Lyft Says Robots Will Drive Most Of Its Cars in Five Years (recode.net)

A week after its rival Uber began rolling out self-driving cars in Pittsburgh, Lyft has said it also expects to roll out its self-driving by next year. Its president John Zimmer outlined a "three-phase" plan for the company, noting that self-driving cars will be made available to Lyft users in the first phase. But in this phase, it only plans to roll out self-driving cars that can "drive along fixed routes" and that the "technology is guaranteed to be able to navigate." Recode adds: In the second phase, the self-driving cars in the fleet will navigate more than just the fixed routes, but will only drive up to 25 miles per hour. As the technology matures and the software encounters more complex environments, Zimmer wrote, cars will get faster. The third phase, expected to happen sometime in 2021 or 2022, will be when all Lyft rides will be completed by a fully autonomous car. Shortly after that phase begins, car ownership will see a steep drop-off, according to Zimmer. Zimmer, who has long been a vocal proponent of ending car ownership, set a date for the death of the personally owned car in major U.S. cities: 2025.

Comments

So a guy that runs a ride sharing company.

[sims 2]

Says that self driving cars will put an end to car ownership.

It could put a dent in it but unless this makes people so broke that they can't own their own car I think personal space will still win out.

Re:So a guy that runs a ride sharing company.

[PIBM]

Reason #1 it won't happen; families.

Here I have 4 kids, each requiring different car seats size / adjustments. We are bringing and keeping different stuff for the kids (Stroller, diapers, their favorite movies) which stay with us without needing to grab it at our Xth destination. Keeping our previous purchases safe while we go for our next stop, and the items we don't need at that stop (no stroller at the grocery store) is a major win that lyft rides won't provide.

It might definitely help reduce the percentage of ownership, but it certainly can't sign the death certificate.

Re:So a guy that runs a ride sharing company.

[ShanghaiBill]

And can you imagine haling a 'cab' for every stop in your running around at around $10 a pop?

What you are missing is that it won't be $10 a pop. Today, the biggest expense is the driver. Once the driver is gone, the price will fall dramatically. Also, a typical Uber/Lyft driver today drives for about 4 hours a day. A self-driving-car can operate 24/7. So the increased supply will drive down the price, while the lower amortization cost per ride will drive down the cost even more.

Uber and Lyft will also face pricing pressure from improvements in mass transit. Even for a bus, the biggest cost is the driver. As big human-driven buses driving fixed routes, are replaced with small self-driving vans driving flex-routes, prices will go down and ridership will go up.

Re:So a guy that runs a ride sharing company.

[Thud457]

Get back to me when Roomba can avoid smearing dogshit all over the house.

Then maybe I'll consider the possibility that a robot car can safely discern a child running into the street from a abandoned shopping bag blown in the wind.

Get out of your city more often

[Etcetera]

The tech industry would be much less hilarious if so-called visionaries left the Bay Area or the East Coast Boston/Phil/NY/DC metropolitan areas more often.

If you get out into the other 98% of America, you'd realize that a) we like cars and b) we like ownership of property and things like cars.

Stop trying to solve problems that only exist in San Francisco. Thanks.