612 - What a Waymo Ride Taught Us About Innovation

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Speaker F: mobile.com welcome to the how of Business with your host Henry Lopez, the podcast that helps you start, run and grow your small business. And now here is your host.

Speaker B: Welcome to this episode of the how of Business. This is Henry Lopez and my good friend and once co host. Now special guest host David Begin is back on the show.

Speaker A: Hello Henry, how are you? It's always good to be here. It's always a pleasure to be on this podcast.

Speaker B: Thank you. And we have an interesting topic to chat about. We happen to have spent some time together recently a few weeks ago in Miami, Florida and uh, we experienced for the first time a driverless vehicle, a shared drive driverless vehicle, Waymo to be precise. I didn't even really know that they were in such abundance down in South Florida. The downtown Miami area. We, we took the bright line talking. We were using all kinds of uh, technology. We took the bright line, which is Florida's or the is an interpretation of a high speed line down to downtown Miami from West Palm. And then from there we took a regular Uber over to the Wynwood Walls area which is uh, a very interesting area where a lot of graffiti art and outdoor art, uh, has emerged over the last 10, 15 years. And now it's grown phenomenally and over the coming over there, I saw them and said oh my gosh, we got to try that. And David was like a little apprehensive I think.

Speaker A: Little bit.

Speaker B: I, I know you would have gotten it and you did, would have got in it. But we were apprehensive. I wasn't, I was excited. But when we were done over at Wynwood Walls and we took what was the equivalent of a uh, 15 minute cab ride in a Waymo. All surface streets, but pretty complex web of surface streets, busy streets, back to close to downtown. And so that was our first Waymo experience.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, it was really something. I, I have to admit I, I get a little skeptical about self driving cars because I know there's a still have to be figured out with self driving cars being um, part of the International Car Wash Association. We had a consultant who was an automotive consultant that I spent a lot of time with and actually did a podcast on my podcast show the how of car washing. You know, he told us all the issues with self driving vehicles and, and he was probably talking more in a broader sense like will we as, as individuals be in completely self driving vehicles? You know and that was five, seven years ago or even longer. But the technology has really come a long way. But yeah, so I was a little apprehensive.

Speaker B: Uh, and here we are. I felt like I was uh, partaking in history. Right. The first time I sat up front in the, in the uh, passenger seat and nobody in the driver's seat. And then uh, Pam and Brenda and uh, David sat in the back. I was a very comfortable brand new leather interior Jaguar suv. And in fact as we got started in our journey, it paused and somebody, a live person came off the speaker and said somebody doesn't have a seatbelt on. Sure enough it was my wife who had just forgotten to put on her seatbelt. And so it insisted that she put on her seatbelt and made sure everybody was safe. And then it progressed on down the road at a, at a, uh. One of the things that surprised us immediately was it wasn't going two miles an hour. It was, you know, he wasn't speeding but he was zipping along.

Speaker A: Yeah, I would say it had a little bit more of an aggressive driving style which I think a self driving vehicle probably needs to have in order to assert itself into traffic. I think some people just don't respect the waymos, which was interesting and we, we experienced that during the ride. I'll let you tell that story, but I think you've got to be, you Know, it felt pretty um, it felt aggressive I guess for, for a car that had no driver, which I think in hindsight was good.

Speaker B: Yeah, it says an interesting psychology there. Now when we say aggressive it's not like we thought they was driving like a bad taxi driver out of hell and in New York City, but just, I don't know, it wasn't what we were expecting. We were expecting it to be much more passive. It wasn't dangerously aggressive in any way, but it was zipping along, it was moving when it had to move. It wasn't uh, hesitant really.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Now one of the things is very cool is it shows a screen at the front and a screen in the back for the backdrop for the back riders and it has, it shows you where it has pinpointed everything and everybody. People walking on the sidewalks, cars coming a block away, cars intersecting. I mean it has, has it all laid out. So it has identified everything and everybody.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. And I think that technology has really come a long way. And the good thing about technology is it gets better and better as it drives more miles. It learns. And the use of AI, I think self driving cars, whether it's Tesla or it's Waymo or other cars that are, that are doing self driving are getting much better because they're learning from their experience and that's a good use, good application of AI to make things better. So you, you sort of crowd share all the knowledge with all the waymos m driving out there, all the Teslas. That's why Tesla has gotten really good at self driving vehicles. I'll talk about an experience I had in one uh, a couple months ago. But you know they're, they're getting better and better because they're self learning. Yeah.

Speaker B: So let's talk about the Tesla because you had a Tesla years ago and it had semi automated features even back then.

Speaker A: I did, yeah. I had one back in 2000, I'm going to say 18. I bought a, ah, Tesla Model S and I was driving that for a while and just having the car being able to go down the highway and steer itself was, it was a big, big deal. But there was always this promise of self driving vehicles and for um, the low price of 5, $10,000 and low price of $5,000 and low price of $3,000 you can buy it. And it wasn't ready and I wasn't quite ready to buy it but I.

Speaker B: Those were upgrades that were supposedly available.

Speaker A: That's right, that's right. But they weren't really, it wasn't prime time yet. But a couple months ago we, we went to a restaurant with a friend about 20 miles up the road and he pulled into the driveway with his Tesla Model 33 I think and literally didn't touch the steering wheel for 20 miles. Drove interstate highways, got off, stopped at a stoplight and the car was literally able to pull into the restaurant parking ah lot. Now it couldn't find a parking space so he had to take over at that point. Sometimes they can find parking spaces, sometimes they can't. But I was so impressed with how well that trip went and that was my big, you know, light bulb moment. That yes, I think self driving vehicles are becoming more prime time. They call that person in the driver's seat at Tesla the supervisor. So they said they're not the driver, but they're the supervisor. So the technology for Tesla is still needs a supervisor in that seat. Where Waymo, uh, has gotten to the point where there was nobody in the driver's seat and I don't even know. Could, could you sit in the driver's seat in a Waymo?

Speaker B: Well, it looked like you could move the seat back and get in there. Yeah, I didn't, I didn't, I didn't really. I was so kind of shocked by it. I don't think there was anything particularly modified that would, kept me from moving the seat and sitting there right now. I probably would have done something but yeah, it didn't look like it looked like a regular spot. Right. And like nothing had been done to it otherwise.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah. So the interesting thing about the Tesla is it looks like a normal car if you look at a Waymo. Right. It's got a lot of the lidar technology cameras around it. So it does look very, very different and it relies on a lot of extra technology to make that work. From a driverless perspective, that's, that's the difference. I uh, don't know what one of those vehicles cost. I'm sure they're astronomically expensive with all the technology that's on them in, uh, order to make this happen. Where Tesla is more looks like a car uses cameras. You know, it's a little bit more embedded in the vehicle.

Speaker C: Exactly.

Speaker B: It looks like a regular vehicle.

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Speaker B: You, uh, had pulled up some stats on the. On the way.

Speaker A: Yeah. So I think in 2024 they were doing 50,000 paid rides per week. Uh, Waymo was. And in 2026 now they're doing 500,000 paid rides per week. So it was a 10 times increase in two years. They're talking about 20 plus million total trips that are made each year. Now they're primarily based in the Sun Belt, so they're, they're everything like, uh, Austin, Atlanta, Miami, Dallas, Houston, uh, San Antonio. Uh, they're trying to get to some other cities. So they're coming in Denver I think here pretty quick. So they're targeting Denver, Las Vegas, Nashville, San Diego. They are trying to put it in Detroit, which is interesting because that's a winter location. You wonder if there's an issue with can it deal with weather, can it deal with snow? But I guess they're about to find out. With a Detroit launch, their goal is to try to have a million rides per week by the end of night of, uh, 2026.

Speaker B: I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts now is a diary of a CEO and I can't remember the gentleman's name.

Speaker A: I should have looked it up on

Speaker B: this, but he was Bartlett. See. Yeah, uh, he's the, he's the host, but he had on the guy who runs the, you know, we used to call them skunk labs, but the equivalent of the skunk labs at Google that this project went through. And he was talking about some of the studies that they've done and an interesting study, and I run this by other people now and it's corroborated. And I had no idea. But they asked women, for example, would they feel safer getting in a car, a shared drive car, with a driver, with a person, male or female, for that matter versus would they feel safer getting in a car without a driver? And most of them chose the car without a driver.

Speaker A: Interesting.

Speaker B: I would have never thought about that. But we, you know, especially as men, we don't think about that.

Speaker A: Right, right.

Speaker B: Uh, they also asked moms, would you feel safer putting your kids in a driverless car to take them to school, let's say, or in a car with a person with a driver? And again, most of them chose the driverless car. And it came to think about then how I also put two and two together. I don't have that fear because again, as men, we're not the targets. That we're not. We're not usually the targets. We don't understand that. Uh, we don't understand what it feels like to always be a potential target. But I think about when I get in a shared drive car, the thing is, it's not my car, it's that guy or that gal's car that I'm in their space. But when you get. And as we did in this waymo, it's our space. And there's a very interesting psychological thing there that I think is going to be advantageous.

Speaker A: Yeah, Uh, I would never have thought

Speaker B: that, but I would never have thought about that either.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: But when you stop and think about when people say. Because this is where the areas where I think it's going to be so advantageous for our society, as elderly people, as I'm fast becoming, and as we lose our physical abilities to drive, but don't lose our desperate desire for autonomy, that having somebody drive us is not the same thing as going in my vehicle. And if, uh, I can go in my vehicle, but it's being safely driven by the technology. Boy, I get it now. I'm starting to get why that can be so powerful.

Speaker A: Yeah, that's an interesting point. And as you were saying that I was think you and I grew up in the suburbs, so we're comfortable having our own vehicles. If you think about large cities like New York City, where people don't own vehicles, they seem to be pretty comfortable riding public transportation and using Uber and using Lyft, uh, and the taxi system there in New York, the taxi system seems a little bit more regulated where those people are accountable to a group, where Uber, it's a little bit more wild, Wild west still. Um, they can't vet everybody to the extent that they think they need to or want to.

Speaker B: But I guess we, I think we're okay with it because we feel like it's being tracked and so that gives us a feeling of security, I suppose. Right, right.

Speaker A: And I think Uber has come up with, uh, features in their apps to allow yourself to be tracked and if you're not feeling safe, you can push a button. Um, so I think that's, that's addressing a little bit of that, that issue.

Speaker B: Yeah. McKenna M. Does that. My daughter does that when she goes in an Uber. She'll send us the link and so that we can see where she's at. And that makes her feel safer, especially if it's at night or she's by herself. But let's go to the point of the taxis because, you know, this is also the other. The great business lesson here is industries, segments that are ripe for disruption. And what we have seen throughout history is that it, it's a combination of things. I think back to the, uh, the automotive industry. Why, why were the Japanese able to come in and the Korea come in and take over our auto industry? Because we. Because we were making junk, that's why. Because we were making garbage that didn't last long.

Speaker A: Yeah, right.

Speaker B: Um, similarly, having been to New York City before, shared drive before Uber, a taxi experience. While you, while you said it, it was. Nobody was going to hijack you and hold you for ransom, but it was a horrible experience. From the lack of cleanliness to the cabs to the newer cabs, that the partition kept coming back more and more and more. And for a tall guy like me, it was torturous riding in the back of a standard taxi cab. I really felt like I was in the back of a police car. Right. With the plastic, and it was horrible.

Speaker A: Do you think they did that on purpose to kind of put passengers a little bit off guard?

Speaker B: Maybe so. Maybe so. Uh, that's a good point. Or, or I guess, you know, what develops is that callousness of. Imagine if you're a cab driver and you've been doing this for 20 years and you've dealt with everything, so everybody seems like a threat to you. I don't know, but it's a good point. Yeah, maybe that's the case, and maybe this will keep me at bay or controlled, but it's a horrible experience. I remember going with McKenna when she was younger and we had to get off of a car because she got so car sick because of the way they drove. There was no, there was, it was the opposite of what a black car service would be.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: So they got disrupted for all kinds of different reasons, that being one of them. Now, every once in a while, when I Start to take a cab, you would think they got better. No, no, still the same junk service. Still.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Uh, they didn't learn a single thing. Right. And in Miami, I can tell you from m direct experience, it's some of the worst cab drivers. Not all of you. Please don't hunt me down. Some of the worst cab drivers in history.

Speaker A: Interesting.

Speaker B: There's no customer service. The driving is horrendous. It's a terrible experience. Now, not so much for the Ubers. I've had very good Uber drives in the South Florida area. But again, what happened to us then? Getting to the taxi story? We're in this Waymo. We're heading down a street. I don't know. We must have been traveling at about 25, 30 miles an hour. And I was in the front seat, so I saw it completely happening. A taxi, yellow taxi, coming in the opposite direction swerves into our path of travel purposely and swores back our. Our car had to swerve around. It fortunately had the ability to do so. Like there was nobody on the right hand side. But it was an obvious. Call it.

Speaker A: Whatever.

Speaker B: Maybe they were joking around. Maybe they were just trying to send a message. Whatever. The thing is, I'm sure that cab driver got caught on camera because this thing, this Waymo, has 50,000 cameras on it. Right. But, you know, it was an act of what? Of, um, frustration, of anger, of.

Speaker A: Yeah, I think it was just sort of toying with the Waymo. I don't, you know, I don't know why. I'm sure there's a little frustration there because that's the future. This cab driver is thinking about it. It's, you know, these types of vehicles are going to replace cab drivers. So maybe it was a little bit of frustration. Maybe, maybe there was a reason why that person kind of scooted over, but we actually had to go in, into the parking lane and then go around, which was fine, but we felt a little threatened by that cab driver doing that.

Speaker B: Yeah. And it speaks to it. Uh, every time there's been big technological or innovative waves, there's a group that gets displaced. Right. And that's, that's the hard, cold fact of it. And drivers, commercial drivers, be they truck drivers or taxi drivers, they know that they're. They're, they're potentially on the way out. And I get that. I'm not, I'm not saying that's a great thing necessarily, but. But we cannot use that as a reason not to allow technology to come in with all of its other benefits.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I would agree.

Speaker B: This is what you're seeing is you have a group that's going to be displaced. Right.

Speaker A: And that's common. I mean, I think people have been displaced forever. I remember. I think about my. My great grandfather used to live in Palo Alto, California. Can you imagine back at the turn of the other centuries, like 1800s into the 1900s, and he was up. Uh, he made horse halters and made saddles for horses. That's what that was his. You had a business that did that. He made halters for the racehorses there at the Palo Alto racetrack, and he'd make them for other people. Uh, at the time, where horses was predominantly the mode of transportation, and so everybody that was in the horse business back then, I mean, cars displaced them, and everybody was worried. But people find other jobs. I think, um, we talk about that with truck drivers, you know, because we're looking at a lot of autonom truck drivers. That's got to be a miserable job, being a truck driver and not. Not to disparage truck drivers, but it's a tough job. Very difficult. You're away from home all the time, you're dealing with traffic. Um, you're under constant pressure. You know, it would. It would probably be better for. For lots of different reasons if truck driver was an autonomous activity.

Speaker B: It's interesting then, what you and I have talked about with technology and AI in particular. One of the things that I've been hearing very commonly as to why people have an adopted AI, whether it's ChatGPT or Claude or whatever, is that it's not perfect or that it hallucinates or that makes mistakes, or if we come back to the autonomous driver, you know, even my daughter who's, you know, a young person, she's. Well, what if it makes a mistake and it crashes? Yeah, well, you know, that car that you get in with an Uber driver, now, that person can make mistakes, right? In fact, at a much higher rate than the autonomous vehicles, even based on the data that we have. But. But it doesn't matter. It's just like, you know, the safest mode of transportation, flying on an airplane. But when one airplane crashes it, everybody around the world hears about it, right? So it's. It's one of those ways that we as humans react to those types of things.

Speaker A: Right?

Speaker B: But did you know that there was a time when people, once elevators started not needing operators, that people refused to get on elevators without operators because they were afraid of them?

Speaker A: Really?

Speaker B: And so you can imagine a city like New York City that. That was a big thing. That's why they kept them, um, out of anything else. Just for people to feel safe and like there was that level of service. To have an elevator operator.

Speaker A: Yeah, yeah.

Speaker B: But it meant that, oh my God, I'm writing this contraption by myself and nobody driving it. So these things have happened again and again and again. The point is that as business owners, we have to be careful not to use that fear as a reason not to begin to adopt these technologies or what I'm hearing often that really worries me, David. I'll wait till it's perfect or I'll wait till they fix it right, or you're going to get left behind. And guess what? It's never going to be perfect. But you're missing out on the opportunity of leveraging and using it for what it can do for you in the meantime.

Speaker A: I agree. And I think as a business owner, you've got to be able to look at these new technologies and you've got to be able to embrace them as best you can and not think, oh, I'm going to let this one go by. We can't let AI, you know, you can't let AI go by. It's here. It's such a big part of people's work day, uh, what people are doing in business. So you've got to get in there and learn it and embrace this. And as me, as kind of a semi retired person at this point, I almost got to the point, so I'm gonna let AI go. I'm not going to worry about it. You know, as you get older, it gets more difficult, I think sometimes to kind of dive into things.

Speaker B: And that is what happens. Some people, you know, you put your, your foot down and say, I'm not going to do that. Uh, again, we as business owners now, I just don't think we can afford to do that.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: And that question of is this tool perfect? Is the wrong question. The question I think should be, can this tool help me perform better than I do it today or my team better than we do it today? And that's how you have to look at these technologies where there's AI or levels of automation or emerging technology. Of course it doesn't help that. As always, what gets the headlines is the, the bad side of things, the evil side of things, the, the things that it's doing to displace people and uh, all of those things, because those, those things get the headlines. Right? That's what sci fi movies are based on.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: So we got to be careful that we don't fall for too much of that.

Speaker A: Yeah. And I think people will find other jobs. I mean, you know, we're in somewhat of a labor shortage. I think we're going to continue being in a labor shortage. So the ability to move around to other industries, if you're a driver now and you drive professionally, I think there's going to be plenty of other things to do.

Speaker B: Yeah. So here's the thing. The reason people are going to. There's so many reasons that people are going to go to autonomous, uh, vehicles. But the reason that technology is not stoppable, that these advances cannot be stopped. As much as we might want to hold on to a nostalgic path or we want to protect jobs. Right. The technology will win out. You know, I always think of when, uh, I was growing up, the toll booths were about to get automated. Right. And there was a lot of toll booth operators around South Florida. We had a lot of toll roads. And so what happens to the poor toll booth operators? Oh, and for a while, even they, I think they even had a union, if I remember correctly. But guess what? There's no toll booth operators anymore, by and large. Right.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: They got replaced by the technology. You cannot stop progress. And so as business owners, we either jump on so that we benefit from it as well, or we are going to get left behind. Customers care about convenience, speed, reliability, results. That's what they care about.

Speaker A: Right, Right. And I agree with that. I don't think anybody's still running around wringing their hands that there's no toll booth operators on the Miami highways anymore.

Speaker B: Exactly.

Speaker A: They're like, this is so much better. We can keep going at 60 or in the case of most drivers, 95

Speaker B: miles an hour, 89 miles an hour. Slow down, just fly through, through the

Speaker A: toll booth and get, get your license plate picture taken. So it's gotten so much more efficient. The interesting thing is, but then it creates opportunities to backfill. So if you think about the mom and pop stores down on Main street, what's cool now is when you go to a Main street, most some Main Streets is they've been back filled with boutique items that, that are interesting that you can go through a store and find. And you know, I love going through box teak type of stores. And we've done that when we've gone to Florida. There's been some, some cool things that we like to go to and we like to buy. Um, you know, those stories. That's something Walmart can't do or something Walmart won't do. So it's actually a better experience for us to go to a store like that rather than go to a small general store. I mean, how efficient was a general store on Main Street? And that's what Walmart and these other large corporations did, is they can do those things much more efficiently at a much cheaper price. So although it displaced the general store, it didn't displace the boutique store or the specialty store or the specialty clothing store or the fun Florida beach store. You know, those things still exist and they still flourish because now we have an opportunity as an individual is we can start those type of businesses and backfill what Walmart displaced 30 years ago.

Speaker B: Exactly. Now we can look for where the opportunities are there.

Speaker A: Ah, right. But I would also say, I want to talk about. You remember the Jeff Moore's technology adoption life cycle?

Speaker D: Right.

Speaker A: You and I lived and, uh, died by that in our technology days. But I think as a business owner, you need to think of yourself as an early adopter, which means you're on the front end of technology. You're understanding what technology can do. If you're part of the majority or if you're considered a late adopter, it's going to put you at a competitive disadvantage in your business. Now we all have the, you know, the individual business that, you know, the example of the typewriter repairman in Portland, Oregon, for example, I saw this, this uh, show about this guy that still repairs typewriters and he's been doing it forever, right? And you got to come into the store. You, you can call. He doesn't have a website, doesn't have email. And so there's always that unicorn business that doesn't need technology. But those are more the exception rather than the rule. If, if you're not an early adopter, you've got to figure out how to become one because you're putting yourself at a competitive disadvantage. If you remember, people would always make fun of me because it's because when the iPhones were first coming out, I was always get the new iPhone and the kids would get the last year's model iPhone. Um, and they were pretty happy. But they always talked about being in dad's technology wake, you know, because they would get the leftovers. But there were, they were pretty good leftovers. But I always saw the advantage of upgrading, you know, now I'm not doing it as much now because I don't, I don't have a need for it. And you know, the upgrades are incremental. I always wanted to be on the leading of technology. I just, I love technology. I love what it did. I love the improvements. And so as a business owner, you've got to do that as well.

Speaker B: Yeah. I mean you were always, you've always been curious that way, intellectually curious and wanting to see what these, what these gadgets do and how you could use them in real life, I think.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Um, which is tremendous. And I learned a lot from you in that regard and in just, you know, trying it and adopting it and seeing where it goes. Um, so. Yeah, so this story about the driverless Waymo isn't just about a Waymo. It was an incredible experience. I really felt like I was driving a little bit of history for me. I've. I've been talking about driverless vehicles for so long because I see. Not only do I see the commercial obvious applications, so right away there I see that. But then I think of myself as I know that I will be one of those people and hopefully it's there of my age that if I could just get around in my little neighborhood, I don't need to get on the highway. I don't need to go. I don't expect it to take me down to Miami, but to go from my house to the Publix and to the doctor's appointment and back, it's almost there that I can have my autonomy but not be driving when I'm not supposed to be driving.

Speaker A: Right. And I think that's going to be huge. And I think we're better off if we don't drive. I think it'd be safer so much. You know, we wouldn't be. We wouldn't have to deal with some of the traffic issues and bad drivers that we're seeing. Especially in Florida. For some reason I'm shocked every time I go there what people are willing to do as they, as they drive. But it's a very. It's becoming a very dangerous activity. It's feeling more dangerous to me now. That might be because I'm getting older or maybe it is becoming more dangerous. And with Waymo, there was a stat that says they got a over 170, 170 million driverless miles. And with that it produces 92% fewer serious injury crashes than human drivers. So I mean It's. It's like 0.02% serious injury accidents versus 0.22 for human drivers. So it's, it's exponentially safer to uh, now it is very much in a controlled environment, so that it's still in a controlled environment. So there's that point. But the other point also is a lot of people don't report all incidents to the insurance company or whatever. So, um, you know, sometimes they take. So there's, there's, there's those things that aren't being, being reported, but it's like 92% fewer pedestrian injury crashes, 83% fewer cyclist crashes. So it's exponentially better.

Speaker B: Absolutely. It just is. And the experience can be just a better experience overall. But again, as it relates to a small business owner, the reminder is that every generation has faced technologies that feel uncomfortable. Uncomfortable at first, but the speed at which we are experiencing AI generated or backed, uh, technologies, it's unprecedented as well. Unprecedented as how fast these things are emerging.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: I mean, within, within a matter of a year or two, AI has permeated everything. And the, the pace at which the expert say is going to continue, it's, it's crazy. I continue. My best analogy still is I'm, I'm hanging on Tom Cruise side style to the side of the fastest train that Japan has now, and I'm just flailing around along the outside, hanging on for dear life. Right?

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: Uh, and I'm going to fall off here at some point because it's just so much so I'm just trying my best. But the thing is, the real question is whether these technologies are perfect or not. Before I try them. If you wait until they're perfect, you're going to get left off the train. The real question is whether we are willing to objectively compare them to the imperfect systems that, uh, we already accept today.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: And does it make those things better for us, for our employees, for our customers? And that's where we have to continue to apply this technology.

Speaker A: Right. And you have to have that curiousness, as you talked about. You've got to be curious about how this technology can help me. Right. And if you're, you know, think of yourself in that technology adoption lifecycle, you've got to at least be in the early majority or early adopter phase. You don't have to be on the bleeding edge all the time, but you've got to say what emerging technologies can help me serve my customers better, serve my employees better, serve me better. You know, you've got to be curious about what's coming. If not, you're going to lose any competitive advantage that you might have in your business.

Speaker B: Agreed. Excellent. So that's our little story from our little Waymo Ride in Miami and all the, uh, thoughts that it sparked. Yeah, I can't wait to write it again.

Speaker A: So, yeah, I want to do it again for sure.

Speaker B: Absolutely. Well, thanks for taking the time to share thoughts with me and corroborate, uh, on this, um, interesting topic and the topic, the broader topic of adopting technology.

Speaker A: Agreed. Yeah. Don't, don't be afraid of it.

Speaker B: This is Henry Lopez and that's my friend David Begin. Thanks for joining us for this episode of the Howard Business. I release episodes every Monday morning. You can find the show anywhere. You listen to podcasts, including the how of Business YouTube channel and at my website, TheHowOfBusiness.com thanks for listening.

Speaker F: Thank you for listening to the how of Business. For more information about our coaching programs, online courses, show notes, pages, links and other resources, please visit TheHowOfBusiness.com

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