[bitcurious]

3. This also implies that even getting to driverless cars, Uber will only save 3.37 per hour, not making the business model viable, I would think.

Should be higher. Insurance, energy and maintenance will be cheaper at the scale of Uber's fleet. Driving style might be optimized for MPG. Cars will be available 24/7 with no downtime.

[s73v3r_]

But now Uber is responsible for purchasing the vehicles and the maintenance on them.

[dsfyu404ed]

They'll save more than that.

They'll be registering/insuring the vehicles in a state where it's cheap to do so.

Uber's geographic distribution results in the average uber driving paying significantly more baseline cost just to legally field the vehicle. Being able to choose your jurisdiction is probably a ~$1k per year savings over the current Uber driver average.

TBH one of the things I'm looking forward to about self driving cars is that states will be forced to actually compete with each other on registration/insurance/tax.

>Driving style might be optimized for MPG

If (NumSecondsLightHasBeenRed()) > 3 && NobodyInFrontOfMe){keepgoing()}

Not quite what you had in mind, was it? Remember, this is Uber, we're talking about.

[s73v3r_]

Every state in the union requires you to register your vehicles in the state they're in. You're not going to be able to register the cars in Deleware or South Dakota and have them driving in California.

[dsfyu404ed]

Yes you can. What I described is incredibly common in the rental vehicle business.

[s73v3r_]

For vehicles that routinely travel across state lines. Driverless Uber isn't going to be doing that.