[LeifCarrotson]

If there were a fleet of a million Waymo cars, 2,000 support staff, and 2,000 engineers keeping a stable technology running, and vehicle wear and tear was low (possibly lower than a human driver running an ICE car ragged)...it could work. But they're going to be unprofitable for a long, long time.

[skywhopper]

2000 support staff handling troubleshooting, cleaning, and maintenance on 500 cars per person? Not likely.

[bryanlarsen]

Uber itself has 30,000 employees and 7M drivers and is highly profitable. Waymo could support a lot more staff than you suggest and be profitable.

[ghaff]

It's hard for me to believe that Alphabet/Google even wants to be this huge robo-taxi service in the long run. I have to believe they want to be a technology supplier. Which means they need to enable robo-taxis-are-us to be a cheaper taxi service than Uber et al.

[Bjartr]

The want it because time you spend driving is time you could have spent browsing the web and therefore looking at Google ads

[xnx]

Price needs to be comparable, but not necessarily cheaper. Waymo rides are safer, cleaner, and more private than Uber rides.