[PatentTroll]

"Uber is just waiting until driverless cars are a thing and then they will own transportation." I hear this all the time, but realisticly that's at least a decade away. Are Ubers investors prepared to pour $24bn into the company waiting for this nirvana? They certainly could, but I'm not so sure they will.

[LordHumungous]

A decade is being generous. Early adopters maybe by then but they'll be sharing the road with human driven cars for a long time to come. It's not clear to me how Uber profits from this scenario. My sense is that driverless cars are the shiny dangly toy that Uber is using to distract investors. But maybe I'm being too pessimistic.

[kamaal]

My guess is the 'low hanging fruit' part of self driving AI is now done. The real part has to now follow.

And it will be a few decades before we see anything decent.

[joe_the_user]

Not to mention that if you wind-up with a bunch of fully autonomous vehicles whose owners put them up for hire, that market might look utterly different from the current market for rides and so Uber's "first mover advantage" is rather hypothetical - like a company that rents horses to buggy drivers saying "wait till we have cars, then I'll be profitable, I won't have to pay anything for horse!"

[hashberry]

Realistically, Uber faces major competition from Google and Apple, both who are investing heavily in self-driving cars and have easy access to loyal consumers.

[up_and_up]

> Google ... loyal consumers

Name one physical consumer product that has garnered them loyal customers? Apple on the other hand...

[dragonwriter]

> Name one physical consumer product that has garnered them loyal customers?

Transportation is a service, not a physical consumer product. Google has plenty of consumer services (including some "meatspace" services, like Google Express) that have garnered them loyal customers.

EDIT: But perhaps most relevantly to competing with or commoditizing Uber, Google has Google Maps, which not only has a huge user base, but already has a ridesharing button in it. Now, AFAIK, all that does right now is give an estimated Uber price and a link out to the Uber app -- but its a fairly trivial move for Google either to include their own autonomous car service (if they launch one) or other Uber competitors in that link, and either eat Uber's business directly or at least weaken Uber's moat.

[petra]

you're correct.

Google maps has added new options to it's ridesharing:"New partners include 99Taxis in Brazil, Ola Cabs in India, Hailo in the U.K. and Spain, mytaxi in Germany and Spain and Gett in the U.K. They will sit alongside listings from Uber,"

Also, don't forget Google now surfacing a notification saying: "would you a half price shared taxi for your predicted route ? click to open Google maps" - sounds like a great way to form new habits for users.

[csours]

Nexus Phone users. I've re-upped for each of my phones after my first Nexus.

[untog]

I'm a Nexus user too, but Nexus usage is a rounding error in overall Android figures.

[hashberry]

Dude... Chromebook. I love Chromebooks and have them all over my house. Better than a tablet, less expensive than a laptop.