Is this a joke?

Yes. This whole site is a massive piss-take. Making things look as convincing as possible is part of that joke. The folks on /r/selfdrivingcars wouldn’t know any better.

FAQs

Do you hate self-driving cars?

No, of course not. I’ve made a bountiful career making things drive themselves. I just think this industry is really, really fun to make fun of.

Does anybody mistake this for a serious company?

Yes, all the time, which I think says more about the AV industry itself than it does about Parodyne. I occasionally get serious inquiries on LinkedIn from people in decision-making roles at prominent robotics companies. Parodyne has also come up in job interviews and at conferences, for better or for worse.

What inspired you to make Parodyne?

I derive most of my inspiration from good old fashioned cynicism as a coping mechanism for scars accumulated since the early days of my career in self-driving. It is also a sort of “forever” project that can never truly be finished, which I quite enjoy.

To name a few specific sources of inspiration: This Is Spinal Tap, Silicon Valley, How to Sharpen Pencils by David Reese, Aperture Laboratories, The Onion, and the @thelastblockbuster Twitter account.

Has Parodyne ever made any actual products?

Yes, actually. Around a dozen Parodyne replica Lidar sensors exist.

Isn’t this going to get you in trouble?

No. Here are a few reasons why:

  1. Copyright law doesn’t protect brands in cases where the thing is clearly a parody of the original thing, which counts as fair use. Parody is in our blood, and it is also in our name.

  2. We have gone to great lengths to make it abundantly clear that this entire site is a joke, perhaps even at the risk of appearing unprofessional.

  3. Despite there apparently being loads of money in making self-driving cars that don’t work, there is hardly any money in making sensors that don’t work. Our investors aren’t pleased with this, but we did warn them. They also invested in WeWork.

What’s next?

Self-driving armada. World domination. Bankruptcy.

For real: Probably a sweet merch shop.