Sebastian Thrun is a big, deep—and above all else—human-focused thinker. This might sound strange given his contributions to the world in the fields of computer science, artificial intelligence, robotics, machine learning, self-driving cars, and autonomous air taxis, but from his earliest education, humanity has always been on his mind.
If I look at the sweet spot for my company Udacity, which trains people in tech skills, there are at least three dimensions in which current universities are insufficient. The first is longevity. People my age just don't get back to college. Most people in college are very young people. But it's become clear that given the fast pace of technology, and how it improves over time, that a single education doesn't give you the skills for a lifetime.
Regarding the Kittyhawk startup that you formerly were the CEO of before it ceased operations, will we see mass market self-driving cars before or after the first commercial autonomous air taxi? These are all good questions, and I think that's something that society has to evolve around. What I can do is get you a mode of transportation that, at the present point, just using data, we've proven is about three times more energy efficient than the best electric car that can go up to 180 miles per hour—roughly ten times as fast as Bay Area traffic. What we hope, and haven't proven yet, is that we're going to be ten times as safe as cars.