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Why do you dismiss Uber as being a leader in self driving cars? If anything they are in a better situation because as self driving cars get introduced, they ca
by rogerbinns 13y ago
Why do you dismiss Uber as being a leader in self driving cars? If anything they are in a better situation because as self driving cars get introduced, they can incrementally switch over from 100% human drivers to 100% self driving.
Since they know where people are going, they will be able to make best use of early self driving cars that have limitations. For example if the first self driving cars aren't allowed on freeways, or a restricted range, then Uber can send human drivers for journeys requiring them, and self driving for the rest. Uber will also have a lot of credit cards on file which is a significant advantage.
Perhaps there is an assumption that self driving cars will follow the existing private ownership, idle 23 hours a day model. I expect it will be the other way around where they are owned by companies who try to maximize utilisation.
- shalmanese 13y agoI'm not dismissing it, I explicitly addressed it and noted that pivots are always hard and risky.
- rogerbinns 13y agoBut it isn't a pivot in their case. They would be able to make an extremely efficient[1] transition from 100% human to 100% self driving. Uber is not in the business of giving rides in human driven cars - their business is to get you where you are going on demand quickly. [1] Efficient means money (the first self driving cars won't be cheap and will be limited), but also adjusting to public perception (every crash will suspect the self driving bit leading to a minor backlash) as well as all the other tradeoffs that occur. Someone in the same space with one self driving vehicle won't be particularly useful, but Uber can operate with only one self driving vehicle in the fleet.