Self Driven Racing Cars Scream Like … Oxymorons

Pradeep Aradhya
3 min readJan 24, 2022
In silly news

How bought into the hype cycle must folks be to pay attention to self driven racing car records? Why is this different from racing your personal turtles or ants or chickens? Is it sportive? Is it useful? Is the only stake ownership … and blind hype?

CNN made this a front page news item a few weeks ago: https://www.cnn.com/videos/business/2022/01/10/self-driving-racing-cars-orig.cnn-business . I guess in the general cataloguing of happenings this is another. And they tried to gather some interest around it instead of blandly reporting self driving and a number. Is this the fourth estate just reporting or sensationalizing or filling news slots?

Converting a racing car to be self driven is perhaps somewhat justified for the attempt at speed. However letting the implication that this is racing or sport continue is just sensationalism. Why is a car going in a straight line … albeit very fast interesting at all? The land speed record is fascinating as a limit of human endeavor. However, even self driven, this speed record is just silly. Firstly the car drove in a straight line. Secondly, there were only two cars. Thirdly, there was no jockeying for position or any competition. In fact, the self driving nature of it while technologically complex at such speeds seems trivial in terms of maneuverability or competition. All they really did is not…

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Pradeep Aradhya

Exploring boundaries on culture, business strategy, and technology. Film maker, Kidlit Author, Technologist, Philanthropist, Investor, CEO