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Autonomous cars will do ride-sharing, years from now when autonomous cars eventually become legal and accepted. And every ride sharing service will buy them, be

Autonomous cars will do ride-sharing, years from now when autonomous cars eventually become legal and accepted. And every ride sharing service will buy them, because every car company will sell them. You don't have to panic, throw huge amounts of stock at a shifty development team, while ignoring due diligence (or do an incompetent job at it) all to do your own.

Animats 9y ago
Autonomous cars will do ride-sharing, years from now when autonomous cars eventually become legal and accepted. And every ride sharing service will buy them, because every car company will sell them. Car rental companies are the most likely first bulk buyers of self-driving cars. They already buy, store, maintain, and clean large fleets of cars. They're all set up to handle the problems of a big fleet of cars used by many people. Uber doesn't have that infrastructure. Car rental companies would like to have a car pick you up outside baggage claim and drive you away, rather than using a shuttle bus to get you to their car lot. Customers will like that, too. Even if the cars aren't self-driving on all roads, if they can get from rental car storage to the airport and onto the freeway, that's enough to justify the technology.
- btkramer9 9y ago
  Yeah but do you think any car rental company is innovative enough to do so? Every taxi company was the perfect business to start Uber but they didn't
  - Animats 9y ago
    Avis is already there. They handle the fleet maintenance and storage of Waymo's self-driving cars for Waymo's Phoenix testing.[1] When one breaks down, Avis sends the tow truck. Avis already owns Zipcar, so they have app-based car services already deployed. So as soon as the technology is ready, Avis is there with the customer base and the infrastructure. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-26/alphabet-inks-deal-for-avis-to-manage-self-driving-car-fleet https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-26/alphabet-...
- XorNot 9y ago
  And with that model Ubers best bet would then still not be innovation - it would be infrastructure. It would be building out the support network to transition to look more like a rental company.
- valuearb 9y ago
  If rental cars have the infrastructure Uber lacks, it should focus on surviving until autonomous is freely available and having the resources to build that infrastructure. Burning money on autonomous now buys them little. They can't control it, they don't have key patents, they will have to buy it just like everyone else.

Autonomous cars will do ride-sharing, years from now when autonomous cars eventually become legal and accepted. And every ride sharing service will buy them, because every car company will sell them. You don't have to panic, throw huge amounts of stock at a shifty development team, while ignoring due diligence (or do an incompetent job at it) all to do your own.

Animats 9y ago

Autonomous cars will do ride-sharing, years from now when autonomous cars eventually become legal and accepted. And every ride sharing service will buy them, because every car company will sell them. Car rental companies are the most likely first bulk buyers of self-driving cars. They already buy, store, maintain, and clean large fleets of cars. They're all set up to handle the problems of a big fleet of cars used by many people. Uber doesn't have that infrastructure. Car rental companies would like to have a car pick you up outside baggage claim and drive you away, rather than using a shuttle bus to get you to their car lot. Customers will like that, too. Even if the cars aren't self-driving on all roads, if they can get from rental car storage to the airport and onto the freeway, that's enough to justify the technology.

btkramer9 9y ago
Yeah but do you think any car rental company is innovative enough to do so? Every taxi company was the perfect business to start Uber but they didn't
- Animats 9y ago
  Avis is already there. They handle the fleet maintenance and storage of Waymo's self-driving cars for Waymo's Phoenix testing.[1] When one breaks down, Avis sends the tow truck. Avis already owns Zipcar, so they have app-based car services already deployed. So as soon as the technology is ready, Avis is there with the customer base and the infrastructure. [1] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-26/alphabet-inks-deal-for-avis-to-manage-self-driving-car-fleet https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2017-06-26/alphabet-...
XorNot 9y ago
And with that model Ubers best bet would then still not be innovation - it would be infrastructure. It would be building out the support network to transition to look more like a rental company.
valuearb 9y ago
If rental cars have the infrastructure Uber lacks, it should focus on surviving until autonomous is freely available and having the resources to build that infrastructure. Burning money on autonomous now buys them little. They can't control it, they don't have key patents, they will have to buy it just like everyone else.