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A comment on Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads with no one at the wheel. Parent comment

Re:Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads w... by vthallam on Tuesday November 07, 2017 @02:02PM (#15646392)
You can run a car for longer with no driver and of course the human capital involved is none. But the flip side is that the cars wear out quickly.
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Re:Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads w... by smeyer on Tuesday November 07, 2017 @02:08PM (#15646447)
A lot of taxis are already run 24 hours a day, switching off between drivers at shift changes. The per-mile gas, maintenance, and depreciation (ignoring any fixed per-day or per-year costs) are already much more than 10% of the total cost of a ride.

I came across a (possibly outdated) Uber pricing model for LA of a $5.60 minimum fare and a $0.90 per mile charge, and among other fees, NYC cabs are $2.50 per mile. Compare both of those numbers to the IRS mileage rate of $0.53 per mile to get a very rough lower bound on some of the costs.

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Re:Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads w... by mrlase on Tuesday November 07, 2017 @02:23PM (#15646604)
The fare for NYC is incorrect -- $2.50 is the base price and $0.505/mile and $0.50/minute the car is stopped (i.e. in traffic if they're waiting). There's also a $1 surchage between 4-8pm on the weekdays.

http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/html/passenger/taxicab_rate.shtm...

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Re:Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads w... by smeyer on Tuesday November 07, 2017 @02:39PM (#15646753)
>$2.50 is the base price and $0.505/mile and $0.50/minute the car is stopped

Sorry, I was going off "Plus 50 cents per 1/5 mile" to mean $2.50 per mile. Where are you getting $0.505/mile from your link?

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Re:Waymo now testing its self-driving cars on public roads w... by mrlase on Tuesday November 07, 2017 @02:57PM (#15646939)
Lol I read that completely wrong. Time for more coffee, I suppose -- that definitely means $2.50/mile.
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