@11112011 The everything bubble needs to burst already so we can see valuations come back to earth.
Why would Apple breaking into an industry whose entire market cap doesn't match Apple somehow magically double Apple's market cap?
Why would Apple breaking into an industry whose entire market cap doesn't match Apple somehow magically double Apple's market cap?
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@dave @11112011
Uber can give you a ride. The driver buys and insures the car, the driver pays for gas, the driver maintains the vehicle, the driver makes sure nothing gets damaged in the car. If there is a broken sensor or something on the car and there's a check engine light the driver can still drive as long as the car is running acceptably. If a drunk throws up in the back of the car, the driver has to clean it up. For uber to spin up in a new city, they need to buy some ads and change a setting on their servers. Their competitive advantage is that they don't need to own anything in particular.
By contrast, on-demand autonomous cars seem like a much more capital intensive and higher risk endeavor. Apple (or some local transport company) would have to put up money in each city to manufacture a fleet of cars. They'd need a way to fuel up. They'd need local methods to maintain the vehicles. They'd need to pay for insurance. They'd need to find out ways to make sure passengers aren't destroying the cars while inside of them despite not having any people inside. If there was any issues with sensors or anything the vehicle would have to be immediately taken off the road because there's no human minder to safely make decisions without the machine. If a drunk throws up in the back of the car, they'd need some way to deal with that or the whole service would become "the pukey apple cars" that always smell because they pick up drunks. to spin up in a new city, they'd need to advertise, purchase or manufacture vehicles, establish some maintenance infrastructure, local security, local cleaning, local fueling, and all this will require local administration.
I mean, we'll see, but there are a lot of technologies that are said to bring on a revolution that either never make it to market or don't come in the way people think. I'm still waiting for that holographic media that was going to replace DVDs, it's only been 20 years.
Uber can give you a ride. The driver buys and insures the car, the driver pays for gas, the driver maintains the vehicle, the driver makes sure nothing gets damaged in the car. If there is a broken sensor or something on the car and there's a check engine light the driver can still drive as long as the car is running acceptably. If a drunk throws up in the back of the car, the driver has to clean it up. For uber to spin up in a new city, they need to buy some ads and change a setting on their servers. Their competitive advantage is that they don't need to own anything in particular.
By contrast, on-demand autonomous cars seem like a much more capital intensive and higher risk endeavor. Apple (or some local transport company) would have to put up money in each city to manufacture a fleet of cars. They'd need a way to fuel up. They'd need local methods to maintain the vehicles. They'd need to pay for insurance. They'd need to find out ways to make sure passengers aren't destroying the cars while inside of them despite not having any people inside. If there was any issues with sensors or anything the vehicle would have to be immediately taken off the road because there's no human minder to safely make decisions without the machine. If a drunk throws up in the back of the car, they'd need some way to deal with that or the whole service would become "the pukey apple cars" that always smell because they pick up drunks. to spin up in a new city, they'd need to advertise, purchase or manufacture vehicles, establish some maintenance infrastructure, local security, local cleaning, local fueling, and all this will require local administration.
I mean, we'll see, but there are a lot of technologies that are said to bring on a revolution that either never make it to market or don't come in the way people think. I'm still waiting for that holographic media that was going to replace DVDs, it's only been 20 years.