When I was younger, I was enthralled by the promise of future technologies: self-driving cars, teleportation, robotic butlers, and more. I often wondered, “What technologies will the world unveil by the time I step into college?”
I spent a portion of my childhood in Palo Alto, CA, a beacon of innovation beyond just another city. Located just 35 miles from San Francisco, it is home to Stanford University and is a stone's throw from Cupertino and Mountain View–homes to tech titans like Apple and Google. Not to mention Tesla's prominent headquarters. To me, Palo Alto is the heart of the Bay Area's tech pulse.
Within this epicenter of innovation, I frequently glimpsed prototypes and cutting-edge projects from companies like Waymo and Tesla.
Most of us are aware of Tesla's electrifying presence, but Waymo might not ring as many bells. Beginning as Google's ambitious self-driving project in 2009, it evolved into a distinct entity under Alphabet by 2016.
As a child, spotting these autonomous machines was nothing short of magic. There was this naive hope that by the time I'd be old enough to drive, steering wheels would be relics of the past. My father would often muse about the redundancy of garages in a future where cars parked themselves elsewhere.
Then came Tesla's wave of electric cars, igniting a wave of intrigue and awe. I would always look in admiration at the kids whose parents drove Teslas.
Fast forward to 2023, and the landscape feels, well, anticlimactic.
Let's take a look at Tesla and Waymo through the years.
Waymo expanded to Arizona in 2017, beta testing its technology. By 2018, the streets of Phoenix were graced by Waymo vehicles without any human chaperones. Yet, their current operations, despite expansions to cities like Los Angeles and Austin coming soon, are confined, with only a few hundred cars cruising the streets.
On the other hand, Tesla, which introduced its autopilot feature in 2014, released its much-hyped beta version of "Full Self-Driving" in 2020. My personal experience in 2022? Far from transformative.
If I could pick one word to describe the experience, it would be "underwhelming."
If you're driving in a relatively straight line with no significant curves at a moderate speed, you're essentially good to go. But hey, I'll cut it some slack because it is only rated at Level 2 automation.
Then there's the hype around Large Language Models like ChatGPT and Bard. At first glance, they felt revolutionary. But dig deeper, and the cracks appear. Their understanding of real-world nuances, societal intricacies, and even basic interactions feels undercooked. And they come with limitations. ChatGPT, for instance, has a knowledge cap, halting at 2021.
Even daily technology—our phones, laptops, TVs—seem to lag behind the dazzling future we envisioned. Those cinematic holograms? Nowhere in sight.
Behind closed doors, there might be promising breakthroughs, like the recent development to convert seawater into drinkable water using sunlight. But the real challenge? Making them universally accessible.
The panorama of technological evolution feels like a series of lofty promises with delayed deliveries. But don't let this narrative be the final word. Maybe the next groundbreaking ideas and innovations lie with you.
For now, I'm signing off. But rest assured, I fully intend to conquer the technological world of tomorrow. Catch you on the other side of innovation.