Big Tech’s Auto Dreams Are Stuck in the Slow Lane

Big Tech’s Auto Dreams Are Stuck in the Slow Lane

Tech’s future in cars will likely be more evolutionary than revolutionary

Big tech was going to revolutionize the car market. Then reality happened.

Just a few years ago, Silicon Valley seemed to have Detroit in its sights. Google had self-driving test cars roaming around, while Apple was building its own automated car from scratch.

Chip giant Intel made its second largest acquisition ever with Mobileye for $15.3 billion in early 2017, while rival Nvidia was building powerful chips designed to become the central brains of autonomous vehicles.

And Amazon.com wasn’t even keeping its dreams on the ground. The e-commerce giant was testing air delivery drones in the U.K. by late 2016.

Most of those efforts haven’t died, but the hype has faded considerably.

Apple seemed…