Will It Be Hard Or Easy For Self-Driving Cars To Expand Their Territory?
Submitted by brad on Tue, 2021-03-30 11:17
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Right now Waymo One only serves suburban Phoenix. How hard is it going to be for self-driving companies to expand to new cities, new countries, new conditions and new rules of the road? Some think very hard -- and it's not trivial. But it's likely they can afford it just fine. I explore why is this new article on Forbes.com:
Will It Be Hard Or Easy For Self-Driving Cars To Expand Their Territory?
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FKA
Sat, 2021-04-17 13:23
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Taxi vs. Private Car
I'm actually confused why there's no major player, that I'm aware of, working on a hybrid between the two - the rental car. The size of the rental car market is almost the size of the taxi market, and it has the potential to get much much bigger once the hassle of having to pick up and drop off your rental (or pay someone to do it) is taken away.
Maybe it's just because those who are working on it aren't talking about it.
brad
Mon, 2021-04-19 22:52
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A taxi
An Uber like taxi only has to work in a given service area. Once you can operate unmanned in a service area, you can do a taxi, as Waymo has done. If a person wants to go outside the service area, you send them to something else.
A rental car might have a service area including the downtown and the airport and perhaps a few other popular places for tourists. But as soon as you wanted to leave that area it would need to be a regular car again. Is there a lot of value in that?
I will admit that when in a strange city, having the car do the work could be nice. But not that nice. This is not a path to glory, and Waymo only wants a path to glory, not a lesser business. I know, I was involved in evaluating the strategy.
FKA
Wed, 2021-04-21 20:36
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rental cars
Yeah. Rental car companies make lots of money. Almost as much money as taxi companies, and with less costs.
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