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Waymo is part of a company that is sitting on $100B+, if they thought rolling out their own cars everywhere was worth it they could afford it easier than Tesla,

by sidibe 6y ago

Waymo is part of a company that is sitting on $100B+, if they thought rolling out their own cars everywhere was worth it they could afford it easier than Tesla, but also they don't need to do it in a capital intensive way, they can partner with car manufacturers or ride hailing businesses and just be responsible for the driver.

jfoster 6y ago
They have $100B+, but do they want to spend it all in one go like that? Sure, there's also ways to split or reduce the cost, but those also require things to be done. How long do you think it takes Waymo to get their stuff ready for a new vehicle model? Last I heard, it was between 6 and 12 months. The beauty of the Tesla model is that they've already made tonnes of the cars that should eventually be able to do this. Furthermore, instead of each vehicles being a cost for them, the vehicles are a source of revenue. I acknowledge that it does all hinge upon Tesla reaching a point with their autonomy where it can be unsupervised. Some people say they will never get there, but I think that's pretty shortsighted. The data collected by their existing fleet is a massive advantage. Let's not forget that it's been more than 11 years since the first video of what became Waymo, and they can pretty much only drive a small area in Phoenix, with high likelihood of needing to train extensively for every new location as they're now doing in California. Tesla are doing most of the world in (more or less) one go.
- dragonwriter 6y ago
  > The beauty of the Tesla model is that they've already made tonnes of the cars that should eventually be able to do this. The problem with Tesla is that while they've sold cars with that as marketing claim, there is very little reason to believe that its true. And cars don't have an infinite shelf life; sure, they've sold lots of vehicles with that claim, but even if it were true, a whole bunch of those are already 1/4 of the way through an average US vehicle lifespan, and Tesla may end up with lower lifespan given its rock-bottom initial quality.

by sidibe 6y ago

jfoster 6y ago

They have $100B+, but do they want to spend it all in one go like that? Sure, there's also ways to split or reduce the cost, but those also require things to be done. How long do you think it takes Waymo to get their stuff ready for a new vehicle model? Last I heard, it was between 6 and 12 months. The beauty of the Tesla model is that they've already made tonnes of the cars that should eventually be able to do this. Furthermore, instead of each vehicles being a cost for them, the vehicles are a source of revenue. I acknowledge that it does all hinge upon Tesla reaching a point with their autonomy where it can be unsupervised. Some people say they will never get there, but I think that's pretty shortsighted. The data collected by their existing fleet is a massive advantage. Let's not forget that it's been more than 11 years since the first video of what became Waymo, and they can pretty much only drive a small area in Phoenix, with high likelihood of needing to train extensively for every new location as they're now doing in California. Tesla are doing most of the world in (more or less) one go.

dragonwriter 6y ago
> The beauty of the Tesla model is that they've already made tonnes of the cars that should eventually be able to do this. The problem with Tesla is that while they've sold cars with that as marketing claim, there is very little reason to believe that its true. And cars don't have an infinite shelf life; sure, they've sold lots of vehicles with that claim, but even if it were true, a whole bunch of those are already 1/4 of the way through an average US vehicle lifespan, and Tesla may end up with lower lifespan given its rock-bottom initial quality.