Waymo: Google's self-driving car company

Re:Waymo: Google's self-driving car company by ams6110 on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @09:17PM (#13173273)

You've mentioned $1 a ride a couple of times. Where is this number coming from? It doesn't pass the smell test to me. Even bus fare is several times this amount.

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Re:Waymo: Google's self-driving car company by nojvek on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @10:58PM (#13173704)

Let's do some rough math here.

Say initial cost of the electric self driving car is $50,000. It has life of 20 years. After 20 years, value will go to 0.

Per year: $2500

Service per year: $2500 (HN mechanics, is this reasonable?)

Miles travelled/ year: 50,000 (5x human utilization)

Miles/Kwh: 3 (based on tesla efficiency)

Avg electricity cost in US: 12c / Kwh

Cost to drive 50,000 miles: $2000

Total / year: $7000

Cost per mile: 14c / mile

Average trip length: 7 miles

Cost per trip: 98c (very close to $1)

I think this is definitely possible.

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Re:Waymo: Google's self-driving car company by arghbleargh on Wednesday December 14, 2016 @01:18AM (#13174227)

50,000 miles/year * 20 years = 1,000,000 miles does not seem reasonable...

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Re:Waymo: Google's self-driving car company by nojvek on Wednesday December 14, 2016 @02:56AM (#13174518)

1 million miles is unreasonable for humans driving gas guzzlers.

Not for electric self driving cars which optimize for safety and wear and tear. They have less moving parts too.

There are plenty of trucks, buses and taxis that have done a million miles in 20 years.

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