Yeah but how much of a discount? The example in question was already assuming $50k per car which is already a tremendous discount. Even if you cut it in half again to $25k (which there's no way the price per car is that low) that's still $2.5B in cars. That's insanity.

Depends on how this is structured, if it's say 33k cars on a five year lease, renewable twice that's ~2.5B over 15 years. Also, Uber has a huge and arguably inflated market cap, so if they get this deal in exchange for stock it could be very valuable to them in the short and long term.

Which is why I suspect this isn't a simple cash transaction, and may involve equity or revenue share or something along those lines.

Think so too. Most likely Daimler will get a stake in Uber - which makes sense for both sides.

Uber is what you need to make an auto-driving automobile acceptable to the general public. With Uber spin, Daimler can push on the driver-less car in many markets..

Sci-fi days ahead methinks.

Tesla seems to be doing a fine job showing the benefits and safety of autonomous vehicles to the general public and regulators.

Which Tesla vehicle is self driving?

Both the Tesla Model S and X are Autonomous Level 3 capable:

"The driver can fully cede control of all safety-critical functions in certain conditions. The car senses when conditions require the driver to retake control and provides a "sufficiently comfortable transition time" for the driver to do so."

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_car#Classification

Its expected their Model 3 mass market vehicle will contain the same, if not a greater level, of driving automation.

Disclaimer: I've traveled down the interstate in a friend's Model S for ~2-3 hours at a time at ~85mph in autopilot mode with no intervention required.

Why would it be in Daimler's interest to push driver-less cars? Their sales would go down in the long run.

Long term, driverless cars are going to happen so they might as well get in early.

If you can't beat them, join them.

Especially if there is no middle-man dealer to pay. On a $100k S-Class, Invoice comes in around $93k. Some people are able to pull off sub ~88k sale prices at dealers.

I wouldn't be surprised if the wholesale (with profit) cost on a S-Class Benz is somewhere around 65-70k. I'd imagine that the cost of building an S-Class (100k retail) over a C-Class (~40k) is nominal.

Respectfully, your inference is entirely off base. Trivial research gives you the wholesale value. A slightly deeper dive gives you the manufacturer margin. Franchise laws prohibit direct sales.