Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation

Post by bluecheese452 » Mon, Feb 02, 2026, 10:59 PM UTC

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #102

nananana9 wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a pretty dismissive attitude for ~100 million professional drivers worldwide, making a living doing actual useful work on a forum where the vast majority of users do not do any useful work.

There is also a demographic cliff most of the world is currently going off, declining birth rates and labor shortages. Would you rather have a human nurse in your very old age retirement, or a human driver. Because we don’t have enough young people now for both.

Post by kolbe » Mon, Feb 02, 2026, 11:05 PM UTC

infecto wrote: post #133

bryanlarsen wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By investing $13B of the $16B they're signalling they do want the capex, at least for now.

If they truly wanted the capex, this would not be a mixed round A fully internal recap would have been simpler. The presence of outside capital, even minority, is consistent with a gradual transition toward shared ownership, asset light structures, or operator partners. They have made many comments over the years about this too.

Post by seanmcdirmid » Mon, Feb 02, 2026, 11:23 PM UTC

bigstrat2003 wrote: post #234

seanmcdirmid wrote: post #188

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The "free parking" isn't really free, you just have land that is really cheap devoted to it. And where it isn't...well, American housing prices and rents are increased to pay for them. Street parking matters in almost every neighborhood in Seattle now...since parking on its own is expensive, and you will also have to pay for a few busted windows on your car for the pleasure of free street parking. The highways are he…

> The "free parking" isn't really free, you just have land that is really cheap devoted to it. When I can park my car in my driveway at no marginal cost to myself, most people (including me) would call that free.

Post by [deleted] » Mon, Feb 02, 2026, 11:29 PM UTC

yfdrea wrote: post #131

bandofthehawk wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This seems weird to me, maybe it's a generational thing. Is it really that bad to share a car with someone? You don't have to talk to them the whole time.

As a woman, while 95% of the ridesharing trips I take are perfectly pleasant and sometimes great with conversation the 5% of rides where you are trapped in a car with a creep asking you extremely off putting questions sours the entire concept of ride sharing for me.

Post by askl » Tue, Feb 03, 2026, 12:09 AM UTC

tialaramex wrote: post #267

askl wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean, I can understand wanting to start in dense places. But those are also the places where public transit is a viable existing solution. Personal transit just looks incredible inefficient and unscalable if everyone would use it. I could totally see it as a last resort solution for situations where nothing else is available, but that's an unattractive market that isn't going to make anyone rich.

In an urban area the "last resort" cases add up. The last time I was in a taxi it was the middle of the night, and I'd just smashed my head open, so I had concluded that I must not trust my own judgement and should seek immediate medical attention, buses don't run in the middle of the night (on that route)