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This makes perfect sense, and if I had money to invest in this market, I would. Self-driving cars coupled with such an infrastructure means a very profitable bu
by alariccole 13y ago
This makes perfect sense, and if I had money to invest in this market, I would. Self-driving cars coupled with such an infrastructure means a very profitable business in the not-too-distant future.
The highest cost for taxis is not the cars, nor the gas, but the drivers. Get rid of them, and it's all gravy.
Something like this is most certainly the "mass" transit of the future. It would be lower cost, more convenient, and would actually pollute less than buses during non-peak times.
- garindra 13y ago>> The highest cost for taxis is not the cars, nor the gas, but the drivers. Do you have any source on this?
- rescripting 13y agoIt's almost self evident. Does a car cost > 30k a year? Does gas? Just like software engineering, the biggest cost in the taxi game is labour. Edit: Maybe I goofed, mattmcknight accurately points out that in many cities the taxi medallion is the most expensive part of the taxi equation. I'm not intimately familiar with Uber; do drivers still have to obtain medallions in their respective cities?
- sliverstorm 13y agoOn the subject of medallions, last I heard that was a point of contention. Uber has been operating without them, and taxi companies don't like that. You play by the rules and pay a huge lump sum to be allowed to operate, and then some guy comes along and undercuts you because HE doesn't have to pay that lump sum? You wouldn't like that either.
- jdh 13y agoMedallions required to pick people up on the street. Über is classified as a limo -- pre booked, no curbside pickup. Los dint need medallions. However, the structure was created for old style limos: I.e. fat cat or prom kid books for hours, days in advance, not competitive with a taxi. One could reasonably argue booking an uber 1 minute before pickup for a ten minute ride is a lot more like a taxi than a limo.
- sliverstorm 13y agoExactly. Uber is following the letter of the law, but the argument can be made (not unconvincingly I might add) that they really aren't following the spirit. Note I am not criticizing Uber, as they clearly are obeying the law! But to some it looks like they are skirting it, benefiting from a loophole.
- VMG 13y agoThe argument can be made that the law is bullshit.
- crdoconnor 13y agoEither way uber has a serious competitive advantage over taxis.
- singularity0 13y agoMany of the Uber cars are also luxury towncars, for which fuel, upkeep and maintenance can be a large cost. Especially if you consider how much they are driven in a given year.
- jacquesm 13y agoThe costs of operating a taxi depends very much on the location. Assuming a US centric view: - permit (medallion, whatever) - labour - write-off on the taxi - taxes - fuel, tires - insurance - inspection - credit card processing fees Top all of that off with a healthy profit otherwise your taxi operator goes out of business quickly. All of these to a greater or lesser extent contribute to the costs and result in a price-per distance unit (mile/km) driven and a wait tarif. Taxis have considerable down-time between jobs so utilization is a factor as well.
- alariccole 13y agoNo, it's just conjecture, assuming some things. Have you ever taken a road trip? Was the cost of gas between fill-ups more than you were paid per day for your first job? Assuming you're not driving a Mercedes, is your monthly car payment + insurance more than your monthly income? You see where I'm going.
- garindra 13y agoThe reason I asked it because taxis have very different usage pattern than regular cars -- there might be extra operating costs (like extra gas, oil change, & service costs due to the extra range, and probably taxi operating license fee) that I'm not aware of which might weaken the analogy with the average car a bit.
- alariccole 13y agoYeah, I'd not calculated fees or licensing. But other than that I'd still expect the costs of employment to be the highest, by a very large margin. Even if you replaced the entire car yearly, salary is still a higher cost.
- JabavuAdams 13y agoYeah, I'd think it would be the taxi plate / medallion. Those are about the same price as the LIDAR on a Google car. Hmmm.
- VMG 13y agoone of those will definitively go down in price
- mason240 13y agoGas is ~3.50/gal. Assuming the vehicles get a horrendous 10 miles/gallon (for a fuel cost of $0.35/mile), and the drivers are paid minimum wage (7.25 + employer costs = ~8.00), the cars would have to be driven 22.8 miles in a hour before fuel costs exceed labor costs. Of course, the vehicles are probably getting twice the MPG, and the drivers are getting paid more, so the number of miles is probably much higher.
- psbp 13y agoIt's more than that. Google is interested in the movement of goods and services and how they can make those transactions more efficient. Google can umbrella commerce in general and just take a small google tax. It's like amazon's end game, except a lot more lightweight and uninvested.
- alariccole 13y agoVery good point. The movement of goods, services, and people as well.
- psbp 13y agoYep, it's immediately what I thought of when we saw the Google Glass Field trip app released earlier this week. Google could offer an invaluable service to businesses and consumers alike if they could orchestrate the relationship between the two.
- malandrew 13y agoAfter all it's all just packet-switching in the end.
- erichurkman 13y agoHm. Piggy back Google Shopping on Uber? Why have two separate sets of people driving around a city when you can have one?
- therandomguy 13y agoYou could even summon yourself to pick up your stuff. The circle is complete.
- 001sky 13y agoGoogle is interested in the movement of goods and services Quite a bit beyond "organizing the worlds information"[!]
- 13y ago
- mattmcknight 13y agoIn NYC, the highest cost for taxis is the medallions.
- ynniv 13y agoWhy would a self driving car that you temporarily take control of need a taxi medallion? I don't see any medallions in the Hertz parking lot.
- jdale27 13y agoWhy would a taxi need a taxi medallion? Because the government says they do.
- ynniv 13y agoWhy would a self driving Über be a "taxi", and not a "rental car"?
- rayiner 13y agoBecause it's functioning like a taxi, not a rental car?
- ynniv 13y agoHow so? What if it stopped a block away from you and pretended to be a ZipCar?
- rayiner 13y agoDoor-to-door short trips and you're not driving. Ask your mom if it's a "robot taxi" or a "robot rental car."
- ynniv 13y agoNo one drives a self-driving car. If I ride in one that I own, are you still going to call it a taxi? If I am at work and call the one that I own to drive me on a short door-to-door trip to grab lunch, will you call it a taxi then? What if I share ownership with a neighbor? How about 10,000 neighbors? I understand that the establishment will always attempt to maintain control, but I think the situation is too different and complicated for the taxi establishment to overcome. I think that Google Ventures agrees.
- hershel 13y agoEven before self driving cars, google might be able to offer a shared cab/minivan services that are pretty competitive with cars, if they have enough demand. Some relevant research is in [1], which i think is implemented in the new finish public transportation service kutsuplus.fi. And such a service could be great help in rapid transition to self driving cars - capital demands will be smaller, and profitability higher, and much faster to reach critical mass/lockout. [1]http://www.floating-content.net/~esa/pub/files/jokinen-fists-2011.pdf http://www.floating-content.net/~esa/pub/files/jokinen-fists...