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Waymo vs. Uber

4 points by the1plummie ↗ HN
With Waymo pushing rapidly into self driving ride sharing, what's Ubers future look like? Uber's network of riders and drivers might not be a strong moat against Waymo as riders can and will easily switch to lower cost service that Waymo is going to offer. So it seems crazy that investors are still pouring billions of funds into Uber. Do they bank on Uber going to beat Waymo in self driving game? What am I missing here?

2 comments

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askafriend
Self-driving isn't binary. Human drivers aren't going anywhere for the next 10-20 years at least in most parts of the world.

Uber is fine, they have a healthy business in their hands and a lot of potential to expand into a number of verticals with their operational expertise.

agitator
Think about it. What would you do if you were an Uber investor? Uber has a solid market, solid ecosystem, they just need to transition from humans to robots.

If investors do nothing, they are guaranteed to lose on their already existing investment. By dumping more money into the org, they can either beat Waymo or follow Waymo, and in either case, the return on that investment is astronomical. The cost will drop so substantially that people will stop buying cars and throw money on ride sharing services. And its not like 1 will win the whole market right off the bat, its a huge world, with many markets, many price points, many potential sales strategies. It makes sense to try to make money on this, because the cost/benefit analysis says it's worth the gamble.