>...but General Motors can utilize the real estate and expertise of it's existing network of dealerships, which can save them from a great deal of capital inves

>...but General Motors can utilize the real estate and expertise of it's existing network of dealerships, which can save them from a great deal of capital investment as Robotaxis dissemintate. I was involved in a project at a major US auto maker where they wanted to utilize spare capacity at the dealers on something similar to what you are discussing. In this case, we would pay the dealers to utilize that capacity. In some states, the dealer networks are large, politically very influential, and are not inclined to allow anything that will disrupt the status quo of selling and leasing cars. They absolutely had their hands around the throat of the auto maker and forced us to go another route just because they saw what we were trying to do could possibly change their income flow in some small way. In theory, GM has the infrastructure and is making the right acquisitions. In practice the vast majority of the company is entrenched in selling and leasing cars and many people in the company don't have the imagination to see the world differently. GM has a lot of internal and external politics to overcome before they are successful with autonomous cars and Robotaxis.