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>Would it be cheaper for me to take a taxi to work every day than drive my own car? Absolutely. I don't believe that for one second. Assume that the average ca

>Would it be cheaper for me to take a taxi to work every day than drive my own car? Absolutely. I don't believe that for one second. Assume that the average car costs $523/mo[1] (and if you wanted a lower car payment it's totally possible to get a cheap car with a lower monthly payment). That means the daily cost of the car is $17.19 (523*12/365). An uber (which is often less than a taxi and way more convenient) costs about $15 to get to work if you live nearby (it would be closer to $30-40 if you lived in the suburbs), and another $15 to get back home (possibly more because of surge pricing, depending on when you leave and local events such as sports games etc). This is assuming you never want to drive to get groceries, visit friends, etc... That's another $10-15 each way, every time. Sure you don't have to pay for gas but there's no way the <$1/ride increase will account for that. I suppose you might have to pay for parking, but even then you could just buy a cheaper car ($400/mo car payments aren't exactly unheard of) and use the difference to pay for monthly parking. [1]: https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/31/a-523-monthly-payment-is-the-new-standard-for-car-buyers.html https://www.cnbc.com/2018/05/31/a-523-monthly-payment-is-the...

mattnewton 8y ago
I think using numbers with human drivers doesn’t help because a) the uber driver has much higher marginal cost on each drive than a self driving car because of the human in the drivers seat and b) the self driving car is likely to have a much higher fixed cost than the taxi with a human driver because of the expensive computer, software and new hardware like lidar. So self driving cars are in my best guess going to have very high fixed costs with very low marginal costs, which means there is a large opportunity for a “renters” market
- dmortin 8y ago
  > the self driving car is likely to have a much higher fixed cost than the taxi with a human driver because of the expensive computer, software and new hardware like lidar. These will become commodities when the technology matures.
swiley 8y ago
I think you're forgetting insurance and maintenance which adds at least another couple hundred.
matwood 8y ago
I've owned quite a few cars in my life and not once was my payment > $400 even when putting very little down (usually my current car). I only buy gently used, reasonably priced cars though. My current truck is a 2007.
- ams6110 8y ago
  I haven't had a car payment in years. I buy older cars for cash.
rootusrootus 8y ago
I think the only way the math would work out favorably is if you had an expensive car, a short commute, or preferably both. For a regular appliance car, say a Prius, used strictly for commuting (5 days/week) the TCO would be about $21/day. This is almost exactly what Uber would charge me to go one way 14 miles to my office downtown (I live on the outskirts of the city). So about twice as expensive to use Uber, and only if it's just for commuting. But if I had something fancy, like a Tesla Model X, the daily cost (similar parameters as before) works out to $68/day, and then I could save money by using Uber. Of course, that's not really a fair comparison because the Tesla is much nicer than anything Uber is likely to pick me up in, so the Prius is a much more honest comparison.

mattnewton 8y ago

I think using numbers with human drivers doesn’t help because a) the uber driver has much higher marginal cost on each drive than a self driving car because of the human in the drivers seat and b) the self driving car is likely to have a much higher fixed cost than the taxi with a human driver because of the expensive computer, software and new hardware like lidar. So self driving cars are in my best guess going to have very high fixed costs with very low marginal costs, which means there is a large opportunity for a “renters” market

dmortin 8y ago
> the self driving car is likely to have a much higher fixed cost than the taxi with a human driver because of the expensive computer, software and new hardware like lidar. These will become commodities when the technology matures.

swiley 8y ago

I think you're forgetting insurance and maintenance which adds at least another couple hundred.

matwood 8y ago

I've owned quite a few cars in my life and not once was my payment > $400 even when putting very little down (usually my current car). I only buy gently used, reasonably priced cars though. My current truck is a 2007.

ams6110 8y ago
I haven't had a car payment in years. I buy older cars for cash.

rootusrootus 8y ago

I think the only way the math would work out favorably is if you had an expensive car, a short commute, or preferably both. For a regular appliance car, say a Prius, used strictly for commuting (5 days/week) the TCO would be about $21/day. This is almost exactly what Uber would charge me to go one way 14 miles to my office downtown (I live on the outskirts of the city). So about twice as expensive to use Uber, and only if it's just for commuting. But if I had something fancy, like a Tesla Model X, the daily cost (similar parameters as before) works out to $68/day, and then I could save money by using Uber. Of course, that's not really a fair comparison because the Tesla is much nicer than anything Uber is likely to pick me up in, so the Prius is a much more honest comparison.