Autonomous Vehicles: The Rubber Hits the Road...but When?

William  Kerr; Allison  Ciechanover; Jeff  Huizinga; James  Palano

Case | HBS Case Collection | January 2018 (Revised March 2019)

Autonomous Vehicles: The Rubber Hits the Road...but When?

by William Kerr, Allison Ciechanover, Jeff Huizinga and James Palano

Abstract

The rise of autonomous vehicles has enormous implications for business and society. Despite the many headlines and significant investment in the technology by early 2019, it was still unclear when truly autonomous vehicles would be a commercial reality. Students will learn about the complex industry, explore the factors influencing development and commercialization, and think about the views and responses of a range of affected stakeholders. They will also be put in the shoes of decision-makers looking for signals to predict future adoption and working to prepare for the disruptive change ahead.

Keywords: technology management; artificial intelligence; general management; robotics; Technological Innovation; Transportation; Disruption; Technology; Decision Making; Auto Industry; Technology Industry;

Language: English

Format: Print

34 pages

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Citation:

Kerr, William, Allison Ciechanover, Jeff Huizinga, and James Palano. "Autonomous Vehicles: The Rubber Hits the Road...but When?" Harvard Business School Case 818-088, January 2018. (Revised March 2019.)

Case | HBS Case Collection | September 2019 (Revised December 2019)

Google: To TVC or Not to TVC?

William R. Kerr and Carl Kreitzberg

In late 2018, evidence emerged that many of Google’s temporary help agency workers, vendors, and independent contractors (“TVCs”) were unhappy with the company. TVCs, who reportedly made up 49.95% of Google’s 170,000 person global workforce, had raised concerns of mistreatment, citing instances of pay inequity, social exclusion, and physical endangerment. “Flexible” workers, such as TVCs, were often seen as a key cog for Silicon Valley’s IT companies: they made workforces scalable, they helped firms get access to specialized knowledge for temporary projects, and they boosted innovation by creating “knowledge spillovers” between firms. But, at the same time, many onlookers worried that flexible work arrangements were aggravating social inequality and making more jobs precarious. Google employees, major media outlets, and politicians demanded that the company change its policies on TVCs. One suggestion was that Google convert all of its TVCs to full-time status by early 2020. As tensions reportedly escalated between Google’s workforce and its management team, some began to wonder if Google was still an employer of choice.

Keywords: workforce; independent contractors; talent management; Silicon Valley; google; employee attitude; Employee compensation; employee engagement; future of work; innovation; innovation and strategy; inequality; talent acquisition; Labor; Talent and Talent Management; Strategy; Technological Innovation; Employees; Attitudes; Innovation and Management; Human Resources; Equality and Inequality; Information Technology Industry; United States; San Francisco;

Citation:

Kerr, William R., and Carl Kreitzberg. "Google: To TVC or Not to TVC?" Harvard Business School Case 820-048, September 2019. (Revised December 2019.) View Details

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This primer is meant to be a field guide to the late 2010s' surge in business use of "Artificial Intelligence" (AI), or enterprise software based in machine learning. First, it provides an overview of the key trends - digitization, connectivity, the continuation of Moore's law, and advancements in machine learning algorithms - which led to the inflection point in adoption of AI. Then, the primer describes the range of use cases of state-of-the-art enterprise AI organized in a taxonomy designed to build generalized understanding of the types of work to which AI can be applied. This knowledge is useful not only to managers looking to best leverage the technology but to those working to manage resulting organizational change and prepare the workforce for transitions into complementary tasks. Finally, key issues and implications of AI adoption are also discussed.

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Autonomous Vehicles: The Rubber Hits the Road...but When?

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Autonomous Vehicles: The Rubber Hits the Road...but When?

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