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Comment by Barrin92 | Hacker News Reader

I'm not onboard with the idea that Silicon Valley holds a monopoly on technical innovation. Getting people to click on ads on smartphones doesn't capture the entire scope of technology. Europe's economy is roughly as large as that of the United States. Many world-leading companies from the car industry, to chemicals, to biotech reside in Europe.

The US holds one dominating advantage in one subset of technology. Consumer-facing internet tech. While a lot of people employed in this field commentate on this website, it's a marginal part of the tech industry, and it's not worth sacrificing privacy for, Europe does not need Silicon Valley to produce high-value products.

And if adtech is supposed to be the definition of the future, rather than genomics, complex manufacturing and the life sciences than I'm okay with us skipping that part. There are business models that don't rely on sacrificing the attention and privacy of consumers.

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That's exactly my point. The EU is built for entrenched institutions. There is no entrepreneurial spirit -- and that's why there's N-number of self driving car companies in the US and zero(?) in the EU, for example.

All (or most?) of the big European car manufacturers in Europe provide and actively research self-driving technology. Volkswagen's research budget is five times as large (iirc correctly) as Tesla's.

You are succumbing to a lot of stereotypes here, which I might add is fuelled by a cargo cult tendency within Silicon Valley.

No, you see, if it's not a startup, it cannot be innovative.

You think you're being funny, but it took silicon valley to invent a machine to press juice of proprietary only bags of pre-chopped fruit, so I think you look rather foolish now!

But they're all providing that technology to American firms who are implementing the technology rather than developing it at home. See what I'm driving at?

So they do some research and then let some american companies that can't even imagine why you'd create safety regulations do the practical testing which kills American citizens instead of European ones when the inevitable mistakes happen.

Then they get access to the technology through partnerships. This sounds like a win-win for the EU companies

Indeed, it’s a win for the American economy too, when the IP is owned by American companies and the majority of profits go there.

Sounds like the Tesla and Mobileye partnership.

Apple recently gave up their self driving shuttle and told Volkswagen to do it for them. So yeah...cargo cult and tunnel vision.

European car companies sell identical technology to Tesla, it's just they call it lane assist (accurately), not autopilot.

You are mistaken. Lane assist is not the same level as available in a Tesla. No European car has or has ever had the higher autonomous level than the late model Tesla has. https://medium.com/iotforall/the-5-autonomous-driving-levels...

Tesla has ambitious goals, especially when it comes to reusing existing hardware, but right now the software is level 2.

The EU had self-driving cars in the 1980s (Ernst Dickmanns & Mercedes, demo: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I39sxwYKlEE ). The most expensive robot car project was in Europe (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eureka_Prometheus_Project).

I do agree that the EU has less of an entrepreneurial spirit. Some cultural elements, but also practical: It is difficult to scale an app, since there are such large language and culture barriers between EU member states. There is a decades long brain-drain of highly technical (AI) people. Finally, it is very hard to compete with US companies, as they skirt the rules, winning all network effects with huge VC infusions.

I always suspected some of that was accomplished with military and intelligence support: The American economy and intelligence apparatus stands to benefit a lot with the entire world using Google and Facebook. The other side of this coin is that the pro-privacy anti-surveillance movement may also be supported by foreign intelligence agencies in an attempt to hurt US economic and military interests. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lernout_%26_Hauspie#History was close to establishing an AI-type Silicon Valley in Belgium in the early 2000's, but was unsuccessful.

Famously French has no word for entrepreneur.

>"There is no entrepreneurial spirit"

That betrays a deep lack of knowledge of what happens in Europe. There are a ton of innovative ideas and services that originated here.

Just off the top of my head, Skype and Spotify are huge and well-known.

Whereas the US with its ISP, fossile fuel, pharmaceutical monopolies, it’s GM and Apple, Google, Amazon, Apple, and Facebook, Lockheed, and Boeing is obviously a Randian utopia. Yes indeed, no entrenched institutions in the US!

/s In cased you missed it.

> Getting people to click on ads on smartphones

Clicking on ads is how they fund AI research. Not all tech is equally profitable but you need all kinds. Meanwhile EU is still debating whether it's worth getting into the AI game.

>The US holds one dominating advantage in one subset of technology. Consumer-facing internet tech. While a lot of people employed in this field commentate on this website, it's a marginal part of the tech industry, and it's not worth sacrificing privacy for, Europe does not need Silicon Valley to produce high-value products.

> it's a marginal part of the tech industry

Hilarious

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