vehicles that can operate within large swathes of urban centers, providing rides just about anywhere, anytime. But the last few years have been hard on that vision:

• Waymo’s John Krafcik pumped the brakes on expectations around their own cars (and their launch fell short of expectations)
• Apple recently announced 200 layoffs from their AV team
• Uber has greatly scaled back its operations and maximum speeds after their fatality
• Roadstar’s CTO was fired for falsifying performance data about their vehicles

These companies resemble senior Mike Damone, projecting experience and sagacity despite their own struggles in the robo-taxi market. Many younger companies have tried to follow in their footsteps, while other companies (resembling Mark and Stacy), ultimately found their own path. For many young AV companies, that means taking it slow — literally. By focusing on lower speeds in more structured environments, they can grow their brand, earn revenue, and gain experience and priceless data. My own company, May Mobility, is clearly within this camp.

AV companies are taking wildly different approaches to growth. Seniors Damone and Brad project confidence and certainty, whereas Mark and Stacy find their own path by taking it slow and steady. Then there’s Spicoli.

One of the most memorable characters in the movie was wayward stoner Spicoli. All year long, Spicoli flaunted classroom rules, but ultimately authority caught up with him. The AV universe also has authorities (regulators, government officials, etc.) that we must ultimately see eye-to-eye with… and like Spicoli, we face consequences if we don’t follow them.

Whether an AV company is more like Damone, Mark, Stacy, or Spicoli, they’re all struggling with identity. Ask us what we want to be when we grow up, and you’ll get pretty similar answers: self-driving vehicles widely deployed, making transportation safer, more convenient, and improving the quality of everyone’s lives. We may generally agree on the end result, but the path to that end is less clear. Even though the robo-taxi path has had a pretty terrible year, the massive investments in that space give it a cachet that shuttles today lack. If robo-taxis are the “cool kids”, shuttles might just be the “nerds”. We’re okay with that.

Next time on my movies-as-a-metaphor-for-AVs series: Revenge of the Nerds.

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1. Counting 2004 as the “birth” of autonomous vehicles does a disservice to a lot of great work prior to that. But never let a fact get in the way of a good movie metaphor!