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At least over the last 2 yrs I was saying that Uber and Lyft should get out of the self driving tech business. Its not who they are, and there is no reason to i

At least over the last 2 yrs I was saying that Uber and Lyft should get out of the self driving tech business. Its not who they are, and there is no reason to invest in it when they could easily consume the best tech out there when it becomes available. I now feel even more strongly so. In fact it feels like these companies might themselves be re-evaluating their priorities at this point. I see absolutely no reason to invest in FSD themselves other than to attract talent. They should instead accept that their value to the world is they unified the taxi system and turned it into a global service that drivers can use. They should focus on their core business and figure out their issues with drivers and employees. They could cut the FSD costs and instead partner with Google or some other company. Or they could wait and also partner with any other car manufacturer out there that gets to FSD market. These companies could be huge buyers of the tech when available and so auto manufacturers will fall over themselves to get their business. I wouldn't say its doomed though.

evgen 6y ago
If FSD had actually turned out to be as easy as some people were suggesting 5+ years ago then there is no way Uber or Lyft could avoid playing in that game; the first company who could mass-produce FSD vehicles would be able to replace Uber/Lyft with no difficulty at all. Once it became apparent that the 'any day now' BS from Musk et al was a lie then both companies should have dropped any efforts in this direction immediately.
- arcticbull 6y ago
  An MIT study indicated developing their own FSD technology would yield at most a small margin improvement because the technology wouldn't be exclusive for long, and shortly after it would be utterly commodity. [1] [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-lyft-self-driving-taxis-may-not-help-profitability-mit-2019-5 https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-lyft-self-driving-taxis...
- oblib 6y ago
  I agree. FSD is far more complex than even Musk imagined (or at least has portrayed) and while I'm very impressed with what's been done in that field I'd never use it in the real world.

evgen 6y ago

If FSD had actually turned out to be as easy as some people were suggesting 5+ years ago then there is no way Uber or Lyft could avoid playing in that game; the first company who could mass-produce FSD vehicles would be able to replace Uber/Lyft with no difficulty at all. Once it became apparent that the 'any day now' BS from Musk et al was a lie then both companies should have dropped any efforts in this direction immediately.

arcticbull 6y ago
An MIT study indicated developing their own FSD technology would yield at most a small margin improvement because the technology wouldn't be exclusive for long, and shortly after it would be utterly commodity. [1] [1] https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-lyft-self-driving-taxis-may-not-help-profitability-mit-2019-5 https://www.businessinsider.com/uber-lyft-self-driving-taxis...
oblib 6y ago
I agree. FSD is far more complex than even Musk imagined (or at least has portrayed) and while I'm very impressed with what's been done in that field I'd never use it in the real world.