I'm just speculating here, but I can envision a few ways of dealing with the cost problem in scaling an HD mapping-based robotaxi fleet: 1. Robotaxi companies

I'm just speculating here, but I can envision a few ways of dealing with the cost problem in scaling an HD mapping-based robotaxi fleet: 1. Robotaxi companies might simply stand to make enough money to cover the cost of routine HD mapping. Anywhere the revenue of putting taxi services in a new city outweighs the cost of implementing the necessary updates sufficiently, won't companies do it? We could think of these companies as having similar economics to Uber, but replacing the cost of paying drivers with the cost of routine HD mapping updates. 2. Smaller towns have less frequent construction, so the update costs might be lower as you target less dense areas. 3. I could see a single company that specializes in providing routinely updated maps to a variety of fleet-operating companies. This could potentially be a utility or somehow subsidized by the government. It would also be possible for government to coordinate construction with HD mapping updates. After all, by lowering the rate of accidents and decreasing square footage devoted to cars, governments have a vested interest in seeing robotaxis replace human-owned and driven cars.