You laugh, but the concept of this funny YouTube video was the actual business model of a SoftBank-backed startup that raised half a billion dollars [1]. The crucial flaw in their otherwise ironclad plan was that the pizza had a tendency to fly around and lose all its toppings when the truck went over a bump in the road.
> I'm pretty sure that was a money-laundering scheme disguised as some silicon valley-esque startup
considering some of the half baked shenanigans I've seen conducted in SF that actually raised funding back when I was there. this would explain a LOT...
Im kinda with the other reply, sneak. Isnt softbank a Japan/asian based cartel? From the first articles I can find they just cost saudia some money (not to say it wasnt laundered ... maybe they bought some softpaintings?)
They need that tech tanks use to keep their gun level, that multi axis gyroscope thing. This is the sort of tech crossover that could make military spending more acceptable.
To illustrate just how capable that tech was even back in 1986, look at 1:45 of this Bundeswehr video demonstrating a Leopard tank carry a keg of beer and not lose a drop: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2mcO6l-0cY
His cellphone uses GPS and connects to other computers over the internet using TCP/IP, but I guess you're waiting on pizza gyroscopes to see any valuable tech crossover relative to this project.
Hard to say. Would the research even have occurred if there weren't military applications? At the end of the day, there are only a few ways to get politicians to fund research:
* War (physics, chemistry, computer science, psychology)
* Fortune-telling (astronomy, economics, political science)
I imagine military applications for "know where something is in world" and "have network of computers communicate in a damage resistant way" are no more costly to develop than non-military applications.
Most notably, the company enjoyed a generous infusion from Japanese investment firm SoftBank, which injected a whopping $375 million into the startup in 2018. By the end of its lifespan, Zume had raised as much as $445 million.
Yeah, the headline’s wording implies valuation, but that’s actually the amount they raised. Who knows how they managed to spend it. That’s a lot of Bali offsites and kombucha on tap.
My current company was somewhat involved with them as a supplier I think, before my time. They never had robotic pizza trucks, they were just regular pizza trucks with an app. They hired so many engineers they loaned some out to my company because they had no idea what to do with them.
Is Colin’s recklessness a fake act, like Electroboom, or is he really as reckless as it seems? I’m not sure I’ve ever really figured it out, and for some reason it makes it hard for me to watch. I guess obviously they wouldn’t publish a video where something goes horribly wrong, though.
I think I'm slightly more worried that photonicinduction has actually died when he goes silent for a while, though. I know it's mostly down to career/relationship ups-and-downs, but there's always a chance it's "got turned inside out by a flying washing machine drum".
[1]: https://gizmodo.com/zume-softbank-ai-pizza-delivery-stellar-...