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Self driving or driverless? I don't see any significant savings for self-driving cars, you still need to pay the person and you have the significant added expe

by qyv 10y ago

Self driving or driverless? I don't see any significant savings for self-driving cars, you still need to pay the person and you have the significant added expense of fleet maintenance. Not to mention liability concerns, unless they plan in passing that off onto the 'drivers'. Driverless cars on the other had and still decades away, whether the tech is ready or not. Society is not yet at a place that will allow the use of full driverless vehicles on public roads. It doesnt matter how much statistically better a driverless car is than a human, every single accident will be magnified. Driverless cars could be our first foray into truly autonomous robotics within the general public, it is not something that will occur lightly.

Fricken 10y ago
For established tech and car companies, both Uber and Florida have basically no rules about testing and implementation of autonomous vehicles. Essentially the only rule is 'don't make us look bad, guys'. Google is a league ahead of the competition with their Autonomous OS, and they're getting close to implementing robotaxis commercially in limited capacities. However, Chris Urmson, ex CTO of the self driving project doesn't think they'll be able to go everywhere a human can for ~30 years. Uber's autonomous program is looking pretty sketchy at the moment, but now that they have Anthony Levandowski to play Darth Vader to Kalanick's Emperor Palpatine, the project is in capable hands. Uber's robotaxis need only augment their human network of drivers through the mid-term, and as the capabilities of their Autonomous OS improves they take over more responsibility. Still, this is capital intensive and it'll be still be many years before autonomous vehicles have any measurable effect on Uber's bottom line, and even then, Uber will still be facing competition from other companies with robotaxi networks in development, including but not limited to GM/Lyft/Cruise, The Tesla Network, Waymo, Zoox, and any Automaker willing to license from the Mobileye/Delphi/Intel partnership. Uber is currently playing hardball with the California DMV, in some sort of attempt at asserting their dominance over the law. I'm not sure if they've got some kind of legit strategy here or not, because I'm skeptical they'll have as much luck leveraging popular public support against regulators in the Autonomous Vehicle space with as they've had in the taxi industry. It's also an inevitability that Uber's labour will organize for better bargaining power. Legislators seem to side with drivers as 'employees' rather than 'contractors' in the few regional cases that have made it through the courts. Nonetheless, these incomplete financial reports that have been leaking out make it easy to spin a negative narrative about Uber's future prospects. That narrative may be on the mark, but we can't know for sure.

by qyv 10y ago

Fricken 10y ago

For established tech and car companies, both Uber and Florida have basically no rules about testing and implementation of autonomous vehicles. Essentially the only rule is 'don't make us look bad, guys'. Google is a league ahead of the competition with their Autonomous OS, and they're getting close to implementing robotaxis commercially in limited capacities. However, Chris Urmson, ex CTO of the self driving project doesn't think they'll be able to go everywhere a human can for ~30 years. Uber's autonomous program is looking pretty sketchy at the moment, but now that they have Anthony Levandowski to play Darth Vader to Kalanick's Emperor Palpatine, the project is in capable hands. Uber's robotaxis need only augment their human network of drivers through the mid-term, and as the capabilities of their Autonomous OS improves they take over more responsibility. Still, this is capital intensive and it'll be still be many years before autonomous vehicles have any measurable effect on Uber's bottom line, and even then, Uber will still be facing competition from other companies with robotaxi networks in development, including but not limited to GM/Lyft/Cruise, The Tesla Network, Waymo, Zoox, and any Automaker willing to license from the Mobileye/Delphi/Intel partnership. Uber is currently playing hardball with the California DMV, in some sort of attempt at asserting their dominance over the law. I'm not sure if they've got some kind of legit strategy here or not, because I'm skeptical they'll have as much luck leveraging popular public support against regulators in the Autonomous Vehicle space with as they've had in the taxi industry. It's also an inevitability that Uber's labour will organize for better bargaining power. Legislators seem to side with drivers as 'employees' rather than 'contractors' in the few regional cases that have made it through the courts. Nonetheless, these incomplete financial reports that have been leaking out make it easy to spin a negative narrative about Uber's future prospects. That narrative may be on the mark, but we can't know for sure.