Waymo and Uber partner to bring autonomous driving technology to Uber

Post by Marazan » Tue, May 23, 2023, 1:38 PM UTC

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.

Post by alsodumb » Tue, May 23, 2023, 1:39 PM UTC

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…

Post by ra7 » Tue, May 23, 2023, 1:40 PM UTC

sschueller wrote: post #52

hahaxdxd123 wrote: post #43

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…

What people don't realize is that full autonomous does not work 100%. There are always people watching and taking over if something goes a foul. I can see Uber drivers sitting in front of computers taking over from the autonomous system to provide a pseudo autonomous experience.

Post by amelius » Tue, May 23, 2023, 1:41 PM UTC

mdale wrote: post #59

Google owns a bit over 5% of Uber at 70B and a very high percentage of waymo at 30B evaluation. (last measured) so incentive is for Waymo to succeed / grow. It seems counter intuitive to me that they do a strategic partnership with Uber given low switching cost of using another app if it had meaningful cost benefits to the consumer. Additional Google owns the Android platform so could leverage that to it's advantages…

Post by xur17 » Tue, May 23, 2023, 1:41 PM UTC

omneity wrote: post #25

Uber moving strategically into the beginning of their late game. Interesting times. I suspect that Uber's main added value is a "safer" way for Waymo to increase the reach of their technology with lesser blowback against their own reputation (Uber did this, Uber did that ...), and to make it more mature, even more than the money potentially being exchanged here.