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> they can simply lease self driving cars from the companies directly Nobody really knows what company will develop truly practical SDC tech first. Therefore n

> they can simply lease self driving cars from the companies directly Nobody really knows what company will develop truly practical SDC tech first. Therefore nobody really knows what revenue model that company will have. If a vehicle manufacturer does it first, then probably their main goal is still to sell equipment, so they would probably be open to selling/leasing it to anyone and everyone. If a tech company gets there first (or any company without an existing revenue stream), there's always a chance this company will want it all for themselves. Sure, Uber and Lyft have the name recognition. And they have the active users (accounts created, apps installed, payment methods on file). But SDC is such a killer tech that whoever has it might decide it outweighs everything else and they can build their own app and get the users to come over. If you're Uber/Lyft and this happens, you could be completely left out. Not only is your service less sexy, you're also paying labor costs that your SDC competitor isn't.

spiritcat 8y ago
"Nobody really knows what company will develop truly practical SDC tech first." No, bu the ones with all the patents will be Waymo, Uber, GM.. Lyft? How does this work? Seems like Waymo would have been able to pick up enough of the obvious ones to kill competition for 20 years. Or just MAD between the big players?
- flukus 8y ago
  > No, bu the ones with all the patents will be Waymo, Uber, GM.. Lyft? Considering it looks like were at least 10 years away from having a self driving car industry those patents aren't going to have a long shelf life.
JumpCrisscross 8y ago
> SDC is such a killer tech that whoever has it might decide it outweighs everything else and they can build their own app and get the users to come over I'm skeptical. This involves a tremendous capital outlay. Even if you solve that problem, you have to get the production lines running, logistical networks humming, and marketing gears going. Much simpler to buy or partner with one of the companies who have spent years training consumers to press a button and unquestioningly get into a car.
- hcnews 8y ago
  Masayoshi Son is happy to lend you billions of dollars if you have a working SDC implementation.
  - JumpCrisscross 8y ago
    > billions of dollars Production isn’t simply a throw-money-at-it problem. And in any case, if you can get billions to build you can get billions to buy.
    - mbesto 8y ago
      Mr Musk would like to have a word with you.
      - JumpCrisscross 8y ago
        > Mr Musk would like to have a word with you Tesla had much more than massive capital availability. If anything, it spent most of its life at a significant capital deficiency relative to the competition. For Tesla, there was nothing to buy. The only option was to build.

spiritcat 8y ago

"Nobody really knows what company will develop truly practical SDC tech first." No, bu the ones with all the patents will be Waymo, Uber, GM.. Lyft? How does this work? Seems like Waymo would have been able to pick up enough of the obvious ones to kill competition for 20 years. Or just MAD between the big players?

flukus 8y ago
> No, bu the ones with all the patents will be Waymo, Uber, GM.. Lyft? Considering it looks like were at least 10 years away from having a self driving car industry those patents aren't going to have a long shelf life.

JumpCrisscross 8y ago

> SDC is such a killer tech that whoever has it might decide it outweighs everything else and they can build their own app and get the users to come over I'm skeptical. This involves a tremendous capital outlay. Even if you solve that problem, you have to get the production lines running, logistical networks humming, and marketing gears going. Much simpler to buy or partner with one of the companies who have spent years training consumers to press a button and unquestioningly get into a car.

hcnews 8y ago
Masayoshi Son is happy to lend you billions of dollars if you have a working SDC implementation.
- JumpCrisscross 8y ago
  > billions of dollars Production isn’t simply a throw-money-at-it problem. And in any case, if you can get billions to build you can get billions to buy.
  - mbesto 8y ago
    Mr Musk would like to have a word with you.
    - JumpCrisscross 8y ago
      > Mr Musk would like to have a word with you Tesla had much more than massive capital availability. If anything, it spent most of its life at a significant capital deficiency relative to the competition. For Tesla, there was nothing to buy. The only option was to build.