I should clarify that “they” in this context is the consumer, who rejected Google Glass for a multitude of reasons, but embrace this product which is essentially the same thing, except bulkier. I can’t really wrap my head around it.
This is vastly different than Google glass on many fronts.
Just to name the more obvious ones:
Higher quality output
Full visual
Both eyes
Internal face scanning
Eye tracking
An actual app ecosystem
The glass was a dev kit, at best, and funnily enough ran fairly close to the cost of the Vision Pro when you take inflation into consideration. And the reason it failed was more because Google lost interest and killed it, like they do with most of the things they put out.
I’d like to think that with a decade of time spanning between the Google Glass devkit and Apple Vision, had they chosen to continue development, that they could have improved on their initial design with technological advancements in hardware that would absolutely allow them to do a higher quality output in both eyes and incorporate eye tracking.
The main reason why Google abandoned the project (in the public sector, anyway) was the metric fuckton of negative press it was getting, mostly due to neo-luddites obsessing over the fact that it had an outward facing camera as if they weren’t constantly under scrutiny and surveillance by cell phone cameras and CCTV anyway. The media coverage of the product was way outsized compared to the actual number of users. Another reason is people weren’t convinced that this early heads-up device was worth the cost since as you mentioned it was expensive even back then, and most of the comments I saw about it at the time believed that the bespoke glasses they came with were dorky looking, not to mention lenses were not available in prescription strength, so yet another limitation that could have been overcome with a bit of engineering effort.
I don’t disagree that Vision Pro is better, but it looks like a huge step back in terms of style and practicality. Who wants to walk around town with a VR headset strapped to their head? It really does look like the NPCs in Cyberpunk 2077.
Can’t wait to wake up from a deep dream with an epiphany, finally realizing my life’s true path: To use my life savings to buy as much Taco Bell as possible
I’m not talking about your intentions. I’m doubting the authenticity of those clips. The clips look produced to induce rage in people, because rage drives up engagement, and engagement drives up exposure.
Does it matter? Tesla requires you to still keep your hands on the wheel and pay attention, and not everyone will know that they are using autopilot, and considering she’s driving a cybertruck which is bulletproof and durable as shit, imagine what would happen if the autopilot stopped working for some reason and she didn’t know.
The gym one is a pretty solid idea, I dig it. The others feel like they were done for the memes (the gym one probably was too, but definitely the guy crossing the street).
I can imagine having a tutorial on how to hold and move your hands floating in space right next to the grip could be pretty nice for beginners. Or just make the boring exercise more interesting by watching some form of entertainment.
Transit is also fine. They’re not getting in anyone’s way or risking anyone’s harm.
Walking is actually one major use case for the future. Imagine walking somewhere and having turn by turn directions provided for you. The issue with this person is that they stopped in the middle of the road to adjust something on their screen. Also, I don’t think walking directions is even a feature yet.
There’s obviously something already wrong with the Cyber Truck driver. I mean… they bought a Cyber Truck.
I mean, you’re not wrong. When I’m navigating though, I hate having to hold my phone out, while constantly looking down. If I had a less intrusive, but also way less obvious set of glasses, to just point out directions as I look around and see the world around me, I would be happier. Especially when going somewhere new. That said, these goggles aren’t the answer yet.
I think aliens would be horrified by so many things we do (or don't do!) that wearing an entertainment device on your face wouldn't even break the top 100.
ETA: The guy in the cyber truck though. That might get shown as an example in some of the other items in their list.
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