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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

#41

Post by ramraj07 »

mbesto wrote: post #17
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…

> The first question I had though was "who extracts value here". Uber can't be profitable without autonomous vehicles, so the answer IMHO here is simple. For Alphabet, the answer is similarly simple - they'll partner with literally anyone to get distribution.

Just because uber is not profitable with human drivers doesn't mean it'll be the opposite without them.

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

#42

Post by lotsofpulp »

avrionov wrote: post #30
lotsofpulp wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How much of Uber does Alphabet own? They do not show up in the top 10 list here, so presumably 1% at most? https://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=UBER https://finance.yahoo.com/quote/uber/holders/ Seems like pocket change compared to Alphabet’s other investments.

According to this they own part of it: https://www.gv.com/portfolio

That is not surprising, or in question. The claim I am questioning is:

> Alphabet has a large stake in Uber.

Since Uber is a publicly listed company, its top owners are public information. Which show Alphabet to not have a significant portion of ownership in Uber.

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

#43

Post by hahaxdxd123 »

This doesn't really make sense to me.

What does Waymo get out of this? It seems to me like if the value proposition in self driving is there (privacy, consistency, etc), people would be willing to download another app? Especially once word of mouth goes through.

Plus currently the Waymo app has neat features (when the car is on its way to you, it shows you stuff like when it's stopped at a red light or whatever) that Uber probably can't replicate due to API access issues.

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

#44

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

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

#45

Post by ra7 »

osigurdson wrote: post #24
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…

To me, the HTR (hard to replicate) tech is FSD. Google could bang out a ride booking app in a weekend.

Agreed. I’m not sure an acquisition makes sense for Waymo/Alphabet. Operating a robotaxi is technologically quite different from an Uber vehicle — mapping is different, routing is different, customer service is different (a Waymo is stuck and needs remote assistance), maintenance is different (charging, cleaning in depots). Uber’s platform wouldn’t help with any of that.

This seems like a play to attract users from the most popular ridehail platform and eventually funnel them to the Waymo app. I don’t believe users are loyal to ridehail apps like they are to social networks (I don’t use Uber because my friends use it) and would jump to a service that is cost competitive and autonomous. Or, as I said another comment, maybe they are setting the stage to be just a technology provider to ridehail companies and let them deal with all the operational overhead.

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

#46

Post by shmatt »

The whole arguing with your Uber Eats driver was bad

"please come to the door", "no, please come outside", "i can't leave my baby, please come to the door", "i can't leave my car next to a hydrant, please come outside"

Now it's going to be a lot more interesting

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

#47

Post by [deleted] »

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.

[deleted]

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

#48

Post by kaliqt »

nickfromseattle wrote: post #40
osigurdson wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To me, the HTR (hard to replicate) tech is FSD. Google could bang out a ride booking app in a weekend.

>Google could bang out a ride booking app in a weekend. Google's culture isn't really built around providing human support to users. I believe there is also lots of onboarding involved for restaurants so Google may struggle there. With that said, I am constantly hit up by outsourced Google reps for Adwords + Firebase but I think the average customer has a much higher transaction volume with much better margins than a…

To be fair, I don't think Uber has a lot of human to customer interaction either.

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

#49

Post by spratzt »

toomuchtodo wrote: post #11
propogandist wrote: post #5

old enemies coming together, they must be out of options https://techcrunch.com/2019/08/27/anthony-levandowski-former...

Literally the only way out for Uber if they aren't to be a glorified taxi app.

It’s just an attempt to distract people from realizing that’s all they are.

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

#50

Post by onlyrealcuzzo »

mbesto wrote: post #17
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…

> The first question I had though was "who extracts value here". Uber can't be profitable without autonomous vehicles, so the answer IMHO here is simple. For Alphabet, the answer is similarly simple - they'll partner with literally anyone to get distribution.

This is a win-win for Google.

If the self-driving and/or roll-out is a disaster - blame Uber.

Uber has a terrible reputation. I don't think too many people will think twice about Uber taking the blame.

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