[slackingoff2017]

I feel like the biggest hurdle these other tech companies see is a lack of "disruption" without automated driving. If a human is still driving then you can't really ever make the system more efficient.

Most tech companies have made their billions by automating processes and undercutting the old school competition. If you can't automate driving you can't build a strong competitive advantage against traditional taxi businesses.

Uber realizes this and they're willing to do anything, no matter how unethical, to get self driving vehicles first. That will be the true market disruption, and likely winner-take-all because you will instantly have such a gigantic cost advantage.

That's why you see Ubers competitors all working on self-driving. They're trying to leapfrog the next obvious evolution of the transport business.