Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Uber sells self-driving unit in deal that will push Aurora’s valuation to $10B

techcrunch.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

121–130 of 376 posts

Re: Uber sells self-driving unit in deal that will push Aurora’s valuation to $10B

#121

Post by _coveredInBees »

st1x7 wrote: post #52
lhorie wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Within Uber, it was categorized as a "big bet", as opposed to a core vertical, like ride share/eats. Having now shed new mobility, elevate and now SDV, It looks like Dara is really set on focusing on the core verticals now.

Big bets and promises for the future was all they had. Trying to be a solid profitable business in a dying industry isn't going to work out well for them.

Wait, how is ride-sharing / cabs a dying industry? People are always going to need to get from point A to point B, and if anything, the younger generations are less likely to own cars. Public infrastructure is never going to fill the gap except in certain urban areas.

Re: Uber sells self-driving unit in deal that will push Aurora’s valuation to $10B

#122

Post by nl »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #100
khazhoux wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of their execs literally pitched me this very vision when I turned Uber down for an eng mgr position several years ago. I thought it was comical that his pitch was "The reason we're going to be successful at Problem 1 (taxis) is because we're going to be successful at ridiculously-difficult Problem 2 (self-driving) which we're not close to solving". Pass.

I love it when job interview pitches fall flat like that. Many years ago, I had a job offer from IBM for a class of server I wasn't familiar with. The guy explained it to me like this: "You see, desktops these days are running Linux, and mainframes are running (IBM OS something?). We represent a class of server bigger than desktops but smaller than mainframes. It's an exciting space. The desktop class of PCs are hand…

IBM "Midrange", aka AS/400: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IBM_System_i

They were an interesting - but dead - sideline of computing evolution. I never used one, but they had a interesting object-based (instead of file based) operating system.

Re: Uber sells self-driving unit in deal that will push Aurora’s valuation to $10B

#123

Post by thunkshift1 »

AlexandrB wrote: post #23
papito wrote: post #8

And Uber stock in after-hours trading is not even flinching. Wasn't this like, THE whole strategy?

I think it was the publicly stated strategy because saying "we want to monopolize taxi service, then raise prices" doesn't sound great to regulators.

makes sense.. they can do that now with the new bill they got passed after massive campaign

Re: Uber sells self-driving unit in deal that will push Aurora’s valuation to $10B

#124

Post by rachelbythebay »

boh wrote: post #99

Is it possible that just having an app doesn't make you a tech company? Anyone else ready to think Uber might just be an overvalued taxi company?

Can't speak for Uber... but yes. Just having an app does not make you a tech company. Tech companies tend to build stuff.

Re: Uber sells self-driving unit in deal that will push Aurora’s valuation to $10B

#125

Post by et-al »

papito wrote: post #8

And Uber stock in after-hours trading is not even flinching. Wasn't this like, THE whole strategy?

It's official today, but the rumor of Uber selling ATG was already known: https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/13/uber-in-talks-to-sell-atg-...

Re: Uber sells self-driving unit in deal that will push Aurora’s valuation to $10B

#126

Post by wavefunction »

thesimon wrote: post #6

Wasn't Uber's whole money losing strategy based on the vision that one day they'll use their self-driving cars to get the driving done for cheaper?

Maybe they've decided that Uber's future lies in letting someone else solve that hard problem of self-driving cars and Uber figuring out how to line up the capital to lease self-driving cars from that winner.

Re: Uber sells self-driving unit in deal that will push Aurora’s valuation to $10B

#127

Post by ghaff »

pmiller2 wrote: post #63
jeromegv wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everytime someone mentioned that idea I thought it made no sense. The Uber strategy is to delegate all the cost to a 3rd party (the driver and their own car). The idea of spending billions of dollar on hundreds of thousands of cars around the world and maintain them hardly seemed like what they were setup to do. They wanted the exact opposite. Externalize all cost, labor, material, etc. and just develop a software th…

How do drivers make any money while keeping the overall price less than a taxi? Factor in fuel and maintenance, and drivers are already getting pretty screwed on these platforms.

Absent self-driving--which was always a pipe dream--the overall price will not be materially lower than a taxi. Perhaps people will prefer the service for other reasons. Perhaps they'll go back to transporting themselves however they were pre-Uber.

Re: Uber sells self-driving unit in deal that will push Aurora’s valuation to $10B

#128

Post by JMTQp8lwXL »

necubi wrote: post #17
thesimon wrote: post #6

Wasn't Uber's whole money losing strategy based on the vision that one day they'll use their self-driving cars to get the driving done for cheaper?

No, that was never the strategy, no matter how many times people on HN claimed it was. Both Uber and Lyft are aiming for profitability next year with human drivers. (Disclaimer, I work for Lyft but this has been said in public many, many times by both companies.)

What strategies do rideshare companies plan to employ to reach profitability: increasing prices, cutting costs, etc? And what will the implications be for riders and employees alike.

Re: Uber sells self-driving unit in deal that will push Aurora’s valuation to $10B

#129

Post by ablekh »

CobrastanJorji wrote: post #100
khazhoux wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of their execs literally pitched me this very vision when I turned Uber down for an eng mgr position several years ago. I thought it was comical that his pitch was "The reason we're going to be successful at Problem 1 (taxis) is because we're going to be successful at ridiculously-difficult Problem 2 (self-driving) which we're not close to solving". Pass.

I love it when job interview pitches fall flat like that. Many years ago, I had a job offer from IBM for a class of server I wasn't familiar with. The guy explained it to me like this: "You see, desktops these days are running Linux, and mainframes are running (IBM OS something?). We represent a class of server bigger than desktops but smaller than mainframes. It's an exciting space. The desktop class of PCs are hand…

If my guess is correct, it seems that you have missed a chance to work on relatively popular AS/400 servers ... :-)

Re: Uber sells self-driving unit in deal that will push Aurora’s valuation to $10B

#130

Post by mlboss »

boh wrote: post #99

Is it possible that just having an app doesn't make you a tech company? Anyone else ready to think Uber might just be an overvalued taxi company?

I read somewhere that there are different levels of "tech" company. A truly tech company would work without any human intervention for multiple days without breakdown. A non-tech company involves human in every tasks required for work. Most of the companies fall somewhere in between.

Ride services/Food delivery company cannot function without humans.

Post reply on HN