Starsky Robotics, a driverless truck startup, declared bankruptcy and exaggerated marketing techniques were exposed.

In fact, Starsky Robotics uses general lighting, proximity sensors and camera lenses to assist autonomous driving when the traffic flow on the expressway is relatively simple. When the vehicle is ready to leave the expressway and enter the general expressway, it will switch to the networking mode and manually operate the vehicle through remote control. Moreover, only three trucks of the company are put into automatic driving operation, and the other 36 trucks are all manually driven.

Starsky Robotics, founded on 20 15, became the first driverless truck startup company to remove drivers from vehicles. Due to the lack of additional funds to support its technical development, it announced its closure on June 5438+0 this year. However, with the collapse of Starsky Robotics, it has actually begun to highlight the development model of more and more startups in Silicon Valley packaging actual technological achievements by marketing means, and the truth has gradually been seen.

Stefan Seltz-Axmacher, the founder of Starsky Robotics, is actually not from artificial intelligence technology or computer technology, but from industrial management and economics. After the establishment of Starsky Robotics, Stefan Seltz-Axmacher took the post of CEO, and found Kartik Tiwar, the co-founder with robot background, as the technical chief.

With Stefan Seltz-Axmacher's active experience in the new venture circle in the past, Starsky Robotics quickly obtained two financing in 10 and August of the following year, and even obtained about $3.8 million investment in 20 17, including Y Combinator, a famous new accelerator in Silicon Valley.

By the end of 20 17, Starsky Robotics announced the construction of a service system to meet the needs of self-driving trucks and cargo transportation. At the same time, in the next few months, its self-driving truck will successfully complete 7 miles (about 1 1.27 km) on the road in Florida, becoming the first successful car-free truck in the United States. The start-up company that completed the long-distance self-driving truck operation even let the self-driving truck travel 9.4 miles (about 65,438+05.3 kilometers) in 2065,438+09, and even the average speed reached 55 miles/hour (about 88 kilometers/hour), which can cope with lane change, entering the rest area and returning to the road.

However, Starsky Robotics actually uses general lighting, proximity sensors and camera lenses to assist trucks in autonomous driving when the traffic on the expressway is relatively simple. When the vehicle is ready to leave the expressway and enter the general expressway, it will switch to the networking mode and manually operate the vehicle through remote control.

At the same time, in the actual operation of Starsky Robotics, there are actually 36 trucks providing human-driven freight services, and only 3 trucks are put into automatic driving operation. The so-called "automatic driving" effect is achieved through the above model.

As far as reality is concerned, Starsky Robotics is a real truck freight company at best. At the same time, during the period from 20 17 to 20 19, more than 2,200 freight trains were transported, but they always promoted themselves with "autonomous driving" technology to strive for more financing opportunities. Even in March of 20 18, it was provided by Shasta Ventures, an early venture capital company in Silicon Valley.

Although Stefan Seltz-Axmacher later expressed his hope to develop the technology of self-driving trucks in a safer way, and also emphasized that the company's operation was supported by freight services, the actual operation mode of Starsky Robotics was not much different from that of general freight service companies, because only three trucks were put into the so-called "self-driving" technology application.

In order to make its technology look more like the same thing, Starsky Robotics hired Walter Stockwell, the technical director of safety standards, from DJI, which is famous for its drone aerial photography technology, as the safety policy director of Starsky Robotics.

Therefore, Starsky Robotics was selected in the 2020 FreightTech 25 list, and even the American Consumer News and Business Channel TV station listed Starsky Robotics as one of the most promising startups in the world in 20 19.

However, the over-touted "autopilot" technology has finally revealed the truth in the ebb tide when more and more autopilot technologies fail to develop. Investors finally saw that the technology of Starsky Robotics is actually far less than that of other self-driving startups, such as Waymo, which has been able to change lanes, leave the highway, return to the highway, and even invest in picking up passengers.

Unable to successfully obtain the initially agreed $20 million Series B financing, and most employees turned to join other autonomous driving technical teams, Starsky Robotics finally announced that it would burn all the funds and decided to close it in June+10 this year.

In fact, there are still many start-up teams in Silicon Valley who are good at packaging, but there are actually no clear technical resources. However, they continue to convince investors that their technology is ahead of the market through marketing means, and then get a lot of financing opportunities. Magic Leap, for example, once boasted that it had advanced technology in the market and created applications that could create your real augmented reality, and now it has also begun to spread and sell.

In recent years, artificial intelligence, data analysis, image vision and other technologies have suddenly been hyped up. After many entrepreneurial teams rushed to the forefront, after this wave of agitation slowed down, many entrepreneurial teams in the name of "innovative technology" were exposed. At the same time, it also reflects the absurd phenomenon that many investors in Silicon Valley believe in the gorgeous packaging of the start-up team and then invest a lot of money.

However, after this wave of agitation, it may also mean that this newly created financing model, which only explained its technology in oral and written form in the past, is unlikely to successfully obtain financing opportunities in the current investment climate of Silicon Valley.

Tagged artificial intelligence, Stefan Seltz-Axmacher, autonomous driving.