[Barrin92]

Absolutely on point. One thing I find particularly interesting about technologies of this kind is that they're often sold as 'the future of X', in this case transport. Just like Zoom is the 'future of doing conferences and work'.

Has anyone noticed in recent times that this is almost always the American future, rather than everyone else's future, in response to essentially rot of public infrastructure and state capacity?

Go to China, or Singapore, Or Taiwan or South Korea and ask them if their future is work from home because of Covid, or hyperloops because apparently nobody in the US can built a train any more. You'll be surprised.

[ketzo]

“we are the future of X” === “X is observably a $Y billion total market today, so invest in us at 25x revenue”