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While Uber Technologies Inc. and Carnegie Mellon University announced a partnership to develop autonomous car technology in February, Uber's actions earlier in the year have left Carnegie Mellon's robotics research in jeopardy:
Carnegie Mellon University is scrambling to recover after Uber Technologies Inc. poached at least 40 of its researchers and scientists earlier this year, a raid that has left one of the world's top robotics research institutions in a crisis.
Uber envisions autonomous cars that could someday replace its tens of thousands of contract drivers. With virtually no in-house capability, the San Francisco company went to the one place in the world with enough talent to build a team instantly: Carnegie Mellon's National Robotics Engineering Center.
Flush with cash after raising more than $5 billion from investors, Uber offered some scientists bonuses of hundreds of thousands of dollars and a doubling of salaries to staff the company's new tech center in Pittsburgh, according to one researcher at NREC.
The hiring spree in January and February set off alarm bells. Facing a massive drain of talent and cash, Herman Herman, the newly elevated director of the NREC, made a presentation May 6 to staff to explain the situation and seek ideas on how to stabilize the center, according to documents reviewed by The Wall Street Journal.
The short presentation at the school here laid out the issues. In all, Uber took six principal investigators and 34 engineers. The talent included NREC's director, Tony Stentz, and most of the key program directors. Before Uber's recruiting, NREC had more than 100 engineers and scientists developing technology for companies and the U.S. military.
Original Submission
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Dunbal on Monday June 01 2015, @05:42PM
Yeah I always find it amusing when someone complains that their employees are being "poached". How about maybe pay your staff a little better, give them projects they believe in, support, them, etc, and then they won't LET themselves be poached. No but what the capitalist (read "parasite") would rather have is some government enforced contract making sure his slav er employee stays working where he is for the shitty wage he is getting.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2015, @07:00PM
> the capitalist (read "parasite") would rather have is some government enforced contract
I think you're confusing the capitalists with someone else. The capitalists would tell the individual to go get the best deal they could for themselves, just as happened here.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Monday June 01 2015, @07:41PM
No, he's referring to the Marxist concept of the "capitalist class", i.e. those whose incomes primarily come from the ownership of capital, and paying employees to make money from that capital.
The real world is way more complicated than that(In this case a university is a tool for the advancement of society, not profit, for example), but they weren't referring to those who value the philosophy of capitalism. Overloaded language is always fun.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2015, @08:12PM
Yeah, well those must be theoretical capitalists. All the real world capitalists I know are free-markets (including labor) people.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Monday June 01 2015, @08:35PM
Okay, you're not getting this, and that's okay.
In usage A(the GGGP's) the word capitalist refers not to someone who holds a set of beliefs, but instead, a particular social class delineated mostly by material wealth. I was not accusing these people of being marxist, but instead being an idea that is written about in Marx's work.
In usage B(yours) the world capitalist refers to someone who values the ideals of capitalism.
I'm not sure how you'd know if you'd "met" the former group, because they aren't people rapidly pushing an ideology, but an identity group used to interpret and understand society under one long-dead academic's system.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2015, @08:51PM
Maybe I'm an idiot, or maybe it's Marx, but only one of us is creating an imaginary group of theoretical people who want to crush the little people at the expense of all other values.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2015, @02:12AM
Maybe I'm an idiot,
No need to be all hypothetical about it!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2015, @03:19AM
Look, they call it Marxist Theory for a reason, because it's just that, a theory. Nobody has proved anything Marx said, otherwise it would be a law. So as far as I'm concerned, the guy just made the whole thing up.
(Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday June 02 2015, @01:27PM
Never meant to imply otherwise, but his terminology did make it into the standard nomenclature.
(Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday June 02 2015, @01:31AM
All the real world capitalists I know are free-markets (including labor) people.
That's interesting, the capitalists I know about all spout free-market bs, but deep inside they all want to be monopolists.
In other words, competition gets in the way of making the really big money and/or having complete power/control...
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday June 01 2015, @07:47PM
No, the capitalist would coerce the individual to work for the capitalist at the cheapest possible wage. Then when hired, the capitalist would haggle with the individual to lower that even further threatening to outsource the job if the individual doesn't take the pay cut.
(Score: 3, Insightful) by GungnirSniper on Monday June 01 2015, @07:40PM
May Ayn Rand bless you!
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