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Oh, I agree with you, the numbers are mind boggling. Just in the US, there are 3 trillion miles driven per year, so even capturing a small part of that (be it t
by jfim 4y ago
Oh, I agree with you, the numbers are mind boggling. Just in the US, there are 3 trillion miles driven per year, so even capturing a small part of that (be it through automating long haul trucking, goods delivery, or robotaxi applications) and getting any kind of per mile/per hour revenue makes some pretty large numbers.
It's just that the AV players absolutely need to operate at scale, as their fixed costs are really high compared to a traditional trucking company.
- zmgsabst 4y agoI’m not sure that R+D needs to be at the operator versus manufacturer level. For instance, manufacturers not operators bear the R+D cost of better diesel engines. You can retain (relatively) small fleets if the manufacturer is amortizing the cost of technology across vehicles sold.
- jfim 4y agoIt really depends on whether the AV companies decide to focus purely on manufacturing and developing AVs as a product (profit at the point of sale), offer them as a service (similar to "power by the hour" in aerospace), or decide to become robotaxi/truck fleet operators to capture more profit.