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Waymo and Uber partner to bring autonomous driving technology to Uber

blog.waymo.com

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Re: Waymo and Uber partner to bring autonomous driving technology to Uber

#111

Post by anaganisk »

makestuff wrote: post #38
SilverBirch wrote: post #2

This is fascinating, obviously it makes a tonne of sense for uber as a platform to offer waymo's autonomous vehicles. The first question I had though was "who extracts value here". Does Waymo get to demand human-driver level prices and therefore capture loads of value or does Uber actually capture the value because they're where the customers are. But then I realised... it doesn't matter. Waymo is part of Alphabet, a…

I am pretty confident google could spin up an org to replicate the uber app in a few months/maybe a year. However, Uber obviously cannot spin up an org to replicate self driving vehicles in a few months. By that logic I would say Waymo has all of the power since they could develop their own app and undercut uber on pricing. The customers would instantly leave as it is a race to the bottom with ride share.

The power of Uber doesn't lie in it's app, Google famously has been forever trying to have a chat app and we all know how many times it's failed. Then comes Google+, Google's attempt to get into social networking. Unless Google came up with something novel or something different from incumbents it never ever succeeded. Any SWE worth his salt can build a ride booking app in a month or two, but the traction and confidence in using that app both by riders and drivers is what drives its success.

Re: Waymo and Uber partner to bring autonomous driving technology to Uber

#112

Post by amadeuspagel »

nerdchum wrote: post #91

Why is autonomous driving being pursued but not remote driving? Why can I have a seat at my house with controls and drive my Uber/18 wheeler from my house?

As a passenger you want the driver to have skin in the game.

Re: Waymo and Uber partner to bring autonomous driving technology to Uber

#113

Post by 015a »

makestuff wrote: post #38
SilverBirch wrote: post #2

This is fascinating, obviously it makes a tonne of sense for uber as a platform to offer waymo's autonomous vehicles. The first question I had though was "who extracts value here". Does Waymo get to demand human-driver level prices and therefore capture loads of value or does Uber actually capture the value because they're where the customers are. But then I realised... it doesn't matter. Waymo is part of Alphabet, a…

I am pretty confident google could spin up an org to replicate the uber app in a few months/maybe a year. However, Uber obviously cannot spin up an org to replicate self driving vehicles in a few months. By that logic I would say Waymo has all of the power since they could develop their own app and undercut uber on pricing. The customers would instantly leave as it is a race to the bottom with ride share.

> I am pretty confident google could spin up an org to replicate the uber app in a few months/maybe a year.

Like how they can "just spin up" a messaging app?

Building companies and customer bases is really, really hard. Microsoft tried like three times to build a Github competitor. They still have at least one of those attempts (Azure DevOps). They still bought Github. An interesting product technically, sure, but: its where the people are at. It was worth it.

Re: Waymo and Uber partner to bring autonomous driving technology to Uber

#114

Post by bushbaba »

bartwr wrote: post #51
makestuff wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am pretty confident google could spin up an org to replicate the uber app in a few months/maybe a year. However, Uber obviously cannot spin up an org to replicate self driving vehicles in a few months. By that logic I would say Waymo has all of the power since they could develop their own app and undercut uber on pricing. The customers would instantly leave as it is a race to the bottom with ride share.

Spinning up the Uber App is most likely trivial. Spinning up the legal structure, figuring out all the local regulations and getting permits (it's not 2010 anymore! Many countries and cities regulate ride sharing pretty heavily) in a sane timeline is close to impossible. And it might be not something that an Alphabet company wants to do risk/ reputation-wise. Better to offload bad press (both related to ride sharing…

Don’t forget regulatory pressure of buying Uber. That might not be approved.

Re: Waymo and Uber partner to bring autonomous driving technology to Uber

#115

Post by [deleted] »

sebzim4500 wrote: post #85
vasilipupkin wrote: post #57

Earlier quoted context omitted.

give me 3 good software developers and I can give you an Uber app maybe in 3-6 months? but what I can't give you is uber app being on every iPhone in the country.

No but if you're Google you can put it on literally every android phone quite quickly.

[deleted]

Re: Waymo and Uber partner to bring autonomous driving technology to Uber

#118

Post by mcny »

vasilipupkin wrote: post #110
newleaf wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not just that, but you can put it in front of every Google Maps user.

you can, but I am used to using uber app to call an uber.

> you can, but I am used to using uber app to call an uber.

yes, waze had 100M+ users and still failed to have a successful launch with waze carpool. part of the problem is Google is too successful. If a business makes USD 10M a year and takes up a month worth of attention every year from the Alphabet CEO, they will probably shut it down before we can say Google Product Graveyard.

Re: Waymo and Uber partner to bring autonomous driving technology to Uber

#119

Post by tialaramex »

snapcaster wrote: post #29
kornhole wrote: post #9

If I can't bike or bus it, taxis paid with cash is still my first preference.

This doesn't work in my city, taxis will literally just not show up. I know that sounds weird but you'll call, request a time and place and then be at the time and place and... nothing

To be fair my only experience of Uber was a friend calls an Uber for us, the Uber eventually cancels, she requested another one, they cancelled too, and then magically there are no Uber drivers in my city.

Conventional "radio controlled" taxi was the eventual solution I used to get us out of there.

Re: Waymo and Uber partner to bring autonomous driving technology to Uber

#120

Post by the-dude »

yalogin wrote: post #89

I still don’t understand the strategy for Waymo. After running that taxi service in phoenix for this long they resorted to partnering with Uber, it’s a huge failure. What does Uber bring to the table at all? An app that is easily replicable and with google’s reputation they can easily get customers off of Uber to their own platform. It’s a colossal failure. I was really hoping they would use Waze for this purpose. In…

What about preventing anyone else partnering with Uber?
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