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Robotaxi : The business of competing with human drivers
- Thread starter EVNow
- Start date
What is their coverage look like? Everywhere in Wuhan or just the main few blocks in the city?
There is a video showing the service area from a year ago here:
Why ? China has excellent AI engineers, plenty of money & everything else needed for RTs.
Just not sure how profitable they will be - given labor is still quite cheap compared to US.
Uber drivers aren't making $100k/yr. Uber is taking 70% of fares so a $12 ride won't even pay $5. The remaining paltry income has to cover car, gas/charge, maintenance, and your wages. Often the drivers are actually losing money.
Robotaxi is up against dragging human drivers into poverty. With no drivers to suck dry, Robotaxi would have to assume all costs, on top of new liabilities. Horrible wages are going to hold back eliminating wages, ironically.
Robotaxi is up against dragging human drivers into poverty. With no drivers to suck dry, Robotaxi would have to assume all costs, on top of new liabilities. Horrible wages are going to hold back eliminating wages, ironically.
voyager
Active Member
There is also the rolling hardware to consider, particularly since the average cab ride consists of carrying 1.3 person.
Waymo's Jaguar iPace is an expensive EV to ferry people with. My guess is that a sleek and way cheaper 3-seater
would suffice 99% of the times. Need to transport more people, use a car like the iPace or the Chrysler Pacifica.
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Waymo's Jaguar iPace is an expensive EV to ferry people with. My guess is that a sleek and way cheaper 3-seater
would suffice 99% of the times. Need to transport more people, use a car like the iPace or the Chrysler Pacifica.
.jpg)
You mean this? No wonder India is ahead of the timesThere is also the rolling hardware to consider, particularly since the average cab ride consists of carrying 1.3 person.
Waymo's Jaguar iPace is an expensive EV to ferry people with. My guess is that a sleek and way cheaper 3-seater
would suffice 99% of the times. Need to transport more people, use a car like the iPace or the Chrysler Pacifica.
ChooseFreedom
Member
It's a very small percentage of Uber/Lyft drivers that are trying to do it full time.Uber drivers aren't making $100k/yr. Uber is taking 70% of fares so a $12 ride won't even pay $5. The remaining paltry income has to cover car, gas/charge, maintenance, and your wages. Often the drivers are actually losing money.
Robotaxi is up against dragging human drivers into poverty. With no drivers to suck dry, Robotaxi would have to assume all costs, on top of new liabilities. Horrible wages are going to hold back eliminating wages, ironically.
There aren't enough metro areas where it's even a viable option. And those areas are already flooded with traditional cab companies.
No one is going to continue a job where they're losing money, come on.
The point of using EV's as RT's is to eliminate a lot of the maintenance, gas, and repairs of ICE cars.
After the initial investment, many of the costs do go down, not just the driver's wages.
When you say RT's "would have to assume all costs", many of those are minimal if not gone altogether.
And what "new liabilities" are you referring to?
Actually that is exactly the business model of Uber. Everyday someone will become an Uber driver for earning their bread because it not an impenetrable market like the Taxi was, while another Uber driver is dropping out because it not making them enough to maintain their lives as well as their vehicles.
ChooseFreedom
Member
If true, that's not a sustainable business model long-term. That reputation would spread and they will eventually (probably already) have more leaving than starting.
I considered it at one point, but after doing the math, I determined it wasn't profitable for me, before I even began.
There must be plenty of drivers who are at least breaking even or the business fails. Simple economics.
There is a sucker born every minute.
That is the reason why Uber does not own any of the vehicle as assets on its books. It would become unsustainable for them.
Tech tariffs should be a damper on progress. Related to that is their culture of appropriating IP which can be a road to nowhere. Tesla sued an Xpeng engineer for autopilot secrets. Xpeng even admitted their design is heavily based on Tesla's efforts.
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I think you are correct.
That is racist. Nobody's "culture" is to steal IPs - just as it is not the "culture" of Europeans to commit genocide.
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Thats because they don't get $15 an hour and can't work for 20 hours a day.
But then, I didn't claim they do !
The basic idea is that RT replaces labor - so we can calculate how much it is worth by looking at what would be the labor cost for the # of hours you can make RT work.
I would say that they do not see any issue in using or reusing existing tools.
Very much like how a psychopath just does not have the ability to understand others pain, and which also makes them the best surgeons.
(They both have preternatural calmness under pressure, or apparent indifference to human suffering when making life-or-death deci- sions)
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