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I think this business model has a far greater chance of succeeding than something like Tesla's. It's easier to just focus on a small averagely populated area th
by propman 9y ago
I think this business model has a far greater chance of succeeding than something like Tesla's. It's easier to just focus on a small averagely populated area than high density urban cities or in Tesla's case, the entire country. It's safer to deal with construction/road issues, unique quirks present of each city when you're only focusing on one community at a time.
It's far less of a headache dealing with one set of regulations for a community that has few, impressionable decisionmakers than trying to scale while trying to meet ever-changing individual regulations from each state/city and an uncertain national landscape. Only Google and the big automakers have the available influence to push for federal regulation standards and even those can be scrapped if some major incident happens or morons refuse to follow proper safety protocols to chase profits (uber).
If Tesla pushes level 4 or 5 autonomy, they need to consider every circumstance (rain, snow, dust storms, tornadoes, ice, and so many other random unique Mother Nature quirks), every road construction issue, hazards, fallen trees etc. all at once. It just isn't feasible. You need city employees to report fallen trees, garbage truck routes, area with frequent deer or animal crossings etc. They can't just say it's autonomous in one particular area where maybe only 100 Teslas are present, it's just not economical.
I think this route of small community adaptation is the most likely and it's great to see most players shift to this model. This means that automakers aren't going to be the big players in this space for another decade or so. It's not economical for big beuracratic, slow moving businesses like Ford to enter into this landscape. Small companies and startups pushing into this has its advantages and disadvantages however.
- alehul 9y agoI'd just like to point out that Tesla as you're speaking of it is a car manufacturer, whereas Voyage is a car service. Tesla is apparently planning to launch their own car service, which from an economic standpoint may be poised to win. It will involve Tesla owners being able to add their car to a public fleet and essentially have their car make money for them. It's plausible the Tesla model will win out because, in the majority of hours, only about 20% of the fleet is used in a car service. RideAustin, as a nonprofit, has publicly available ride data to support this. So with a dedicated fleet, you'll often have a lot of unused cars that will be quite inefficient. With the Tesla model, however, the money-making portion is a secondary purpose for the car's ownership, with the primary one being the owner's own convenience when needed. Hope this is explained accurately!
- pfisch 9y agoIf you can afford a Tesla why would you let your car be used like this? I am the kind of person who would get a tesla and I would never want to deal with the inconvenience of lending my car to a public fleet so it could get fucked up by drunk people. Also how does the car know if someone throws up in it before picking up another passenger?
- dragonwriter 9y ago> Also how does the car know if someone throws up in it before picking up another passenger? Camera + microphone + vomit recognition software.
- madengr 9y agoDon’t know why you were downvoted. I fully agree. Last thing I want is my car interior abused like public transportation. Litter, scrap food, lice, body fluids. No thanks.
- itsgrimetime 9y agoWhat if it made you an extra $6000 per month? Even $3000? Obviously the market would adjust from current taxi rates, but this is based off of the following rough estimate: 20 hours per day of you not driving * 30 days * 11$ avg taxi take-home per hour[1] = $6600 [1]: https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/taxi-driver-and-chauffeur/salary https://money.usnews.com/careers/best-jobs/taxi-driver-and-c...
- ant6n 9y agoI think the calculus is more that people won't own their own cars, because it will cost 10k/year to own, but 2k/year to buy trips.
- dx034 9y agoMost car owners today could save money by owning a different car, reducing the cars in the household or using more public transport. Owning a car is (for most) not just a necessity, it's an expression of freedom. Being reliant on a car sharing app is not ideal for everyone, esp. families.
- olivercameron 9y agoThank you! We think so too.