# Uber's Losses and it's push for Autonomous Cars



## Michael - Cleveland (Jan 1, 2015)

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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

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## Jermin8r89 (Mar 10, 2016)

I dont get how uber thinks autonomous cars would help them. Everyone knows how uber works right now so let me just go to the political side of things. Remember they tried to take over china and sunkin around $500 mil but failed horriably that is ubers fault they got to greedy in that communist state that rarely allows outsiders in. Look back at all legal issues more money down the drain. With how uber says we "independents" they r getting alot of money. Now they gonna have all these cars with maintance parking licenseing and also paying engineers big time money. Then on top of it they cutting fares 75% off? I think autonomous cars will make them go backrupt. Im reading this and it just dont make sense. If u a car company u would want to sell cars and have interest rates and carbon tax. The more i think about "autonomous world" in sense of capitalism it dont make sense


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

Michael - Cleveland said:


> http://www.slate.com/blogs/moneybox...shows_how_owning_cars_is_changing_uber_s.html
> *Why It's Getting Harder for Uber to Break the Law*
> SLATE / Dec 22 2016 by Henry Grabar
> 
> ...


Uber has no idea what it takes to maintain a fleet,unmanned,with the type of customers they have attracted.


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## Michael - Cleveland (Jan 1, 2015)

tohunt4me said:


> Uber has no idea what it takes to maintain a fleet,unmanned,with the type of customers they have attracted.


I doubt that the long-term plan for Uber is to own a fleet of cars, but rather to outsource the business to regional fleet operators - like car rental companies.


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## TBone (Jan 19, 2015)

Maybe they are running low on cash and can no longer afford to pay off the politicians. 

BTW, I don't believe Uber's claim they are losing money because they are "subsidizing" the drivers. From my reading, some cities receive special bonuses like boost but most do not. My city hasn't even done guaranteed hours in a long time and you can't drive surges only because you will rarely work.


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## Michael - Cleveland (Jan 1, 2015)

TBone said:


> Maybe they are running low on cash and can no longer afford to pay off the politicians.
> 
> BTW, I don't believe Uber's claim they are losing money because they are "subsidizing" the drivers. From my reading, some cities receive special bonuses like boost but most do not. My city hasn't even done guaranteed hours in a long time and you can't drive surges only because you will rarely work.


Subsidies are not driver incentives, but discounted rides, free trials, promos,etc. for riders.


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## Jermin8r89 (Mar 10, 2016)

They can be run as public transportation. Then u will have no choice but to except fixed rates. In boston if u go take train from north station to fitchburg 4 years ago it was like $8 now 4 years later its $11.50. On a side note i just got called about if i was paying for my electric bill. I said no and said ok sir ill make a side note. It was random telemarketer. Evwryone is watching after u


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## Mars Troll Number 4 (Oct 30, 2015)

Michael - Cleveland said:


> Subsidies are not driver incentives, but discounted rides, free trials, promos,etc. for riders.


Technically both are.

Anytime a drive gets money (or doesnt pay money expenses) f0r driving someone (who hasn't paid the full amount) it's a subsidy.


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## 123dragon (Sep 14, 2016)

As Tesla is adding electric miles, it is also adding Autopilot data whether the system is active or not. In November, Tesla had accumulated over 1.3 billion miles for Autopilot data. It's safe to assume that the number is now over 1.5 billion and the company will now start adding more data per mile with its new fleet of vehicles equipped with Autopilot 2.0 hardware and 360-degree camera coverage.

https://electrek.co/2016/12/26/tesla-global-fleet-3-5-billion-miles/

Uber is pushing or autonomous because the writing is on the wall. Either become a TAAS (Transportation as a Service) company or die like the taxi industry is in the process of. There is basically a race to be first to market with autonomous cars. Who ever wins will leap far ahead of everyone else and will be able to build a moat to protect their business much like uber has. 20 companies are in the race Tesla has a big lead and is in generation 2 of their autonomous system.

Long term I don't think Uber is going to exist, the car companies are going to provide TAAS and destroy Uber. The logistics data uber has is not as valuable as the autonomous driving data Tesla has.


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## RamzFanz (Jan 31, 2015)

Jermin8r89 said:


> Remember they tried to take over china and sunkin around $500 mil but failed horriably that is ubers fault they got to greedy in that communist state that rarely allows outsiders in.


They walked away with a billion in cash, 5 billion in Didi's valuation, and 20% of Didi's future profits. I would like to fail that horribly.



Michael - Cleveland said:


> I doubt that the long-term plan for Uber is to own a fleet of cars, but rather to outsource the business to regional fleet operators - like car rental companies.


Maybe. I hope so. I think they will probably partner with an automaker(s) to provide the fleet nationally for a share of the TNC pie. TNC economics greatly changes at that point for the better.



123dragon said:


> 20 companies are in the race Tesla has a big lead and is in generation 2 of their autonomous system.


I'm not so sure. A lot of Tesla's data is old predating many features and sensors. Personally I would put Waymo in the lead for robust and useful data but time will tell.



123dragon said:


> Long term I don't think Uber is going to exist, the car companies are going to provide TAAS and destroy Uber.


The car company who wants to win will probably partner with Uber, not go up against them. There are just too many companies out there that want a piece of this pie. Uber already has partnerships with several companies, details undisclosed.

I think you may be underestimating the value of Uber's market share as a leapfrog to the front of the pack.


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## 123dragon (Sep 14, 2016)

RamzFanz said:


> I'm not so sure. A lot of Tesla's data is old predating many features and sensors. Personally I would put Waymo in the lead for robust and useful data but time will tell.
> 
> The car company who wants to win will probably partner with Uber, not go up against them. There are just too many companies out there that want a piece of this pie. Uber already has partnerships with several companies, details undisclosed.
> 
> I think you may be underestimating the value of Uber's market share as a leapfrog to the front of the pack.


Waymo data is not on the scale of Tesla. Tesla gathers the data whether in autnomous mode or not. That's Musk's big disruption. Everyone else is perfecting it, Tesla is capturing data. With Jim Keller now doing the hardware at Tesla it's hard to ignore the guy is a total rock star at innovating hardware. This goes with Nvidia's method and believe of how to get to autonomous cars which is why Tesla partnered with them.

I initially though Uber's logistic data was a moat but I think Tesla's driving data is going to supersede it with time. We shall see.


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