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Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars

nytimes.com

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Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars

#91

Post by jorgenev »

Larrikin wrote: post #62
spike021 wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Odd. I'm in the Bay Area and have taken many Lyft's lately both in the south bay and also the peninsula. Usually the drivers I get drive for both even up to this point. Could just be regional, not really sure? I feel like even with Uber's issues many drivers who do ride-sharing as a "job" won't want to just drop Uber as it may mean losing out on income (not sure if they can make up the loss with driving more for Lyft…

In Chicago and Richmond atleast the drivers I've talked to that are doing it for a full time job tend to drive Uber, Lyft and every other small start up in the area. The drivers that aren't just getting started said they use Uber for volume but will take a Lyft over Uber because of the better pay. The only drivers I've had that are Uber only are just getting started/trying it out. The drivers I've talked to that just…

> I've also heard more than once that Lyft customer's tend to be more well behaved in the car for whatever reason.

I have also heard this as well from lyft drivers and I am very curious as to why

Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars

#93

Post by huevosabio »

11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #80

Here's the thing. The end game is that Uber, Lyft and taxi drivers are out of a job as chauffeur. However, the self-driving cars remain a capital expense that someone has to finance. I couldn't Google up numbers easily, but it looks like the number of ride-hailed vehicles is in the multiple millions in the US. 1,000,000 autonomous cars at $50,000 each is a $50 Billion-per-million capital expense. I'd guess that the c…

I have often thought of this as well. One option is that they still outsource the financing to local owners, not necessarily your traditional car owners, per say, but more like local companies that buy AVs and place them in service.

However, I think an interesting approach would be to use a traditional Project Finance scheme [0] to obtain cheap, non-recourse loans in order to acquire and deploy large fleets. These schemes are common for infrastructure projects, which occasionally amount to billions of dollars. Under such a scenario, then the actual owners might end up being entities familiar with setting up these deals, and Waymo et al selling the technology/cars/platform (arguably of higher margins).

[0]http://www.investopedia.com/terms/p/projectfinance.asp

Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars

#94

Post by problems »

sgustard wrote: post #90

What do you see as the build vs buy preference here? Are you better off being Uber and investing billions in self-driving technology (assuming an ideal world with no lawsuits or misconduct), vs Lyft partnering for the same features? Frankly, I don't see the advantage of a software and logistics company going off on a robotics and AI track. Self-driving will take decades but eventually will become commodity technology…

If we're not extremely careful about it, it may not become commodity technology, it may rest solely in the hands of a few companies who maintain full control of it.

All it would really take is a few big successful players who are behaving like Tesla (you're not allowed to use self-driving for ride sharing) and a few nasty failures from smaller players before regulators crack down and say "okay, you now need to meet these extremely stringent guidelines and provide an enormous sum in insurance" which would basically inhibit competition. It's a nasty mix of capitalism and regulation that can kill a market before it really starts.

Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars

#95

Post by Bahamut »

alistproducer2 wrote: post #14

When I use lyft now, I'm coming across drivers that only drive for lyft. The tide has definitely shifted against Uber. I'm not really sure there's a way back at this point. The one advantage Uber had was network effect, but in my experience that has diminished. Lyfts come just as fast as Ubers now because they have enough drivers on the road to support the response time. I'll never go back to Uber.

I find that Lyft has more consistent service availability than Uber in the Bay Area. If I have to take an early morning ride to the airport, I have had near 100% failure rate with Uber (maybe 1 or 2 times Uber has worked for me in that situation), and 100% success rate with Lyft.

Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars

#96

Post by puranjay »

keeptrying wrote: post #77

Waymo will have the first self driving cars on the road. They are so ahead of everyone. I think everyone including regular car companies buy the tech from Waymo in the short term.

I'm curious where Tesla fits into this scheme. In terms of road miles, I reckon Tesla would have Waymo beat easily. They have far too many cars on the road and thus, way more data.

Does this factor into the quality of self-driving tech at all?

Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars

#97

Post by r00fus »

SimbaOnSteroids wrote: post #45
msoad wrote: post #31

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's going to take a lot of dollars..

It also would send a strong message to everyone they ever partner with in the future.

Partner with and then have steal intellectual property from, you mean? That's a precedent Google would like to have set. It's like a public hanging of bandits.

Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars

#98

Post by bduerst »

tim333 wrote: post #69
ridgeguy wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Valuation differs from cash in the bank. Uber could be valued at a gazillion $, but if it can't make payroll in 90 days, it's got a problem that would be tough to fix, given the apparent lack of a profitable business model.

The recent figure for what it's worth (end 2016): revenue $6.5 billion losses excluding China $2.8 bn $7 billion of cash on hand, along with an untapped $2.3 billion credit facility (bloomberg) So they are not going bust tomorrow but whether they can build a real business from that is quite questionable.

At $2.8 B annual run rate, they'll be out of cash around 2018/2019, depending on their credit.

Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars

#99

Post by prostoalex »

BigJono wrote: post #9
prostoalex wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The major costs in taxi operation are fuel and humans. What about vehicles themselves?

It'd be a factor, but not a major one. Say you expect to spend $30,000 on the car and $20,000 on repairs over a lifetime of 10 years (that's probably well on the high side, say you picked out a shitbox that always breaks down). At $15/h wage and $50/week in petrol, running the car 40 hours a week (probably on the low side, a lot of taxi drivers I know have 2-3 drivers to a car and would run it more like 120 hours), y…

The lifetime of a vehicle is better expressed in terms of miles, not years, and for most models probably ends up being close to 200,000 miles. While a generic vehicle owned by an average family will take 10 years to reach that, a for-hire vehicle gets quite a bit more mileage.

One expense that people tend to leave out is the cleaning, both on the inside and outside. Someone has to take care of those car washes, and while cheap, they add up.

With the driverless model I see those expenses increasing, as without a chaperon passengers are more likely to eat, drink, puke, and in general misbehave (source: I've been inside some BART and LA Metro cars).

Re: Lyft and Waymo Reach Deal to Collaborate on Self-Driving Cars

#100

Post by r00fus »

tmh79 wrote: post #81
joering2 wrote: post #68

Honest question: why there is no reverse type bidding system for picking a ride? Let me tell you when im going and where to, where i am and what time i need to be there. Then you have x amount of hours/minutes to bid. The lowest bid gives me ride, unless i want to click few more checkboxes like [x] verified rider [x] minimum 4.5 star rider, etc.

People prefer the "click button, get transit" UX for its simplicity.

Well all except the Surge pricing. That at times can feel like highway robbery.
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