But even then, unless Uber develops and owns severe patents on the self-driving technology, the self-driving car inventory would just be a commodity available t

But even then, unless Uber develops and owns severe patents on the self-driving technology, the self-driving car inventory would just be a commodity available to every competitor too — meaning it would be a race to the bottom on prices and potentially fewer barriers to entry, unless they use lobbying to create a livery licensing racket for self-driving cars to protect some oligopoly of ride hailing services. My bet is some form of oligopolistic regulatory capture is the long-term plan (similar in spirit to ISP oligopoly), because if self-driving cars are a commodity it still doesn’t look like that offers a path to profitability.