Driven

The Race to Create the Autonomous Car

By: Alex Davies

Narrated by: Tristan Morris

Length: 9 hrs and 42 mins

Publisher's summary

Alex Davies tells the “illuminating and important narrative” (Steven Levy, author of Facebook: The Inside Story) of the quest to develop driverless cars - and the fierce competition between Google, Uber, and other companies in a race to revolutionize our lives.

The self-driving car has been one of the most vaunted technological breakthroughs of recent years. But early promises that these autonomous vehicles would soon be on the roads have proven premature. Alex Davies follows the twists and turns of the story from its origins to today.

The story starts with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which was charged with developing a land-based equivalent to the drone, a vehicle that could operate in war zones without risking human lives. DARPA issued a series of three “Grand Challenges” that attracted visionaries, many of them students and amateurs, who took the technology from Jetsons-style fantasy to near-reality. The young stars of the Challenges soon connected with Silicon Valley giants Google and Uber, intent on delivering a new way of driving to the civilian world.

Soon the automakers joined the quest, some on their own, others in partnership with the tech titans. But as road testing progressed, it became clear that the challenges of driving a car without human assistance were more formidable than anticipated.

Davies profiles the industry’s key players from the early enthusiasm of the DARPA days to their growing awareness that while this spin on artificial intelligence isn’t yet ready for rush-hour traffic, driverless cars are poised to remake how the world moves. Driven explores “the epic tale of competition and comradery, long odds and underdogs, all in service of a world-changing moonshot” (Andy Greenberg, author of Sandworm: A New Era of Cyberwar).

©2020 Alexander Davis. All rights reserved. (P)2020 Simon & Schuster, Inc. All rights reserved.

Audio is fine

I am only a little way into the book, but so far I live it

Not sure I have ever reviewed anything here before, and only here now because the one and only review said there was something wrong with the audio

While the narrator is maybe a little hard to understand in a few spots overall it is no problem at all in the audio is fine

Just wanted to make sure anybody looking at this didn't get turned off by that one and only review

Enjoy!

Origins of some of the biggest names in robotics

A fantastic, superhero origin story of some of the biggest names in robotics: Urmson, Levandowski, Salesky, Thrun, the list goes on.

The story is both fascinating and thrilling, detailing the events of the Darpa Challenges, Academic research, the early years of Google's Autonomy research, and the sudden rise of dozens of startups.

This is a must-read for anyone who works in transportation, robotics, or the automotive industry. It simultaneously captures the excitement of the races, the interpersonal drama between key figure, and some of the technical features that go into an autonomous vehicle.

Fast paced, entertaining, great listen

You might think a book about engineers struggling to build an autonomous vehicle would be dry or only appeal to the gear heads among us. Not so! This is a great read or listen for anybody! The author does a stunning job of bringing the characters to life and as a result Driven is highly entertaining and engaging. It’s quite the epic saga and at times I am on the edge of my seat with the suspense of what will happen to the latest effort. The author’s dry sense of humor woven into the commentary is my favorite part. Highly HIGHLY recommend this book!

Narration, audio quality leaves much to be desired

the content and story is great. however the audio
sounds like water obscures it. would likely greatly improve with quality checks and finishing.
the narrator tries very hard to enunciate in a breathy way that feels forced instead of natural story telling. almost every last word in a sentence ends with a lower voice and breadth.
alexa please help!! or hire me.