5 ms·
I think Waymo has huge potential for being much larger than Uber - people are willing to pay more compared to ordinary uber drive just to avoid dealing with tax
by azan_ 1y ago
I think Waymo has huge potential for being much larger than Uber - people are willing to pay more compared to ordinary uber drive just to avoid dealing with taxi drivers and tech will only get cheaper.
- Zigurd 1y agoThink of Waymo Driver as the equivalent of Android for vehicles. It's an operating system and a suite of cloud services for both autonomy and ride hailing.
- cryptoegorophy 1y agoWhat about all the expensive hardware, gpus, lidars? That’s like having iOS on your phone and if you want android you need to buy extra things that are worth same price as your phone.
- Zigurd 1y agoIt might be like that if a Tesla Robo taxi could actually operate like a Waymo
- dmix 1y agoThe long history of "First mover advantage" being a myth implies they are more likely Nokia or Blackberry than Android
- yieldcrv 1y agoStatistically Waymos are more expensive than Uber rides, but practically as an individual they are often cheaper than Uber, its very easy for the stated price to be lower So its not even about willingness to pay more Gig drivers are cooked
- deleted 1y ago[deleted]
- cryptoegorophy 1y agoDriving in a car that doesn’t smell like driver just farted right before picking you up is worth the premium.
- pesus 1y agoA lot of times the Waymo is only a few bucks more, so if you were going to tip the uber driver it balances out anyway.
- panarky 1y agoI'd still choose Waymo if it was 100% more than Uber, the experience is so much better and I feel so much safer.
- aetherson 1y agoYou might, but most people wouldn't, and more to the point, overwhelming more people will choose to drive their own car (or take transit) vs either Uber or Waymo. If Waymo can drop its price by 50%, it could steal a lot of demand from normal cars and transit, but that doesn't seem like it's even on the conversation right now.
- panarchy 1y agoAnd the Waymo can't be a creep or sexually harass you. PS nice name.
- victorbjorklund 1y agoAnd costs should be lower in the long run if you don't have to share the ride fee with a driver (not case yet because seems like they still have alot of staff to manage the cars)
- wanderingstan 1y agoMore than that, I think the ride-hailing business is just the fist volley in the self driving vehicle space. It’s a short jump from there to self driving trucks, self driving package delivery, self driving private vehicles, and on and on.
- Fricken 1y agoAll of those spaces are actively being explored by various companies.
- overfeed 1y agoCan any of those companies catch up on self-driving faster than Waymo can pivot to their niche? Cruise seemed to be a distant second, but did themselves in with an attempted cover-up.
- shakna 1y agoThere are already self-driving trucks on the roads. Their pilots came earlier, because the problem space is much smaller. They don't need to "catch up" to Waymo, because of the niche. https://bigrigs.com.au/2024/04/18/driverless-trucks-trial-begins-in-melbourne/ https://bigrigs.com.au/2024/04/18/driverless-trucks-trial-be...
- overfeed 1y ago> There are already self-driving trucks on the roads. 2 trucks?! I suppose that's the minimum number required to make your pluralization correct. I will stand on my earlier statement regarding this particular outfit: they'll need to catch up because Waymo started class 8 variants in 2021 https://waymo.com/blog/search/?t=Waymo%20Via https://waymo.com/blog/search/?t=Waymo%20Via
- shakna 1y agoThat article also mentioned previous trials from other companies that are ongoing, from previous years. And Volvo rolled a class 8 as well.
- giveita 1y agoWho are these people? There is no downside to having someone drive you Uber has homogenised the experience.
- krat0sprakhar 1y agoCheckout this thread for who those people are: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44258139 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44258139
- smcin 1y agoThat TC article doesn't substantiate its overly broad claim. "People" aren't paying more, in general, across its US markets; it only shows that a subset of its customers in what is already the top-5 most expensive cities (SF) in the world are prepared, and at that, only 10-27% are prepared to pay significantly more ($5-10). Still fewer than the 40% who would pay “the same or less.” Quoting: "Perhaps even more striking is how people answered a question about whether they would be willing to pay more for a Waymo. Nearly 40% said they’d pay “the same or less.” But 16.3% said they’d pay less than $5 more per ride. Another 10.1% said they’d pay up to $5 more per ride. And 16.3% said they’d pay up to $10 more per ride." There are going to be lots of causal factors: number of rider(s), time of day, safety, gender, wait time, price estimate, predictable arrival. Let's see an apples-to-apples comparison/regression breaking out each.
- fragmede 1y agoWomen. Turns out, Uber/Lyft can't really do anything about drivers assaulting passengers.
- Zigurd 1y agoThe words women and woman appear exactly once each on this thread. If there's one thing tech product management needs, it is to ask a woman. This is the most obvious blind spot in tech.
- pesus 1y agoAnyone who's taken enough Ubers and/or has had bad enough luck to have gotten a terrible Uber driver. Pretty much everyone I know, along with myself have had multiple awful Uber driver experiences.
- cryptoegorophy 1y agoWaymo doesn’t own manufacturing of vehicles.
- TrueSlacker0 1y ago*for now
- helsinkiandrew 1y agoMaybe with the HN readership, but in general the public don’t want to drive in driverless vehicles and don’t want them on the streets. It’s going to be a long uncertain road for them to be accepted. https://newsroom.aaa.com/2025/02/aaa-fear-in-self-driving-vehicles-persists/ https://newsroom.aaa.com/2025/02/aaa-fear-in-self-driving-ve...
- to11mtm 1y agoEhhhhh maybe in some spaces... I would need to see Waymo be able to handle something like Southeast Michigan before I could even get comfortable with trusting it to get me ubered t/o from home for maintaining the vehicle I need to commute when I can take a remote day or two... And then also delivering that for a good cost. I put it that way because, I do tip Uber drivers well (unless they cray cray) and they would need to properly 'undercut' uber with whatever model they serve up in more complex areas.
- sashank_1509 1y agoI’ve seen people claim, I need to say Waymo working In NYC, Chicago and other places but never Southeast Michigan. What’s so unique about that area? Waymo works in SF Chinatown btw, which is probably the most complicated locality in its driving zone.
- gaadd33 1y agoWhy is southeast Michigan difficult to drive in? I don't know anything about the area but I would guess if GPS navigation works and it's less dense than SF/LA, most of the major issues are solved?