Uber Self-Driving Cars

"Uber is a play on self-driving cars" is a misleading but often repeated story.When Uber started and raised its first investment rounds, self-driving cars were too far away to be part of a business plan. I doubt the latest investors take that view either - spending billions per year until self-driving cars happen is a way too expensive way to build up a fickle user base who will switch the moment a competitor offers 10% lower rates.And when self-driving cars do arrive, there is n

Sans self driving cars, Uber's competitors are also losing cash, and they are losing cash faster than Uberhttps://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13772168

Why does Uber spend billions to subsidize drivers if self driving cars are on the horizon?

Removing the driver reduces the price significantly, so the business model of cars on demand is probably viable outside of dense areas with self driving cars.That being said, for Uber to win the self driving car race they have to beat Google, Apple, Tesla, Didi and the automotive incumbents as Sarah Lacy has been pointing out for at least 12 months.

Plus Uber is leveraged on the idea of having self driving cars, which won't materialize before they run out of money.

Let's say that's true; the folks at Uber are smart and they'll figure out self driving cars. Why does anyone think Uber will be able to maintain an advantage with that? What's to stop anyone from buying some self driving cars and opening their own service? How does the whole industry not become a race to the bottom? Hell, given the price wars going on now, I'd argue it already has.Uber is in a low-margin business where the only way to really increase profit is to scre

Uber like Airbnb is leveraging individuals capital (or ability of drivers to go into debt). However unlike ground in prime location they are literally stamping out new cars every minute. In case of self driving cars it is Uber putting up the capital and margins in transportation fleet business are smaller than what the current Uber valuation implies. Differentiation will be difficult.It is a risky strategy for Uber but it is hard to see an alternative for them.

I think self-driving cars would be a major challenge for Uber. As long as ridesharing companies need human drivers network effects ensure that Uber will remain at the top. But when driverless cars become feasible Uber's moat disappears. What's stopping an upstart company to buy/lease 10,000 self-driving cars and let them loose on the street? There's no reason for customers to prefer Uber over them. (This problem becomes more acute if Uber IPO's by then and have to worry

FWIW, I don’t think self driving cars would have made them a good business. Once you no longer need drivers, all you’re doing is deploying a fleet of automobiles. We already have companies that do this: taxi services and auto rental companies. They’re shitty, low margin businesses with tons of competition. The promise of Uber was being a monopoly because they were first mover on a market with network effects. Much like eBay. But self driving cars remove the network effect inherent in needing to

I wouldn't bet on Uber based on self-driving cars. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_car: most auto companies and most big tech companies are working on them, and I wouldn't bet that Uber can beat everyone from Audi to Google to the punch. It's more likely that they'll buy self-driving cars from whoever develops them first -- or that whoever develops th