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Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation

bloomberg.com

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Re: Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation

#31

Post by dotBen »

kolbe wrote: post #28
dotBen wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's a very capital intensive operation given the amount of vehicles that need to be carried on the balance sheet. There are many reasons why a conglomerate like Alphabet doesn't want to hold all of that directly on the balance sheet, which is why Waymo is run as a subsidiary with its own sources of capital. When I was at Uber 10 plus years ago and we were ideating autonomous vehicles. The general consensus was that…

Alphabet is providing $13bn of the $16bn raise. What are you talking about? Do you really think that $3bn matters in the slightest?

What I'm talking about is that is still considered an external capital raise for the purpose of the markets and where those assets sit on the balance sheet.

Also, keep in mind the Alphabet doesn't fully own Waymo. I don't know the percentage ownership of hand, but that also feels like it's probably a prorated investment based on ownership so Alphabet doesn't reduce its voting control.

That's what I'm talking about.

Re: Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation

#32

Post by bluGill »

2OEH8eoCRo0 wrote: post #26
46493168 wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would you bet your own money when you could bet someone else’s?

If you are betting on a winner why split with others?

risk management. Even sure thing bets lose money once in a while, so it is a good idea to spread the risk of that around.

Re: Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation

#33

Post by ronnier »

estearum wrote: post #23
ronnier wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but I don't see an obvious way for Waymo to get enshittified My guess is that once Waymo starts to extremely take off, law makers in various cities will start to pass laws to ban them or the number of regulations will make it impossible to run at a profit. This will almost certainly happen. It will disproportionately impact an entire segment of the population and will put them out of work.

No they won't. The product is so outrageously superior on every dimension to the status quo that municipalities will figure out whatever they need to in order to accommodate them. You think the folks on City Council enjoy chauffeuring their own children around and will block a solution to it?

Yes. It's already happening

https://www.reddit.com/r/Minneapolis/comments/1pdzd2f/some_m...

Re: Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation

#34

Post by lotsofpulp »

dotBen wrote: post #21
doctoboggan wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't see an obvious way for Waymo to get enshittified. Oh ye of little faith! Here are some ideas off the top of my head, I am sure the suits at Google already have a bigger list. * Ads in vehicle * Adjust route so you see partner companies or billboards * Offering alternative destinations (I see you are going to Burger King, would you rather go to our partner McDonalds?) * Listening to conversations in car * Se…

They already will be selling your ride data and there is no way they could monitor conversations in the car for commercial purposes (at least in Western countries). Ads in cars, partnerships with alternative destinations, etc. definitely would feel like enshitification for a demographic comparable to the hacker news one here. But these are all per session/user settings just like most of us have a paid Spotify account…

> and there is no way they could monitor conversations in the car for commercial purposes (at least in Western countries).

Why not? You can consent to having your audio recorded. They can even offer a higher “private” price and a lower “ad supported” price. I write “private” because I assume the microphones will always be listening no matter which price you pay.

Re: Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation

#35

Post by jFriedensreich »

No product had such a fast transition from novelty to "omg i never want to interact with a human again". I feel about 100% less stressed and happier using a waymo or riding motorbike or bicycle next to a waymo than with human drivers. I hope this next phase will bring availability and prices down. We need this in europe.

Re: Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation

#36

Post by tgsovlerkhgsel »

thundergolfer wrote: post #4

I presume if you invest in Google you are indirectly (but significantly) invested in Waymo, like it is with Anthropic? Waymo is the best service I've used in many, many years. The jump from Uber->Waymo is similar to the quality jump from Taxi->Uber 12 years ago, but I don't see an obvious way for Waymo to get enshittified.

The obvious way such services enshittify is to become a monopoly by pushing everyone else out, then cranking up the prices (and lowering quality, e.g. by not cleaning the vehicles, longer wait times for better utilization, etc.)

Re: Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation

#37

Post by tapoxi »

dotBen wrote: post #21
doctoboggan wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I don't see an obvious way for Waymo to get enshittified. Oh ye of little faith! Here are some ideas off the top of my head, I am sure the suits at Google already have a bigger list. * Ads in vehicle * Adjust route so you see partner companies or billboards * Offering alternative destinations (I see you are going to Burger King, would you rather go to our partner McDonalds?) * Listening to conversations in car * Se…

They already will be selling your ride data and there is no way they could monitor conversations in the car for commercial purposes (at least in Western countries). Ads in cars, partnerships with alternative destinations, etc. definitely would feel like enshitification for a demographic comparable to the hacker news one here. But these are all per session/user settings just like most of us have a paid Spotify account…

Couldn't Uber do that today?

Re: Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation

#39

Post by dotBen »

tapoxi wrote: post #37
dotBen wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They already will be selling your ride data and there is no way they could monitor conversations in the car for commercial purposes (at least in Western countries). Ads in cars, partnerships with alternative destinations, etc. definitely would feel like enshitification for a demographic comparable to the hacker news one here. But these are all per session/user settings just like most of us have a paid Spotify account…

Couldn't Uber do that today?

/cries into my Uber shares and the deletion of the Uber ATG repos when the parts were sold to Aurora.

Re: Waymo seeking about $16B near $110B valuation

#40

Post by sorenjan »

tgsovlerkhgsel wrote: post #29
simianwords wrote: post #24

why is Tesla much higher? I thought Tesla's market cap was because of the self driving feature.

The only semi rational thing that could explain it is the robots.

It's always the next big thing. It used to be self driving, now it's AI and robots.
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