News for hackers. Stuff that matters.
Re:Next Stop for Waymo One: Los Angeles by crazygringo on Wednesday October 19, 2022 @09:00PM (#33269695)
Huh? Seems like the current Waymo cars run a little under $200K with all the sensors. Obviously that's going to come down at scale to something closer to $100K let's say.

And yes you can contrast that with a $25K Uber vehicle, but the average US Uber driver makes $42K a year, and since taxis are traditionally split into 3 shifts, we can assume the cost of a 24-hour driver is closer to $100K. In NYC, Uber drivers make something like $30/hr, which means $263K/yr for a 24/7 driver.

So a "low-paid driver" costs as much in a year as one or two single autonomous vehicles. In which case, it's hard to imagine Waymo not turning a profit. The reason Hertz and Uber aren't particularly profitable is because they have tons of competition, there's no real competitive moat. While Waymo is going to undercut driver-based rideshare drastically. It's going to make tons of money once the R&D is recouped.

Re:Next Stop for Waymo One: Los Angeles by fragmede on Wednesday October 19, 2022 @09:02PM (#33269711)
You're probably right, but given just how much money has been poured into R&D, it seems like it might be a little bit of while before they get there.
Re:Next Stop for Waymo One: Los Angeles by crazygringo on Wednesday October 19, 2022 @10:21PM (#33270133)
The $5.5B they've raised is only $15 per American.

If this is a service people spend $500/yr on then they'll recoup it pretty quickly I think.