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Uber will likely do whatever they believe will be best to not disrupt their IPO - which won't be agreeing to any significant changes to change Uber's projection

by loceng 8y ago

Uber will likely do whatever they believe will be best to not disrupt their IPO - which won't be agreeing to any significant changes to change Uber's projections. After the IPO, who knows. They ultimately want to get rid of drivers altogether and aiming for the Tesla play, Tesla Network with driverless vehicles - another $1B just invested in that technology, however Tesla is probably 3-7+ years ahead of Uber. How will other Uber drivers know if you're driving around and not part of the protest? I suppose they could each book Uber's for pickup and then harass any driver that comes to them - however they'd have to use unrelated-unassociated phones numbers, as Uber likely would block or prevent Uber drivers from booking during days they know there are protests. I'd certainly not buy Uber or Lyft; out of the two I would have bought Lyft at the IPO over Uber, however certainly not hold it very long-term.

atomical 8y ago
Driverless cars will take at least another 20 years.
- loceng 8y ago
  Not sure why someone downvoted you - I assume you haven't seen Tesla's most recent self-driving vehicle video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSCb_O4AGwc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSCb_O4AGwc ? If you don't think that's self-driving, what would you consider what's in that video?
  - pjc50 8y ago
    I see a human behind the wheel of the car. "Self-driving 99.9% of the time" sounds very close to full self driving, but in order to have fully driverless Uber cars where you don't have to pay the driver, they'd have to not have a "safety" driver. That's the thing that's further away than people want to admit.
    - ben_w 8y ago
      Indeed, the difference between sounding good and being good means that although I’m an optimist on the timescales and benefits, I wouldn’t want to be in or near a vehicle which was only self-driving 99.9% of the time, as that’s not self driving for roughly one second every 20 minutes. I’d consider occasional use of taxis with two more nines, but I’d really want three or four more nines.
  - pwinnski 8y ago
    It's not a driverless car, most obviously. The driver is right there the whole time. Other than that, it's a self-selected (from how many videos in which things didn't go as smoothly?) video under ideal conditions, used for marketing. Very, very far from what would be necessary for Uber to stop relying on drivers. I'm with the GP, 20 years sounds reasonable for general-case driverless cars. Or maybe longer.
  - atomical 8y ago
    A lot of the comments below covered the main arguments. Also, can you imagine riding in a self-driving car moving at 80 miles per hour through the mountains in Montana? The thought of leaving that up to Musk and his team is terrifying. Musk is critical of the usefulness of Lidar and therefore I am critical of the usefulness of Elon Musk to driverless cars. He has not embraced critical safety architecture.

by loceng 8y ago

atomical 8y ago

Driverless cars will take at least another 20 years.

loceng 8y ago
Not sure why someone downvoted you - I assume you haven't seen Tesla's most recent self-driving vehicle video - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSCb_O4AGwc https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WSCb_O4AGwc ? If you don't think that's self-driving, what would you consider what's in that video?
- pjc50 8y ago
  I see a human behind the wheel of the car. "Self-driving 99.9% of the time" sounds very close to full self driving, but in order to have fully driverless Uber cars where you don't have to pay the driver, they'd have to not have a "safety" driver. That's the thing that's further away than people want to admit.
  - ben_w 8y ago
    Indeed, the difference between sounding good and being good means that although I’m an optimist on the timescales and benefits, I wouldn’t want to be in or near a vehicle which was only self-driving 99.9% of the time, as that’s not self driving for roughly one second every 20 minutes. I’d consider occasional use of taxis with two more nines, but I’d really want three or four more nines.
- pwinnski 8y ago
  It's not a driverless car, most obviously. The driver is right there the whole time. Other than that, it's a self-selected (from how many videos in which things didn't go as smoothly?) video under ideal conditions, used for marketing. Very, very far from what would be necessary for Uber to stop relying on drivers. I'm with the GP, 20 years sounds reasonable for general-case driverless cars. Or maybe longer.
- atomical 8y ago
  A lot of the comments below covered the main arguments. Also, can you imagine riding in a self-driving car moving at 80 miles per hour through the mountains in Montana? The thought of leaving that up to Musk and his team is terrifying. Musk is critical of the usefulness of Lidar and therefore I am critical of the usefulness of Elon Musk to driverless cars. He has not embraced critical safety architecture.