[pier25]

I'm not an expert, but I imagine that the companies working on those easier problems already started a couple of years ago.

Hard problems like self driving cars and natural language interfaces are way beyond the capabilities of a small startup.

[ericd]

Cruise was a small startup that got at least basic self driving working before they sold to GM. IIRC it was <10 people when I rode in one of their converted Audis. Lots of startups are working on NLP. I wouldn't be so pessimistic.

[pier25]

Cruise was founded about 5 years ago which is what I was saying on my previous comment.

[ericd]

Alright, there was a startup doing self driving trucks in YC this batch. It’s far from a solved problem, and scrappy teams can still make headway.

But anyway, the point is that there are a lot of new opportunities opening up because of that new enabling tech, and many of them are accessible to small companies.