[technobabble]

First off, just because the HN community lays on criticism doesn't meant that the people making the criticism don't think the technology is a good idea. If I spend the energy to criticize $technology, it means that I care about it to an extent. There's a baseline level of interest. If I didn't care about $technology, then I wouldn't spend the energy to break down into concrete, detailed criticism.

Also, the author quotes Peter Thiel, claiming that the current cynicism towards self-driving technology is a type of "indefinite optimism" that hampers people's ability to plan the future. This is juxtaposed with the 1950's-1960's America, where Thiel claims "definite optimism" reigned. That type of indefinite optimism, at least in 1960's America, did not account for minorities, people of color, people of disabilities, etc. There was no future plan for them. Indefinite optimism, though it may appear lethargic and slow, at least is able to investigate the multitudes of edge-case scenarios that any $technology will face.