How Robotaxis Might Mitigate Electric Car Depreciation (robohub.org)

Hallie Siegel writes: Autonomous car expert Brad Templeton argues that we're in for a period of about 5 years in electric cars where each year's new model is a lot better, and that could be a problem for people trying to sell them. Further exacerbating Moore's Law for cars is that autonomous features (like traffic jam assist) rely heavily on computers. Unfortunately cars cost a lot more than computers or cell phones, so throwing them away before the end of their lifespan is a bit of a problem. How do get over the depreciation problem while autonomous cars and electric cars are going through this period of rapid development? Templeton suggests that a taxi model could be the answer, since use is so much more intense that with a private ownership model, that the cars are likely to wear out before they become worthless from a resale perspective.

Comments

Don't buy new.

[sims 2]

If I buy a car from the dealership for $50,000 and then try to sell it 10 minutes later it's now worth $25,000 at most.

If I buy a used vehicle from someone for $15,000 and try to sell it 10 minutes later it's still worth about $15,000.

Why take the hit?

Also a car that is worn out still has a pretty poor resale value even if it is just a year old.