What You (May Have) Missed...
I can’t believe we are only a little over three weeks into 2021 – doesn’t it feel like six months have passed already? With all the distractions at the national level, here are a few digital/tech headlines you may have missed:
Uber Sells Its Future – this might actually be a good thing for Uber.
Everyone is Moving to Texas - and some are starting to regret it.
Google Employees Form a Union - well, sort-of.
CES 2021 Happened – GM issues its EV manifesto.
So, let me get you up to speed:
#1: In late December, Uber decided to sell its autonomous division to Aurora. A day later it sold its Elevate “air taxi” business to Joby Aviation. Does that mean Uber has no future? I would argue the opposite. This sale increased the company's focus on its core business – the low-capital, high-leverage software business that matches riders with drivers. That business model would have never supported becoming an autonomous vehicle fleet operator, much less a commuter airline. In the future, Uber will leverage its enormous customer base and demand prediction algorithms to help drive steady business to those emerging fleet operators - who will be left with the challenge of eeking out a return on investment on the massive capital investments required.
#2: Tesla, Oracle, and HP are moving their headquarters to Texas. This makes for great doomsday stories in the local media, but nobody is actually closing down their operations here. The executive leadership is simply moving the headquarters flag and expanding their opportunity to compete for scarce engineers in a location other than Silicon Valley – while saving money on their personal income taxes. As I’ve written in the past, if this exodus lowers the competition for housing here, it may not be a bad thing for our innovation ecosystem. But really – Texas? The first regret letter has already been received, with the #1 complaint being the weather (“we only felt like going outside 3-4 months a year”), lack of public land (“forget about hiking, it’s all barbed wire fences and no-trespassing signs”), and even cedar allergies (“you’ll be sick the whole first year”). Yes, you’ll be able to afford a bigger house in Texas – and it’ll be your prison.
#3: Over 600 Google employees joined a union. What is going on at Google? Did the quality of the free food served by its celebrity chefs go down? Did the company institute drastic cuts to its median salary of $200,000 a year? Well, no. As quoted on NPR, Google engineer and new union member Alex Morales states, "there is massive power that has been concentrated at the executive level. As a tech employee, it's a reasonable ask to ensure that this labor is being used for something positive that makes the world a better place." Back in the day, I managed 100+ software engineers and let me tell you, some of them (usually the most vocal ones) had some very strange ideas about how to make the world a better place. Now I need to let them help me make corporate-level business decisions? Texas here I come.
And finally #4, did you catch CES 2021? Actually it's still open (until Feb 15). The show was easy to miss this year since it went virtual. General Motors had a keynote slot this year and took full advantage, issuing a flurry of announcements, including a new battery and EV power platform, 2022 rollout plans for its semi-autonomous Super Cruise system, a dozen new EV models to be introduced over the next few years, and a new business unit called BrightDrop that consists of electric delivery vans and self-driving electric carts (FedEx is already signed up as the initial customer). GM stock is up over 30% year-to-date, outperforming Tesla. Is it time to lock in those gains with TSLA, and buy GM with the proceeds? GM will even throw in plans for an electric, autonomous Cadillac air taxi if you make the trade…
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