Flock is rolling out a voluntary severance program

Flock is rolling out a voluntary severance program neowin.net

136 points•bundie•10 days ago•103 comments•

#flock #employees #demoralized #quitting #hate #people hate #hate flock #people hate flock

103 comments

Related from a couple days ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49762835

andix10 days ago

My prediction: they are going to change their name and move a lot of their business to multiple subsidiary with different names. Until nobody notices anymore it's all one company formerly known as Flock.

dlcarrier10 days ago

There was a period when automated red-light cameras were really popular with municipalities, followed by significant backlash. Since then, the companies selling them have not recovered financially and the cameras never regained popularity. It could happen with Flock, too.

wildrice10 days ago

I believe much of the backlash was the fact that companies were bribing municipalities and the majority of fines collected just went to the private companies themselves; https://www.cbsnews.com/chicago/news/former-red-light-camera...

nilamo10 days ago

Maybe they'll rename to something which has only ever had negative connotations for decades. Maybe something like Palantir. Or maybe Nazgul, Leviathan, Beelzebub, Cyberdyne, or Moloch?

ButlerianJihad10 days ago

"Moloch" only means "Lord" in its essential consonants. It's the same Semitic triple-root for "Malik" and "Melkite" and "Melchizedek". Cognates: certainly still in widespread use today as forenames and surnames, et. al.

"Leviathan": The full name certainly strikes fear. One of my ancestors brought his family over from Scotland on the Leviathan which was a captured-and-repurposed German passenger vessel. We can imagine: it was ginormous. has an interesting derivation if we take it apart into component parts: they would be recognizable as good guys, or denim jeans I guess. Since Semitic roots standardized on the triple-consonant, we may see ancient tongues incorporated for this one.

"Be-el-ze-bub": "Lord of the Flies", of course; the implication of the English name of the novel about those good children on a desert island, who lived in interesting times. A theophoric name. Shares a root with "Ba'al" of the Tanakh. Glottal stops FTW.

"Nazgûl" -- mainly sounds like "ghoul" to us! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nazg%C3%BBl#Etymological_conno...

Godwin's Law endures

adamnemecek10 days ago

This is not something you can hide like that, people notice cameras being installed.

Retr0id10 days ago

The widespread opposition to flock is unfortunately an aberration. The average person is largely indifferent to mass surveillance, and I think a rebrand has a good chance of working. They'll give it a try either way.

dghlsakjg10 days ago

Axon, formerly known as TASER did a reputational name change. Worth mentioning that they are also a flock competitor, but they are not in the headlines anymore.

mitxela10 days ago

No they don't. That's why nobody noticed the Motorola cameras going up in places where Flock cameras came down.

andix10 days ago

Sure, but they might tell people: no, it's not Flock, it's something much safer, not such a privacy invading AI camera like Flock.

giantrobot10 days ago

They'll change their name to Meta to get away from a scandal. I don't think that's ever happened before.

teeray10 days ago

It’s Comcastic!

dkobia10 days ago

Axon which is already well established is quietly stealing Flocks market share while avoiding all the scrutiny.

SoftTalker10 days ago

Also a lot of traffic lights already have cameras installed for cycle timing, would not be a stretch to imagine that ALPR could be added, and that would not be an outwardly visible change at all.

wilburx310 days ago

Motorola Solutions is right up there with them.

Zigurd9 days ago

What most people think of as Motorola is now owned by a Chinese company, while the US kept the surveillance technologies.

ViktorRay10 days ago

Flock was a startup that was funded by Y Combinator. Paul Graham and the other Y Combinator people provided expertise and advice to them throughout their whole journey.

I wonder what Paul Graham says to the Flock executives now?

cm1110 days ago

In case anyone's wondering (I was). Flock was in the summer 2017 batch and more recently YC invested in their 2025 raise.

kklisura10 days ago

It's not PG, it's Garry Tan.

driverdan10 days ago

And Garry Tan has repeatedly defended Flock and badmouthed people who oppose them.

ViktorRay10 days ago

PG is still involved in Y combinator batches and all that right? He regularly posts about giving advice to founders on his twitter account.

epochbtc10 days ago

Flock somehow stumbled into a business model that both the left and right politically-leaning groups in the US can join together in hating. That's not easy to do!

jgerrish10 days ago

It's going to be difficult saying no in other situations where the surface product of the business isn't hated by left or right groups in the US. I hope people don't need that strength.

Read the full thread on Hacker News →

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