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Why would companies not sell autonomous cars if customers exist who are willing to pay a reasonable margin over manufacturing costs? The fact that autonomous ta

Why would companies not sell autonomous cars if customers exist who are willing to pay a reasonable margin over manufacturing costs? The fact that autonomous taxis are viable doesn’t preclude personal car ownership.

Causality1 7y ago
Because they would make far more money adding the car to their own fleet. Why sell a car for $40,000 when it could generate $300,000 in revenue over a decade? Tesla has already said they'll stop selling to the public after they have autonomous driving completely safe and working.
- repsilat 7y ago
  > ...when it could generate $300,000 in revenue over a decade? If markets are competitive the profits will be lower. If markets are not competitive (not many companies can make or license self-driving AI) the rest will sell cars with steering wheels. The variable that is actually important is demand. If lots of people want their own car, or want to drive their car, the market will provide those things. If most people are content to rent, ownership might become an unusual luxury.
- esoterica 7y ago
  Because more than 1 company exists on the planet. If you won’t sell a car for $40,000 because you’re afraid of cannibalizing your taxi business then someone else will.
- beerandt 7y ago
  I suspect this will end up being the Tesla version of "cheap, lightweight, easy to make carbon fiber for all the rocket parts!"
beerandt 7y ago
The only compelling reason I can think of is: If for some reason charging technology is unable to be improved to the point that it's comparable in time to filling up, and if for some reason the solution is to go back to the idea of battery swaps. I could see this being reason enough to keep the whole system as rentals. If I'm an owner, I'm going to think twice about swapping out a part that might be 50% of my cars value. There would need to be some serious quality assurances to make that work.

Causality1 7y ago

Because they would make far more money adding the car to their own fleet. Why sell a car for $40,000 when it could generate $300,000 in revenue over a decade? Tesla has already said they'll stop selling to the public after they have autonomous driving completely safe and working.

repsilat 7y ago
> ...when it could generate $300,000 in revenue over a decade? If markets are competitive the profits will be lower. If markets are not competitive (not many companies can make or license self-driving AI) the rest will sell cars with steering wheels. The variable that is actually important is demand. If lots of people want their own car, or want to drive their car, the market will provide those things. If most people are content to rent, ownership might become an unusual luxury.
esoterica 7y ago
Because more than 1 company exists on the planet. If you won’t sell a car for $40,000 because you’re afraid of cannibalizing your taxi business then someone else will.
beerandt 7y ago
I suspect this will end up being the Tesla version of "cheap, lightweight, easy to make carbon fiber for all the rocket parts!"

beerandt 7y ago

The only compelling reason I can think of is: If for some reason charging technology is unable to be improved to the point that it's comparable in time to filling up, and if for some reason the solution is to go back to the idea of battery swaps. I could see this being reason enough to keep the whole system as rentals. If I'm an owner, I'm going to think twice about swapping out a part that might be 50% of my cars value. There would need to be some serious quality assurances to make that work.