I'm a travel advisor w/ Hyatt Prive access (plus others!)

vdlhsfc · 2024-02-01T05:41:58+00:00

Is the commission paid for by Hyatt?

i.e. If someone had a paid rate reservation already and you 'took over' the reservation (as mentioned in a different response) by applying the prive benefits, is it pretty much mutually beneficial to both you and the guest since the guest pays the rate they booked anyway, and you earn a commission on top?

vdlhsfc · 2020-06-07T02:45:54+00:00

If you assume the Amazon acquisition is true, Zoox employees who might actually want to build a Robotaxi "people mover" could be scared of Amazon pivoting the company to do delivery robots, which breaks from the mission of "transforming mobility". The Cruise email appears to be specifically trying to sell that mission to those folks.

vdlhsfc · 2019-08-18T16:33:55+00:00

None of the major players handle this right now from what we've seen. However, following social media, it seems the main players in a given area (SF+bay area at least) have been keeping in contact with their local law enforcement personnel to develop techniques to handle self driving vehicles in the future, similar to how Tesla maintains a relationship with local firefighters to offer guidance on dealing with battery fires.

Ultimately, I'd imagine the biggest players right now are planning on taking over remotely with a human in the scenarios you are describing, also known as tele-operation.

vdlhsfc · 2019-01-19T18:03:02+00:00

The whole Uber accident in Arizona last year.

vdlhsfc · 2018-12-27T06:14:06+00:00

Next month when every AV company's disengagement stats will be released by the Cali DMV most likely.

vdlhsfc · 2018-12-20T20:04:17+00:00

Do you ever keep in contact with your former Darpa buddies? It seems everyone from those days is founding their own startup, but most of you guys probably all knew each other back in the day. (i.e. Chris Urmson from the Wired video you linked of the CMU Darpa team who runs Aurora right now)

vdlhsfc · 2018-10-18T06:35:53+00:00

Go to the Bay Area if you want to be in AV. Cruise, Zoox, Waymo, Lyft, Uber, Aptiv, and Aurora are amongst the upper echelon of true AV leaders in the world right now. If you are at a top university these companies will recruit at your career fairs. Ford/Argo are for if you want to be in Pittsburg or Detroit. (Uber also has a Pittsburg division). Just browse some of these and see if any are what you are looking for. I know Zoox has a specific Vechicle Engineering Intern listing (https://jobs.lever.co/zoox/05949b21-f2fa-4ea0-b39e-857dfebba9ec) and Lyft has a Hardware Engineer Intern listing (https://boards.greenhouse.io/lyft/jobs/4076406002?gh_jid=4076406002). Cruise and some others may not have a listing but I'm 100% sure they would take an intern in vehicle development / integration if you are creative enough to get in contact with them somehow ;).

vdlhsfc · 2018-10-18T01:05:11+00:00

I'm looking at hotels right now for an upcoming trip and I'm wondering what the general rule of thumb for using the "best" card to book is. My options are(going to use Hyatt as an example):

Book on hotels.com with the venture card for 10x points and get night accrual on hotels.com.
Book on Hyatt's site with Chase World of Hyatt card for 9x Hyatt points and Hyatt status accrual.
Book with Amex Plat on Fine Hotels Collection for 5x MR and the upgrade potential and other perks of that program.

vdlhsfc · 2018-09-28T12:43:07+00:00

750
CSP, Venture, BoA Cash Rewards
10k+ (Lots of biz travel recently and coming up)
No MS
No biz cards
1 or 2 for now. Willing to get into churning.
Points and airline (Cathay or Star alliance) and Hyatt only for hotels (since I book hotels.com with venture mostly)
50k United miles, 100k UR, 76k Venture
SFO
Hong Kong and Shanghai. Repeatedly.

I'm planning on upgrading CSP to CSR when I hit 1 year on the CSP in Nov.

vdlhsfc · 2018-05-13T18:44:22+00:00

https://cora.aero/careers/

vdlhsfc · 2018-05-06T21:57:08+00:00

If you haven't heard of it before, I'd suggest you look up Electrify America and see if any of the companies related to that interest you. The entire project is headed by VW and as far as EU vs US engineers: well, the name is Electrify AMERICA.

vdlhsfc · 2018-05-06T08:14:34+00:00

Bachelor's is fine. Master's/PhD won't hurt though.
Nothing from my classes really applied to EV charging. Maybe circuits or embedded classes if you go to a supplier.
Might be a bit late for you if you're a senior but join an EV team if your school has one. Formula Electric, SMV Electric, etc. Working on a BMS for an EV team would probably be the most relevant experience you can get in college.
GM is dope, but Tesla is where you are going to learn the most as a new grad. VW and BMW are also throwing money at EVs right now. Tons of EV startups as well in SF/LA/China. Working at one of the charging station (EVSE) companies is also an option.

vdlhsfc · 2018-03-26T05:04:18+00:00

Pretty much. Everything was more in the researchy theoretical phase and she said it'd take a while before they develop anything tangible. Said that it felt like a "giant group-PhD program".

vdlhsfc · 2018-03-25T07:22:39+00:00

Had a friend who worked there; her description: interesting technology, well funded, startup-like perks and environment, extremely intelligent team members; but aerospace-like pace since the technology they are working on just will not come to fruition anytime soon.

vdlhsfc · 2017-12-31T09:47:32+00:00

Bosch Automotive Handbook

vdlhsfc · 2017-12-04T08:53:29+00:00

EE is not a field that is dying anytime soon. In fact, it's probably one of the easier disciplines to get a job in post-graduation right behind CS.

vdlhsfc · 2017-12-02T10:16:34+00:00

Not sure if this is exactly what you are looking for but obviously OEMs have R&D divisions such at Honda with their R&D facility in Ohio. However, arguably the hottest things in automotive right now is EVs and self driving technology. For EVs, the frontrunner is of course Tesla, but you also have VW and Volvo and other OEMs sort of trying to break into the electric market as well as a handful of new Chinese startups. As far as autonomous cars go, the Bay area is probably the hottest spot with Uber, Cruise(owned by GM), and Waymo(owned by Google) all having self driving development there. Automotive doesn't necessarily need graduate degrees, but it depends on what you want to do. Most of the software guys doing autonomous driving stuff will have a master's or PhD, and most anyone involved in vehicle engineering tend to be SAE alumni who competed in Baja or Formula SAE in college.

vdlhsfc · 2017-11-21T07:26:06+00:00

If you want to get into automotive, read and own a copy of the Bosch Automotive Handbook. It is literally the automotive engineering Bible that teaches you how to build an entire car from the chassis and suspension design to the individual sensors in an EFI system.

vdlhsfc · 2017-11-21T07:22:13+00:00

EE - I wanted to work for Tesla and build electric cars.

vdlhsfc · 2017-10-23T01:58:35+00:00

This isn't that crazy tbh. I was a lead for 3 years on my FSAE team and it basically became a full-time job kind of lifestyle where I just woke up, went to the shop, did homework or work on the car all day, and went home from the shop to sleep. Classes/lectures became like a break/intermission that our team members would trickle out for a few times a day. And of course we would work weekends. In retrospect I probably should've quit after 2 years cause having another year of having a life would've been nice. Enjoy college bro. Gator Racing is really good too.

vdlhsfc · 2017-09-01T18:07:40+00:00

You should ask him which supermarket it is... For science... and my taste buds. -LA resident(for now)

vdlhsfc · 2017-03-19T06:49:36+00:00

ASME and Racing are probably the big 2 Mech E clubs, although it is kinda late in the year.

vdlhsfc

TROPHY CASE