[JumpCrisscross]

> the issue was cost

It has to be deeper. Google has deep pockets. Even it doesn’t want to touch them, one could sell interests in individual cars’ cash flows, a quasi-debt which neither dilutes the company’s equity nor puts its survival at risk.

[toast0]

They're spending a bunch of money on this already. Deep pockets doesn't mean infinite pockets. Google Fiber over promised, and the infinite pockets evaporated.

It makes a lot of sense to roll something like this out slowly. Taxi service is a commodity, putting out a bunch of cars that are have negative ROI doesn't get you much over having a few cars.

[UncleMeat]

Google has a shitload of money. But it also has 150,000+ employees. If everybody has loose pockets it becomes a disaster. Supply chain is also a problem. Even if a single piece of hardware is cheap, buying a gazillion of them is hard.

I find resource planning to be difficult and frustrating here at Google, despite billions and billions in the bank.