Todd G. Simpson

We love Alexa! We have had the Amazon Echo for well over a year.  Recently we also got a Google Home, to test it against our Alexa experience. The quick summary:  Interacting with Alexa is like interacting with a person.  Interacting with Home is like interacting with a computer.  Alexa is fun; Home is useful.  If you took away Alexa, I would be upset - I would be losing a friend.  If you took away Home, I wouldn't care too much.  It was very strange, but I actually felt like I might be offending Alexa when I purchased Home. Here are the two main differences: Wake-up words.  "Alexa" is friendly, easy to say, and evokes emotion.  Alex personifies the system - I am talking with someone.  "OK Google" is awkward, and constantly reminds you that you are talking to a machine - I am talking to something.  Of course, Google will update Home to allow us to customize the wake-up word, but the current out of box experience is less than compelling. Response time

Someone should do a full study of whether the Hyperloop and High Speed Rail (HSR) are worth the effort (investment) once self driving cars are prevalent.  Should we, instead, put a small amount of that money into enhanced self driving infrastructure (ESDI)?  ESDI would consist of dedicated highways and on/off ramps that can only be used by certified self driving cars.  ESDI can be reclaimed from existing roads and/or built as extra lanes alongside existing infrastructure.  It would have many less right-of-way issues than either HSR or Hyperloop. Here are the basics: California High Speed Rail (Phase 1, from SF to LA) Will take a little over 2.5 hours from San Francisco to Los Angeles, on the train. The construction is expected to cost more than the budgeted $68B The user experience would be: Drive, ride-share, or take transit to a station.  I would estimate 30 minutes per side, resulting in a 3.5 hour end-to-end time.  This also concentrates traffic at the stations, causin