I found this burgundy Lincoln MKZ all lidared out at the NIO HQ in Silicon Valley. I didn’t see any Lincolns on NIO’s website, maybe they were just visiting?
What do you think?
Nio Autonomous Lincoln MkZ?
Guess Where Silicon Valley – May
Silicon Valley Stock Photos- Local Tourism
Aside from chasing autonomous cars, I covered a little other Silicon Valley local tourism.
Plaza de Cesar Chavez in downtown San Jose was nice and tidy. And with those colorful chairs out I thought it a good opportunity to shoot some stock.
And I wandered over to the San Jose Museum of Art too.
And took a look at what changes have come to the Googleplex. Guess the latest android operating system is “Oreo”.
Then I headed to the “Android Graveyard” (I think Google calls it the Android Sculpture Garden, but whatever….)
And I had a handy Google Now reminder I setup to pull out my Android toys whenever I’m at the Googleplex. And it worked! I broke out my Android toy and set him next to his larger brother (or sister? our Green Robot is quite androgynous.)
I almost forgot- I also visited Shoreline Park in Mountain View. There’s also the Rengsdorf House from back in the day when Mountain View was rural.
Setting my sites on home, I thought it might be a good time to revisit Youtube HQ in San Bruno.
There was a lot of security out front. There had been a shooting at the site a few weeks earlier. One of the security guards was a total d!ck telling me I couldn’t photograph from the sidewalk, then giving me sh!t when I told him I could. Another lady followed me and aggressively asked why I was photographing the building. Argh!
A Few More Self Driving Vehicle Pics
To keep current, I made a loop around a few self driving car projects. First two stops were a cluster of companies in Santa Clara: SF Motors and Voyage.
Regrettably, not much to see there. Nothing I could see in the parking lots, no interesting traffic in or out of their office parks or buildings. But for the stock photo library I made a couple of photos anyhow.
So I went to a surefire location where I’d see more Lidars than anywhere else in Silicon Valley- the Google X building in Mountain View. Maybe they’d be testing something new there.
Turns out Waymo was. At first it didn’t even register. At the stop sign in front of me I saw a blue big rig. I was in fact just standing there with my Sony A6500 slung over my shoulder ready to capture any self driving car to come my way. But this wasn’t a car, it was a semi-truck. And in looking up I saw it had a Lidar assembly on top. I got fewer photos than I should have. But I got a few. In researching I found out that Google is putting together a few Peterbilt autonomous trucks. Guess they’re trying to compete with OTTO/Uber freight?
And another unlikely autonomous vehicle poked its head out unexpectedly in front of me. I barely caught it, but while scanning the road for Lidar, a Toyota Research Lexus drove right past Google X’s building.
One new thing that caught my eye was the flags atop the new stop signs. I’m guessing that Waymo’s autonomous vehicles have trouble seeing such signs occasionally. Presumably they figure that out over time. Previously I noticed that there’s a cone permanently placed on an odd stretch of curb near Google X that I assumed was for the same reason.
Well that’s my report from another day in Silicon Valley.
Waymo Self Driving Truck
I was lucky enough to have stumbled upon what appears to be a Waymo autonomous big rig test. There was lidar atop a blue Peterbilt semi and I barely noticed it in time to snap a few shots.
Remember as always all images and text are copyright, ask to use them.
Guess Where Silicon Valley – April
??? Where is this ???
Bi-Polar Santa Clara
At least I had one pole- this is a somewhat unique view of Santa Clara’s Civic Center Park and Fountain. With the drought over, there’s water in the fountain unlike last time I came here. While I came here with a pole (mono-polar?) There was a guy in the corner of the park shouting insults at me as I photographed. I was a bit worried but he never came too close. Eventually another vagrant came buy and the had a shouting match beneath the gaze of Saint Claire and my new Sony A6500.
Guess Where Silicon Valley – March
Winter break for Guess Where Silicon Valley has ended. Here’s March’s entry- can you guess where/what this photo is of?
It’s historic, it’s multikulti, it’s in San Jose…..
The first correct answer will receive a all expenses paid trip to nowhere and my eternal gratitude.
Roadstar.ai Autonomous Vehicle Sighting
As I was driving around the Streets of Silicon Valley- I stumbled upon yet another in the many contenders for self driving cars. This is a Chinese company with a presence in Cupertino called Roadstar.ai.
Yahoo!, Youtube, Cruise Automation and the Golden Gate Bridge
Finally! I had a day to run around and shoot some stock.
I chose to head down to Sunnyvale to visit the Yahoo HQ. Not that too much has changed, but I wanted an excuse to visit Weird Stuff Warehouse. Plus I wanted to do a little recon to see if there was any activity over at the Baidu and Renault/Nissan research centers. The only real difference notable at the Yahoo building was the flag up with “Oath, a Verizon Company” on it. BTW, weird name for a company…but whatever.
Now, on to San Bruno to YouTube HQ…. once again this was on my list to flesh out my stock photo archive of tech companies. Note to self, return in the morning when the light on the front will be better.
Next stop was Cruise Automation in San Francisco. They’re GM’s self driving car research center. It’s funny- they try to make this a secret- the building is still labelled “Borden Decal Co.” But it’s hard to miss the Chevy Bolt EVs coming and going every few minutes with the funky Lidar antennae.
And once I got more boring autonomous car testing pics, I headed to Crissy Field hoping to get some nice Golden Gate Bridge photos. I’ve posted a few here, but I did also shoot some medium format film too. Those won’t be ready for a while if they do turn out well.
