[standardUser]

Waymo and Uber have partnerships in some cities, like Phoenix, where you can only order a Waymo through the Uber app. So they don't view each other only as competitors, though I have no clue what Uber's thinking long-term.

[emilsedgh]

I've heard this argument again but just because you can hail a Waymo through Uber doesn't mean Uber can continue as-is. In a world where Uber is just the app, Uber's margins would be extremely thin and it wouldn't justify the market price it has now.

Also, why would Waymo, in the long term, use Uber for this?

They have the car, the driver, the app/software. They are not gonna share a big chunk of the profit with Uber in long term. The current partnership is probably just a tactical thing for both, not a strategic one.

[kilimounjaro]

I always assumed waymo would immediately kill uber, but really the likelihood is that there will be multiple self driving companies as well as human drivers in markets. A big city may need 2000 waymos most of the time, but 5000 waymos on a saturday night or when a big game is on. Google can either build 2.5x as many as they need, or they can keep other operators in the market to make the service more functional during peak times. It is likely that other operators will bring cars to market, and a unified app with different self driving providers will bring better service than any individual provider.

[dotancohen]

Waymo could develop some type of modular docker-type container that would significantly fill the interior of their vehicles, or maybe even replace the interior of their vehicles. So equipped, a Waymo vehicle could be used to deliver supplies and stock to small businesses throughout the city throughout the week. Think small chains such as convenience stores, they could lower the per-store inventory and refill from remote, cheaper-rent areas, if they had three Waymo deliveries during the work day.

Those vehicles would then be fitted with the human interiors for the high demand periods you state.

[tsimionescu]

If the businesses are reliant on the special deliveries, then you can't re-purpose them as you need more cars for people.

[dotancohen]

The idea would be that the deliveries happen during the day working hours, yet the people moving happens during the night hours. As implied by GP.

[AlotOfReading]

There could be a stable long term arrangement between Waymo and Uber. Think of the relationship between Nvidia and OEMs, where Nvidia gets all of the margin and only has to deal with B2B bulk orders that they can redirect at any time, while the OEM has to deal with all the expensive customer support, returns, recalls, and other annoying aspects of retail.

It's not a future where Uber is a viable company though.

[brookst]

Perhaps. Or it may be that Uber sees its long term future as lead gen and management for people/goods transportation, and Waymo sees itself as fulfillment of those.

Uber has tremendous brand recognition and marketing in ways that Google has never been good at. I don’t think it’s the most likely outcome, but I would not be shocked to see Uber take an minority ownership stake in Waymo, use it as the preferred self-driving option, and phase out human drivers in many areas over the next 10 years.

[TylerE]

How is Uber subcontracting a ride out to waymo really any different from subcontracting out to a gig worker? It's not an Uber employee or an Uber owned or maintained car in either case.

[tracerbulletx]

The app isn't the important part of that partnership, it's that they're managing and operating the fleets.

[iwontberude]

Maybe winning a finders fee is more profitable, Uber isn't high margin to begin with.

[boulos]

Small correction: in Phoenix you can also use the Waymo One app directly. In both Austin and Atlanta though, we are only available via Uber.

[tonyhb]

In the partnership model Waymo charges uber for the ride and Uber charges the customer.

The interesting thing is that uber loses money on every ride. Waymo charges Uber more than Uber charges the customer.

On Uber’s side, though, this is preferable to losing the entire ride. Uber loses much more slowly by controlling the distribution and losing a few dollars per ride than by losing the entire customer base with no revenue from these customers.

[dosinga]

This is true. Then again Google used to power Yahoo!'s search and then ended up replacing Yahoo! as the default web destination