# As Uber and Tesla struggle with driverless cars, Waymo moves forward



## tomatopaste (Apr 11, 2017)

https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/0...gle-with-driverless-cars-waymo-moves-forward/


When people use stories about Tesla, Uber, or Ford to argue that self-driving cars are still many years away, they ignore the fact that Google-now Waymo-has been working on this problem way longer than anyone else. In October 2015, Google was already confident enough in its technology to let a blind man take an unaccompanied test drive on Austin streets. Almost three years later, it's not clear if anyone else has managed to build technology as sophisticated as Waymo had three years ago.

So it might be true that the rest of the industry is failing to live up to early self-driving car hype. But Waymo is in a class by itself.

Meanwhile, for months, Waymo has been staffing up its operations center in Chandler, Arizona, (the center for its forthcoming Phoenix-area taxi service) as well as its Google Mountain View headquarters. Waymo currently has open positions for both fleet dispatchers-who handle calls from Waymo's safety drivers-as well as driverless fleet dispatchers, who focus on providing a "flawless rider experience."


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## transporter007 (Feb 19, 2018)

Waymo confirms, SDC will not shoot paying passengers. Pedestrians is a roll of the dice, but who cares about them


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

transporter007 said:


> Waymo confirms, SDC will not shoot paying passengers.


Nah, sdc will simply allow passengers to throw up in the car for the next pax to sit in, allow pax to squeeze 8 pax in a 4 occupant max vehicle, run red lights for no reason, never be able to get on a freeway, stop in the wrong possible place in traffic to pick up someone, not be able to go through a drive-thru, among many other things.


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## getawaycar (Jul 10, 2017)

Self-driving ridesharing vehicles make a nice rolling toilet.

To avoid the mess, these vehicles should come with an actual built-in toilet that is built right into the passenger seat. When you gotta go, simply lift up the seat and do your business. Hey I should probably patent this idea.


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## Notch Johnson (Dec 17, 2016)

I do wonder how they track the condition of the vehicle from one ride to the next. I suspect there will be a lot of vandalism of the interiors. They are have problems with those rentable electric scooters being trashed, but they are cheap to repair/replace. New carpet or seats for a car will be spendy.


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

Notch Johnson said:


> I do wonder how they track the condition of the vehicle from one ride to the next. I suspect there will be a lot of vandalism of the interiors. They are have problems with those rentable electric scooters being trashed, but they are cheap to repair/replace. New carpet or seats for a car will be spendy.


That might be the best thing about these things for drivers, the fact that in no time will they be messy and will quickly turn off anyone that got in one without worrying about them being death traps in the first place.


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## transporter007 (Feb 19, 2018)

Notch Johnson said:


> I do wonder how they track the condition of the vehicle from one ride to the next. I suspect there will be a lot of vandalism of the interiors. They are have problems with those rentable electric scooters being trashed, but they are cheap to repair/replace. New carpet or seats for a car will be spendy.


LOL! Carpeting hahaha

Dude, plastic seats and floors.
Any mess gets hosed down and out the drain


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## getawaycar (Jul 10, 2017)

transporter007 said:


> Dude, plastic seats and floors.
> Any mess gets hosed down and out the drain


LOL do you really think people would want to sit on ugly, uncomfortable hard plastic seats? It would no better than riding in a city bus which typically have hard plastic seats. Rideshare is supposed to be better than riding in a bus.


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## Mordred (Feb 3, 2018)

Whether SDC becomes a reality or not is honestly irrelevant in respect to Uber driver jobs. Uber is not making money with human drivers.


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## transporter007 (Feb 19, 2018)

getawaycar said:


> LOL do you really think people would want to sit on ugly, uncomfortable hard plastic seats? It would no better than riding in a city bus which typically have hard plastic seats. Rideshare is supposed to be better than riding in a bus.


Dude, they will for LOW FARES.
Or did the reason people use uber elude you.



Mordred said:


> Whether SDC becomes a reality or not is honestly irrelevant in respect to Uber driver jobs. Uber is not making money with human drivers.


And human drivers aren't making money with uber.
Human Drivers borrow money against their asset


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## Mordred (Feb 3, 2018)

transporter007 said:


> Dude, they will for LOW FARES.
> Or did the reason people use uber elude you.
> 
> And human drivers aren't making money with uber.
> Human Drivers borrow money against their asset


That depends on how much they drive and how much money they make. People who drive 30 miles to work are putting 300 miles a week on their cars. Same as many uber drivers.


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## transporter007 (Feb 19, 2018)

Mordred said:


> That depends on how much they drive and how much money they make. People who drive 30 miles to work are putting 300 miles a week on their cars. Same as many uber drivers.


LOL, but the guys driving to work earn substantially more than a non employee unemployable below minimum wage uber driver.


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## Mordred (Feb 3, 2018)

transporter007 said:


> LOL, but the guys driving to work earn substantially more than a non employee unemployable below minimum wage uber driver.


Not necessarily. I drive around 270 miles a week and make at least 500. In less than 20 hours. Better ratio than most regular working folks out there.


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## transporter007 (Feb 19, 2018)

Mordred said:


> Not necessarily. I drive around 270 miles a week and make at least 500. In less than 20 hours. Better ratio than most regular working folks out there.


You're not "making" $500 a week.
You're not the first math challenged uber driver.
Dara Khosrowshahi Loves you


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## Mordred (Feb 3, 2018)

transporter007 said:


> You're not "making" $500 a week.
> You're not the first math challenged uber driver.
> Dara Khosrowshahi Loves you


Yes. Lol. I would be driving about 60 miles a day round trip if I had a regular 9 to 5. Lots of people with normal jobs do that. Except I would only be working about 3 hours a day.. And idon't have an asshole boss.


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## observer (Dec 11, 2014)

getawaycar said:


> Self-driving ridesharing vehicles make a nice rolling toilet.
> 
> To avoid the mess, these vehicles should come with an actual built-in toilet that is built right into the passenger seat. When you gotta go, simply lift up the seat and do your business. Hey I should probably patent this idea.


Too late.


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## getawaycar (Jul 10, 2017)

transporter007 said:


> Dude, they will for LOW FARES.
> Or did the reason people use uber elude you.


LOL. They are already paying low fares, genius, while not having to give up any of the normal creature comforts associated with riding in a passenger car to do it. So now you're asking people to pay the same low fares while also downgrading the service. Good luck with that. Your half-baked idea might work in the ghetto but no one else in their right mind is going to want to sit on hard plastic seats at any price. Plastic seats will not prevent people from puking or pissing in the car anyway, leaving behind their trash and half eaten burgers, drug needles, etc.


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## Mordred (Feb 3, 2018)

getawaycar said:


> LOL. They are already paying low fares, genius, while not having to give up any of the normal creature comforts associated with riding in a passenger car to do it. So now you're asking people to pay the same low fares while also downgrading the service. Good luck with that. Your half-baked idea might work in the ghetto but no one else in their right mind is going to want to sit on hard plastic seats at any price. Plastic seats will not prevent people from puking or pissing in the car anyway, leaving behind their trash and half eaten burgers, drug needles, etc.


People won't make a mess in autonomous cars for the same reason that they don't make messes in manned cars. Uber will charge them a clean up fee.


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## getawaycar (Jul 10, 2017)

Mordred said:


> People won't make a mess in autonomous cars for the same reason that they don't make messes in manned cars. Uber will charge them a clean up fee.


But good luck trying to figure out what passenger was responsible for what mess at the end of the day. People will make a mess when they know there is no one watching them, and without a human driver there is no one watching.


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## Mordred (Feb 3, 2018)

getawaycar said:


> But good luck trying to figure out what passenger was responsible for what mess at the end of the day.


I'm sure that Uber has considered this. They will certainly have cameras in the cars.


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## getawaycar (Jul 10, 2017)

Mordred said:


> I'm sure that Uber has considered this. They will certainly have cameras in the cars.


Haha, but then you have to pay people to monitor the cameras, and now you're back to square one.
What's the difference between paying a person to monitor the camera and simply paying someone to drive the car, in terms of cost? Oh that's right there is none.

And paying someone to sit there all day staring at a video monitor has to be the most boring job in the world. Then you have the very significant added expense of transmitting live, wireless video footage from a moving vehicle, which is by no means cheap.


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## Mordred (Feb 3, 2018)

getawaycar said:


> Haha, but then you have to pay people to monitor the cameras, and now you're back to square one.
> What's the difference between paying a person to monitor the cameras and simply paying someone to drive the car, in terms of cost? Oh that's right there is none.
> 
> And paying someone to sit there all day looking at a live video feed has to be the most boring job in the world. Then you have the very significant added expense of transmitting live, wireless video footage from a moving vehicle, which is by no means cheap.


I didn't say video cameras. They could simply take a snap shot after each ride.


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## getawaycar (Jul 10, 2017)

Mordred said:


> I didn't say video cameras. They could simply take a snap shot after each ride.


Someone still has to be paid to look at all the snapshots, and you're back to square one.


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## Mordred (Feb 3, 2018)

getawaycar said:


> Someone still has to be paid to look at all the snapshots, and you're back to square one.


One person can be fed snapshots for hundreds of vehicles.. Simply flag the few that display anything out of the ordinary. Not costly at all.


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## tomatopaste (Apr 11, 2017)

getawaycar said:


> Someone still has to be paid to look at all the snapshots, and you're back to square one.


Incorrect. If the onboard software and sensors can scan the environment around the car many times a second, don't you suppose it can do the same thing inside the car?


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## getawaycar (Jul 10, 2017)

Mordred said:


> One person can be fed snapshots for hundreds of vehicles.. Simply flag the few that display anything out of the ordinary. Not costly at all.


The problem with having the camera active only between fares is that anyone can stick a piece of gum or piece of tape on the camera lens when it isn't active and you won't know who did it, especially when there are multiple passengers in one ride.



tomatopaste said:


> Incorrect. If the onboard software and sensors can scan the environment around the car many times a second, don't you suppose it can do the same thing inside the car?


That's a big assumption.


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## Mordred (Feb 3, 2018)

getawaycar said:


> The problem with having the camera active only between fares is that anyone can stick a piece of gum or piece of tape on the camera lens when it isn't active and you won't know who did it, especially when there are multiple passengers in one ride.


Cmon... Flag the taped camera photo. Ban them from Uber. This is a simple problem with many simple solutions Let's move on.


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

There is literally nothing to suggest Waymo has moved foward in any way.


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## Pedro Paramo66 (Jan 17, 2018)

Pl


tomatopaste said:


> https://arstechnica.com/cars/2018/0...gle-with-driverless-cars-waymo-moves-forward/
> 
> 
> When people use stories about Tesla, Uber, or Ford to argue that self-driving cars are still many years away, they ignore the fact that Google-now Waymo-has been working on this problem way longer than anyone else. In October 2015, Google was already confident enough in its technology to let a blind man take an unaccompanied test drive on Austin streets. Almost three years later, it's not clear if anyone else has managed to build technology as sophisticated as Waymo had three years ago.
> ...


Please stop worrying about self driving cars, 
self driving car is the last thing Uber is interested on, the main asset Travis has is the bunch of stupid creepy losers brainwashed willing to drive for charity and donations, Uber don't have to worry about, clean up, insurance, maintenance, repairs, parking, gas......... Uber know they have the stupid drivers willing to do that for charity and donations or less
Self driving car is a hoax Uber invented to threat the drivers: "you better keep driving for such ridiculous cheap fares because I'm about to replace you" and the stupid drivers believe so
Lol


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## tomatopaste (Apr 11, 2017)

Pedro Paramo66 said:


> Pl
> 
> Please stop worrying about self driving cars,
> self driving car is the last thing Uber is interested on, the main asset Travis has is the bunch of stupid creepy losers brainwashed willing to drive for charity and donations, Uber don't have to worry about, clean up, insurance, maintenance, repairs, parking, gas......... Uber know they have the stupid drivers willing to do that for charity and donations or less
> ...


Uber might be shady but they're stupid. They know sdc's will end Uber



getawaycar said:


> The problem with having the camera active only between fares is that anyone can stick a piece of gum or piece of tape on the camera lens when it isn't active and you won't know who did it, especially when there are multiple passengers in one ride.
> 
> No, that's a fact
> 
> That's a big assumption.





getawaycar said:


> The problem with having the camera active only between fares is that anyone can stick a piece of gum or piece of tape on the camera lens when it isn't active and you won't know who did it, especially when there are multiple passengers in one ride.
> 
> That's a big assumption.


No, that's a fact


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## transporter007 (Feb 19, 2018)

Mordred said:


> Yes. Lol. I would be driving about 60 miles a day round trip if I had a regular 9 to 5. Lots of people with normal jobs do that. Except I would only be working about 3 hours a day.. And idon't have an asshole boss.





getawaycar said:


> LOL. They are already paying low fares, genius, while not having to give up any of the normal creature comforts associated with riding in a passenger car to do it. So now you're asking people to pay the same low fares while also downgrading the service. Good luck with that. Your half-baked idea might work in the ghetto but no one else in their right mind is going to want to sit on hard plastic seats at any price. Plastic seats will not prevent people from puking or pissing in the car anyway, leaving behind their trash and half eaten burgers, drug needles, etc.


Passengers want SDC. THEY will feel safer Without gun toting, gun shooting, mental defect, rapist and convicted felon uber drivers.

The general public have a low opinion of uber drivers as unemployable odd balls .

Just read the postings, "odd ball" is being kinde. More like sociopaths, inability to conduct oneself in society, inability to secure gainful employment and inability to hold a job while expecting more from low wage low skill positions.


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## Mordred (Feb 3, 2018)

Pedro Paramo66 said:


> Pl
> 
> Please stop worrying about self driving cars,
> self driving car is the last thing Uber is interested on, the main asset Travis has is the bunch of stupid creepy losers brainwashed willing to drive for charity and donations, Uber don't have to worry about, clean up, insurance, maintenance, repairs, parking, gas......... Uber know they have the stupid drivers willing to do that for charity and donations or less
> ...





transporter007 said:


> Passengers want SDC. THEY will feel safer Without gun toting, gun shooting, mental defect, rapist and convicted felon uber drivers.
> 
> The general public have a low opinion of uber drivers as unemployable odd balls .
> 
> Just read the postings, "odd ball" is being kinde. More like sociopaths, inability to conduct oneself in society, inability to secure gainful employment and inability to hold a job while expecting more from low wage low skill positions.


Made 800 in 15 hours and 270 miles the other weekend. Winning.


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## Pedro Paramo66 (Jan 17, 2018)

Mordred said:


> Made 800 in 15 hours and 270 miles the other weekend. Winning.


Congratulations you are another Travis success story
Lol


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## IERide (Jul 1, 2016)

Guys, you’d better start to deal with the fact that in one year from now or less, if you are in a large market (LA, SF, NY, etc) you likely will not be driving for Uber as you will have been replaced by a SDC.. All other markets, you will have 1.5 to 2 years.

Thankfully Lyft is behind in the SDC arena and obviously there will be a small percentage of (mostly very old) pax that arent comfortable in an SDC - so you better sign up or Lyft if you aren’t already driving for them.


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## Mordred (Feb 3, 2018)

Pedro Paramo66 said:


> Congratulations you are another Travis success story
> Lol


Indeed


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## transporter007 (Feb 19, 2018)

IERide said:


> Guys, you'd better start to deal with the fact that in one year from now or less, if you are in a large market (LA, SF, NY, etc) you likely will not be driving for Uber as you will have been replaced by a SDC.. All other markets, you will have 1.5 to 2 years.
> 
> Thankfully Lyft is behind in the SDC arena and obviously there will be a small percentage of (mostly very old) pax that arent comfortable in an SDC - so you better sign up or Lyft if you aren't already driving for them.


Right guys!!! As uber phases you O U T, >>sign up with Lyft and continue the downward spiral of your life<<<Better than learning a marketable skill!
That's way too much work. "Learn" ha! We're uber drivers, we don't need no stinking learning. We know it all 

Uber driver Law Advice center
Uber driver Certified Financial Planners
Uber driver High Technology Advisors
Uber driver Business Growth Management
Uber driver State & Federal Tax Consultants
Uber driver "multinational billion $$$ companies" consultants
Problem is people don't understand us. It's all THEIR fault. They're not doing it right. We're right, yeah. We're right all the time and everyone else is wrong.

That lawyer earning high 7 figures knows nothing! I know it all!
That CEO earning $91ml annual wishes he knew what us uber drivers know.
$5 net an hour baby and a car that's walking the plank

Welfare, food stamps, assisted living federally funded group homes, that's the way to go!!!

Skills, education, money, respect, a future HA! They can keep it. I'm an uber driver!



getawaycar said:


> Someone still has to be paid to look at all the snapshots, and you're back to square one.


Facial recognition software
Dude, you're stuck in 1992
Parade has passed you by
And you're still waving the AOL U got mail flag

Sad


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## RamzFanz (Jan 31, 2015)

transporter007 said:


> LOL, but the guys driving to work earn substantially more than a non employee unemployable below minimum wage uber driver.


I accept that this is your reality. Not everyone is cut out for self-employment.

It's not mine.



getawaycar said:


> But good luck trying to figure out what passenger was responsible for what mess at the end of the day. People will make a mess when they know there is no one watching them, and without a human driver there is no one watching.


Internal cameras, pixel comparison before and after, mess detected in a trillionth of a second. Passenger won't even be a step away before the SDC TNC has it's cleanup fee.

Barring detection for whatever reason, the next passenger signs off on cleanliness before entering or, again, the car is sent to be cleaned and the SDC TNC rakes in the $$$.

Messes will be a profit center, not a hindrance. It's like back with VHS rentals, you either rewound the tape before returning it (clean up) or you pay to have it rewound (cleanup fees). The rental company _preferred _you didn't rewind.

Vandalism will be both a fee and a criminal charge.



IERide said:


> Guys, you'd better start to deal with the fact that in one year from now or less, if you are in a large market (LA, SF, NY, etc) you likely will not be driving for Uber as you will have been replaced by a SDC.. All other markets, you will have 1.5 to 2 years.
> 
> Thankfully Lyft is behind in the SDC arena and obviously there will be a small percentage of (mostly very old) pax that arent comfortable in an SDC - so you better sign up or Lyft if you aren't already driving for them.


GM bought what is probably the second place US SDC company, Cruise Automation, as well as a billion of Lyft. They are partnered. Today, on paper, Lyft is ahead of Uber. That can change in a heartbeat but Uber's not even in the running at the moment as far as we know. No partnership to build their SDCs yet and no project operating. Even when their SDCs are active, they suck a LOT.


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## IERide (Jul 1, 2016)

Hopefully nobody actually believed what I posted before..
It’s going to be years before we see SDCs on the road - it will come slowly, probably mostly as add-on features that the auto companies put into new cars - just like they are doing now with smart-cruise control, “auto pilot”, automatic emergency braking, self-parking, etc... Eventually you will be able to purchase a new Mercendes with ALL those features, that when turned on, will basically drive itself.

It will be YEARS after that before a fully, self-driving Uber Taxi pulls up to a random pin location placed by a drunk pax..

Anyone that thinks otherwise has to read past just the click-bait headlines and investor-fishing press releases..


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## br1anf (Mar 23, 2016)

IERide said:


> Hopefully nobody actually believed what I posted before..
> It's going to be years before we see SDCs on the road - it will come slowly, probably mostly as add-on features that the auto companies put into new cars - just like they are doing now with smart-cruise control, "auto pilot", automatic emergency braking, self-parking, etc... Eventually you will be able to purchase a new Mercendes with ALL those features, that when turned on, will basically drive itself.
> 
> It will be YEARS after that before a fully, self-driving Uber Taxi pulls up to a random pin location placed by a drunk pax..
> ...


Even if SDC's were perfected today, it wouldn't be financially viable for TNC's to invest in them. Uber burns through a Billion a year programing panic buttons and "improving the driver experience" on the app. Why would they want to pay 40 grand on a vehicle, not to mention maintenance, insurance, fuel, registrations, permits, and all the other costs when they have drivers to do it all for them?


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## IERide (Jul 1, 2016)

br1anf said:


> Even if SDC's were perfected today, it wouldn't be financially viable for TNC's to invest in them. Uber burns through a Billion a year programing panic buttons and "improving the driver experience" on the app. Why would they want to pay 40 grand on a vehicle, not to mention maintenance, insurance, fuel, registrations, permits, and all the other costs when they have drivers to do it all for them?


What you just said is pretty much explained in much greater detail, here:
https://uberpeople.net/threads/here...placed-by-self-driving-cars-read-this.249039/


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## tomatopaste (Apr 11, 2017)

br1anf said:


> Even if SDC's were perfected today, it wouldn't be financially viable for TNC's to invest in them. Uber burns through a Billion a year programing panic buttons and "improving the driver experience" on the app. Why would they want to pay 40 grand on a vehicle, not to mention maintenance, insurance, fuel, registrations, permits, and all the other costs when they have drivers to do it all for them?


Because a human-driven taxi service cannot compete against a robot taxi service. Impossible. Kalanick realized this.

"what would happen if we weren't a part of that future? ... Then the future passes us by basically, in a very expeditious and efficient way.


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## RamzFanz (Jan 31, 2015)

IERide said:


> Hopefully nobody actually believed what I posted before..
> It's going to be years before we see SDCs on the road - it will come slowly, probably mostly as add-on features that the auto companies put into new cars - just like they are doing now with smart-cruise control, "auto pilot", automatic emergency braking, self-parking, etc... Eventually you will be able to purchase a new Mercendes with ALL those features, that when turned on, will basically drive itself.
> 
> It will be YEARS after that before a fully, self-driving Uber Taxi pulls up to a random pin location placed by a drunk pax..
> ...


Um, wow.

There's already a Waymo SDC TNC service, live, open roads, real passengers, no driver. You're years behind in your predictions.

Oh, and they've ordered 85,000 more. Do you think they're really so stupid as to order 85,000 cars that aren't proven? If so, when have they made a misstep like this in the past?

SDC TNCs will (already have) precede privately owned SDCs by several years.


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## IERide (Jul 1, 2016)

RamzFanz said:


> There's already a Waymo SDC TNC service, live, open roads, real passengers, no driver. You're years behind in your predictions.


Link to source please.


RamzFanz said:


> Oh, and they've ordered 85,000 more. Do you think they're really so stupid as to order 85,000 cars that aren't proven? When have they made a misstep like this in the past?


Oh, this one I did actually read.. They DIDNT order 85,000 cars.. The article indicates they PLAN TO order UP TO 85,000 cars.. Read it again.. and, if I am incorrect, please leave the link to that as well..


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## RamzFanz (Jan 31, 2015)

br1anf said:


> Even if SDC's were perfected today, it wouldn't be financially viable for TNC's to invest in them. Uber burns through a Billion a year programing panic buttons and "improving the driver experience" on the app. Why would they want to pay 40 grand on a vehicle, not to mention maintenance, insurance, fuel, registrations, permits, and all the other costs when they have drivers to do it all for them?


Because:

A) They already pay all of those costs plus driver profit.

B) They will probably not own the fleet but partner with an auto company to provide it for a piece of the fare.



IERide said:


> Link to source please.
> 
> Oh, this one I did actually read.. They DIDNT order 85,000 cars.. The article indicates they PLAN TO order UP TO 85,000 cars.. Read it again.. and, if I am incorrect, please leave the link to that as well..


You're not aware of Waymo's Early Rider Program that launched in October of 2017?!

This article covers both. They ordered tens of thousands earlier this year and now 62,000 more. Delivery is expected to start later this year.


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## Immoralized (Nov 7, 2017)

This is funny when people think self driving cars be even operating in large volume even in the next decade. It not happening 
Uber makes money because they don't own the cars and all the expense is on the drivers. 

Soon as Uber goes into owning cars it going to go bankrupt within it first year. "not that the directors care" they have already filled their coffers "bank accounts" with tens of billions of dollars over the years  they have their "golden parachutes" it just time to sink the company now and let it fall like a house of cards before they all go and make the "next gig".


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## heynow321 (Sep 3, 2015)

Boober doesn’t make money. They lose it


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## RamzFanz (Jan 31, 2015)

Immoralized said:


> This is funny when people think self driving cars be even operating in large volume even in the next decade. It not happening
> Uber makes money because they don't own the cars and all the expense is on the drivers.
> 
> Soon as Uber goes into owning cars it going to go bankrupt within it first year. "not that the directors care" they have already filled their coffers "bank accounts" with tens of billions of dollars over the years  they have their "golden parachutes" it just time to sink the company now and let it fall like a house of cards before they all go and make the "next gig".


Groan. So blinded.

Waymo has ordered 85,000 SDCs. That's almost enough to replace every Uber driver in the US.

SDCs are real, on live roads, carrying passengers, no driver, being called by app, and have been since May 2016.

Uber already pays our costs plus our profit. Now, hand all of our profit back to Uber, how much is that?

Add in that Uber doesn't even need to own the fleet. Lyft is being provided a fleet by GM, who invested a billion dollars in Lyft and bought Cruise Automation. Uber has many auto partners. Uber will never produce a SDC, nor do they need to.


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## Immoralized (Nov 7, 2017)

RamzFanz said:


> Groan. So blinded.
> 
> Waymo has ordered 85,000 SDCs. That's almost enough to replace every Uber driver in the US.
> 
> SDCs are real, on live roads, carrying passengers, no driver, being called by app, and have been since May 2016.


if you think theirs only 85 000 drivers you are clearly delusional  Can't wait too see 85 000 self driving cars killing every pedestrian in the cities they operate in 

"In 2014, Uber announced that they had over 160,000 active drivers in the United States, and that number doubled in 2015 to 327,000 drivers. Assuming Uber continued doubling every year, by the end of 2017, Uber should have around 1.3 million drivers in the US."

I guess this is why you never got anywhere in life. When you think 85 000 dumb cars can replace one million plus drivers  not on any planet  These self driving cars are slower and they drive under the speed limit and if someone cuts them off they go even slowly or even stop entirely.

As soon as they start causing more and more accidents as the number of them increase on the road. Doesn't matter if it not their fault or not they are still a car with you know rubber tires and metal? They are not some flying turbo charged jet engine car like batmobile


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## heynow321 (Sep 3, 2015)

Immoralized said:


> if you think theirs only 85 000 drivers you are clearly delusional


He's just old and in decline. That'll happen to the brain...


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## RamzFanz (Jan 31, 2015)

Immoralized said:


> if you think theirs only 85 000 drivers you are clearly delusional  Can't wait too 85 000 self driving cars killing every pedestrian in the cities they operate in \
> 
> "In 2014, Uber announced that they had over 160,000 active drivers in the United States, and that number doubled in 2015 to 327,000 drivers. Assuming Uber continued doubling every year, by the end of 2017, Uber should have around 1.3 million drivers in the US."
> 
> I guess this is why you never got anywhere in life. When you think 85 000 dumb cars can replace one million plus drivers  not on any planet  These self driving cars are slower and they drive under the speed limit and if someone cuts them off they go even slowly or even stop entirely.


LOL! Dude?!

I'm talking about drivers on the road on average.

If you have a vehicle that can theoretically run 20-23/7, you don't compare it to a driver that signed up and drives on holidays, sometimes. I'm talking abut drivers on the road that the SDC would have to replace. That seems to be about 100,000. Even if it's twice that, our market is about to be cut in half. And by "about to be", I mean 2019.

Waymo is just one company, the tidal wave of companies about to catch up is going to be the real killer.


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## Immoralized (Nov 7, 2017)

RamzFanz said:


> LOL! Dude?!
> 
> I'm talking about drivers on the road on average.
> 
> ...


they don't run 24/7 and a lot of drivers already drive 12 online hours which is like 15 road hours per day.

The self driving cars have to be cleaned more often because no drivers in it be drinks spilled in the car, food and yes gum. I even have gum problems right now  even though i watch them like a hawk they still stick it into the seats 

Unless these self driving cars are self cleaning cars too they'll have to return back to base get cleaned and go back out to work which is going to eat 1-2 hours every time it does that which will be multiple times a day so comes back down to that full time driver been on the road 15 hours or similar 

you can't create more hours or add more hours and this dream that these cars going to work flawlessly 24/7 is delusional like i said before. They are not even going to be good as one full time driver.


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## RamzFanz (Jan 31, 2015)

Immoralized said:


> they don't run 24/7 and a lot of drivers already drive 12 online hours which is like 15 road hours per day.


Um, I didn't say 24/7.

The VAST majority of Uber drivers are occasional or part time. They are also mostly temporary. Have you ever heard of a driver requesting deactivation? They are counting "active" drivers which only means approved to drive, not full time, not even part time, not necessarily even driving at all.


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## Immoralized (Nov 7, 2017)

RamzFanz said:


> can theoretically run 20-23/7, you don't compare it to a driver that signed up and drives on holidays, sometimes. I


I don't see a lot of uber drivers on the big bucks going on lavish holidays mate  usually the type of people that living hand to mouth all day everyday all year round. if you stop driving for a week uber sends you a notice if you still want to drive. I guess that not checking to see u are active right? Clearly it said "active drivers" and it deem that you are active if you are drawing ur weekly pay.

You are not an active driver if you are not driving. It pretty clear cut and they see it on their system. It not like they call every single driver to ask them are you active buddy? Yes i heard of drivers requesting their accounts to be closed. But they check account activity automatically by the system in which the system sends out a notice to the driver asking them why have you stop driving for us?

Stop driving for a couple of weeks and you'll get it  when that happens he system flags you as inactive driver. Because that what you are when you are not driving... Inactive.


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## observer (Dec 11, 2014)

https://qz.com/1299513/the-gig-economy-may-be-smaller-than-we-think/amp/

Uber says it has 900,000 registered drivers. How many stopped driving? They want to keep all drivers on the books to show they are growing.



observer said:


> https://qz.com/1299513/the-gig-economy-may-be-smaller-than-we-think/amp/
> 
> Uber says it has 900,000 registered drivers. How many stopped driving? They want to keep all drivers on the books to show they are growing.


If Uber only retains 4% of drivers as has been reported,

https://www.google.com/amp/amp.time...rs-ditch-the-company-within-a-year?source=dam

That wouldn't leave many Uber drivers at all.


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## Immoralized (Nov 7, 2017)

observer said:


> https://qz.com/1299513/the-gig-economy-may-be-smaller-than-we-think/amp/
> 
> Uber says it has 900,000 registered drivers. How many stopped driving? They want to keep all drivers on the books to show they are growing.
> 
> ...


yes this makes perfect sense! 36 000 drivers service the whole of America 
going by those figures it should be about 100x surge for all of those drivers  you guys are making mega bux driving for uber...


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## RamzFanz (Jan 31, 2015)

Immoralized said:


> yes this makes perfect sense! 36 000 drivers service the whole of America
> going by those figures it should be about 100x surge for all of those drivers  you guys are making mega bux driving for uber...


100,000 or so.


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## Immoralized (Nov 7, 2017)

RamzFanz said:


> 100,000 or so.


you know hundred thousand uber driver figure or a bit over is the same for Australia with a population under 30 million that it services. That how many drivers that paid tax reported by the tax agencies. America been over 250 million in population the 900 thousand figure seem correct for the "active driver" bit.


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## observer (Dec 11, 2014)

Immoralized said:


> yes this makes perfect sense! 36 000 drivers service the whole of America
> going by those figures it should be about 100x surge for all of those drivers  you guys are making mega bux driving for uber...


That, or 85 and a half million drivers signed up for Uber and quit already.

It's obviously higher than 36K.


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## Immoralized (Nov 7, 2017)

observer said:


> That, or 85 and a half million drivers signed up for Uber and quit already.
> 
> It's obviously higher that 36K.


that how many drivers that were paying taxes that year and that how the tax agencies track the driver since uber report income to them. I don't know about American driver numbers but we have over hundred thousand active drivers paying taxes yearly.

Like i was saying population here almost ten times less than America. I find it hard to believe you'll have the same amount of drivers. Unless Uber/Rideshare not very popular and it is impossible to get an uber in the states.


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## observer (Dec 11, 2014)

Immoralized said:


> that how many drivers that were paying taxes that year and that how the tax agencies track the driver since uber report income to them. I don't know about American driver numbers but we have over hundred thousand active drivers paying taxes yearly.
> 
> Like i was saying population here almost ten times less than America. I find it hard to believe you'll have the same amount of drivers. Unless Uber/Rideshare not very popular and it is impossible to get an uber in the states.


You are equating population with Uber drivers.

Uber use in the US is low. It has some markets Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York City where they have more customers but overall most US residents have never used a rideshare app.

I myself don't have one on my phone and have only been in an Uber one time.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/amp.bu...-ride-hailing-apps-car-ownership-chart-2017-3

On the other hand, all three of my kids do use Uber occasionally.


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## RamzFanz (Jan 31, 2015)

Immoralized said:


> that how many drivers that were paying taxes that year and that how the tax agencies track the driver since uber report income to them. I don't know about American driver numbers but we have over hundred thousand active drivers paying taxes yearly.
> 
> Like i was saying population here almost ten times less than America. I find it hard to believe you'll have the same amount of drivers. Unless Uber/Rideshare not very popular and it is impossible to get an uber in the states.


Right.

Now, how many hours did those tax reporters work a year?


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## Immoralized (Nov 7, 2017)

RamzFanz said:


> Right.
> 
> Now, how many hours did those tax reporters work a year?


they worked enough to make more than $18 400 on rideshare for the tax man to even pursue them since the first 18 400 at least in Australia is completely "tax free".

The city I'm in have over ten thousand drivers, Adelaide probably has the same but the big populations are Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland sharing 80 thousand combine.


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## RamzFanz (Jan 31, 2015)

Immoralized said:


> they worked enough to make more than $18 400 on rideshare for the tax man to even pursue them since the first 18 400 at least in Australia is completely "tax free".
> 
> The city I'm in have over ten thousand drivers, Adelaide probably has the same but the big populations are Sydney, Melbourne and Queensland sharing 80 thousand combine.


I can't speak to Australia but here the vast majority of drivers are very part time and, because of deductions, almost none pay taxes on that income.


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