Replies to post #23678 on The Rising Influence of Rising Affluence

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I can think of a few reasons. It is a fun project for engineering students. Consortia companies such as established car companies and AV companies like Waymo can do research on fresh ideas on the cheap. Pretty sure the university teams would include places like MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, Berkeley and other international uni's with strong engineering depts. I believe DARPA AV program is separate.