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Waymo to test its autonomous driving technology in over 10 new cities

reuters.com

31–40 of 138 posts

Re: Waymo to test its autonomous driving technology in over 10 new cities

#31

The article does not actually list the 10 cities. Nor does it link to a source or say the source.

> In addition to ongoing trips to Truckee, Michigan's Upper Peninsula, Upstate New York and Tokyo, the expansion includes testing in San Diego and Las Vegas, with more cities yet to be announced.

Re: Waymo to test its autonomous driving technology in over 10 new cities

#32
post #30
post #20

I'm convinced that Waymo will quietly continue to roll out self driving taxi's to ever increasing areas in "beta" until one day they're covering a significant percentage of the most profitable areas to be a taxi in. Instead of trying for universal self driving, they're going to prioritise being self driving taxi's for the most profitable areas.

Are they even profitable in SF or LA? I don't disagree with you, but if being profitable means charging more than Uber/Lyft and having slower trips on average than a human, thats not gonna work out too well. And these are the highest CoL cities in the us, meaning that if its not profitable there, might not be profitable anywhere.

>but if being profitable means charging more than Uber/Lyft and having slower trips on average than a human

thats just a function of the numbers of cars on the road

Re: Waymo to test its autonomous driving technology in over 10 new cities

#33
post #30
post #20

I'm convinced that Waymo will quietly continue to roll out self driving taxi's to ever increasing areas in "beta" until one day they're covering a significant percentage of the most profitable areas to be a taxi in. Instead of trying for universal self driving, they're going to prioritise being self driving taxi's for the most profitable areas.

Are they even profitable in SF or LA? I don't disagree with you, but if being profitable means charging more than Uber/Lyft and having slower trips on average than a human, thats not gonna work out too well. And these are the highest CoL cities in the us, meaning that if its not profitable there, might not be profitable anywhere.

I'm pretty certain they won't undercut Uber or other taxi services any time soon because they don't want to provoke the political headache that comes with it. That type of politics could shutdown their licenses, I'm sure they want to avoid that at all costs so they're pricing above existing services.

What they may do is refuse to raise prices and eventually inflation will make them the cheapest.

Re: Waymo to test its autonomous driving technology in over 10 new cities

#34
post #20

I'm convinced that Waymo will quietly continue to roll out self driving taxi's to ever increasing areas in "beta" until one day they're covering a significant percentage of the most profitable areas to be a taxi in. Instead of trying for universal self driving, they're going to prioritise being self driving taxi's for the most profitable areas.

[deleted]

Re: Waymo to test its autonomous driving technology in over 10 new cities

#35
post #30
post #20

I'm convinced that Waymo will quietly continue to roll out self driving taxi's to ever increasing areas in "beta" until one day they're covering a significant percentage of the most profitable areas to be a taxi in. Instead of trying for universal self driving, they're going to prioritise being self driving taxi's for the most profitable areas.

Are they even profitable in SF or LA? I don't disagree with you, but if being profitable means charging more than Uber/Lyft and having slower trips on average than a human, thats not gonna work out too well. And these are the highest CoL cities in the us, meaning that if its not profitable there, might not be profitable anywhere.

Operational profits is not really a goal for Waymo in near term. The current goal is to be many years ahead of competition, getting permits to operate in major profitable cities with profitable routes.

The cost of a Waymo car right now is around $150K. Soon, Waymo will build its own cars (with partnership with some car manufacturer) from scratch which will bring this cost to around $40K.

currently WayMo has around 2 people per car employed in service roles which will be like 2 people per 50 cars. At that point they will be swimming in profits.

Re: Waymo to test its autonomous driving technology in over 10 new cities

#36

I wonder if the waymo solution is very vehicle specific or if it could be easily applied to say, a 10~12 person van that could accommodate a wheelchair? It would be interesting to design a transit system around 4~5 times as many vehicles with higher interval or more responsive pathing with something like pick up kiosks.

Mass manufacturing vehicles is important part of their long term strategy. So I am pretty sure a large van with wheelchair support will be on cards.

Re: Waymo to test its autonomous driving technology in over 10 new cities

#37
post #30
post #20

I'm convinced that Waymo will quietly continue to roll out self driving taxi's to ever increasing areas in "beta" until one day they're covering a significant percentage of the most profitable areas to be a taxi in. Instead of trying for universal self driving, they're going to prioritise being self driving taxi's for the most profitable areas.

Are they even profitable in SF or LA? I don't disagree with you, but if being profitable means charging more than Uber/Lyft and having slower trips on average than a human, thats not gonna work out too well. And these are the highest CoL cities in the us, meaning that if its not profitable there, might not be profitable anywhere.

I would pay more for a slower ride just to avoid having to pay a tip.

Re: Waymo to test its autonomous driving technology in over 10 new cities

#38
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> think Jackson Hole would be a great place for Waymo billionaire class wouldn’t be too happy with getting beta tested on raw tech. They will push back because “NIMBYism” runs deep.

> they will push back because “NIMBYism” runs deep Waymo is being adopted in wealthy areas first. To the extent there is NIMBY sentiment, it's towards rideshare drivers. (Also, billionaires probably wouldn't be taking Waymo. If their properties aren't fly in they're driving themselves.)

In SF, a lot of billionaires love taking Waymos

Re: Waymo to test its autonomous driving technology in over 10 new cities

#39
post #30
post #20

I'm convinced that Waymo will quietly continue to roll out self driving taxi's to ever increasing areas in "beta" until one day they're covering a significant percentage of the most profitable areas to be a taxi in. Instead of trying for universal self driving, they're going to prioritise being self driving taxi's for the most profitable areas.

Are they even profitable in SF or LA? I don't disagree with you, but if being profitable means charging more than Uber/Lyft and having slower trips on average than a human, thats not gonna work out too well. And these are the highest CoL cities in the us, meaning that if its not profitable there, might not be profitable anywhere.

They're probably within reasonable distance of gross profit, and much farther from net profit because of the imbalance between their current fleet size and the massive ongoing manufacturing and R&D costs. The organizational goal is not immediate net profits though.

Take this with the grain of salt it deserves. No one relying solely on publicly available information can give you anything more than highly speculative guesses.

Re: Waymo to test its autonomous driving technology in over 10 new cities

#40
post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are they even profitable in SF or LA? I don't disagree with you, but if being profitable means charging more than Uber/Lyft and having slower trips on average than a human, thats not gonna work out too well. And these are the highest CoL cities in the us, meaning that if its not profitable there, might not be profitable anywhere.

Operational profits is not really a goal for Waymo in near term. The current goal is to be many years ahead of competition, getting permits to operate in major profitable cities with profitable routes. The cost of a Waymo car right now is around $150K. Soon, Waymo will build its own cars (with partnership with some car manufacturer) from scratch which will bring this cost to around $40K. currently WayMo has around 2…

> currently WayMo has around 2 people per car employed in service roles

Do you have a source for this? I'm curious about their operations

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