<story><title>Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car</title><url>https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/12/google-has-reportedly-stopped-developing-its-own-self-driving-car/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Ensorceled</author><text>Sharing isn&amp;#x27;t viable.  I don&amp;#x27;t want my 20 minute taxi&amp;#x2F;CaaS ride to become 30+ minutes as we drive off my route to pick up another rider (and wait for them to come downstairs, pick their way across the slush, close their umbrella, and FINALLY get in the god damn cab)</text></item><item><author>petra</author><text>&amp;gt;&amp;gt; Are cars going to be (even more) commoditised&lt;p&gt;Self driving cars as a service are much better deal for the consumer. And they&amp;#x27;ll be more commoditized[1], same as taxis are, from the consumer perspective. On the other hand, building the car with the highest reliability , and the lowest cost of operation , is a hard challenge.&lt;p&gt;But: if electric cars are going to win, cars may become mostly batteries on wheels, so a lot of power will go to the battery companies, maybe even to the point they&amp;#x27;ll build the cars(like Samsung is working on).&lt;p&gt;And about Tesla: a lot of it&amp;#x27;s value is about brand. cars as a service kill  branding(if everybody transports with a Tesla,it&amp;#x27;s  nothing special) . Maybe that&amp;#x27;s one reason why they don&amp;#x27;t want their vehicle as a service.&lt;p&gt;[1]One thing i&amp;#x27;m curious about : is taxi sharing realistic in a world of self-driven cars ? one guess: to make it viable, someone would have to build cars that are both shareable, but offer privacy for each of the passengers. And actually, this doesn&amp;#x27;t require self-driving to offer great value, so i wonder why aren&amp;#x27;t we seeing work on this?</text></item><item><author>emdowling</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s fascinating to see Google and (purportedly) Apple move in a similar direction away from developing their own actual cars and instead building the software platform. It makes a lot of sense for Google, who have always struggled with selling products direct to consumers. It is more surprising for Apple, but makes sense if you look at how they can add the most value.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m looking forward to seeing how this plays out. Are cars going to be (even more) commoditised at the low end and differentiated by the platform on top of it (Apple, Google, Tesla) in the same way phone carriers were commoditised by the iPhone? My gut is that they won&amp;#x27;t (industrial design is a huge part of choosing a car manufacturer), so the dynamics between platform and carrier (Toyota, Fiat Chrysler, etc) are going to be fascinating to see unfold. The traditional car industry moves at such a glacial pace, yet you have two tech titans ceding a lot of control to them.&lt;p&gt;Of course, you then have the &amp;quot;apps&amp;quot; that will run on top of them, like Uber. How they interplay with it all is another dimension too. Tesla has fired the first shot here by restricting usage of non-Tesla car pooling services. It is a worrying thought to think that buying a BMW might mean I&amp;#x27;m locked into only renting out my car through Apple-approved car riding services (and while I can&amp;#x27;t see Apple creating their own car pooling service, never say never).&lt;p&gt;Tesla seems to be the only player doing the entire stack from top to bottom. Very reminiscent of early Apple.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>aianus</author><text>&amp;gt; Sharing isn&amp;#x27;t viable. I don&amp;#x27;t want my 20 minute taxi&amp;#x2F;CaaS ride to become 30+ minutes as we drive off my route to pick up another rider&lt;p&gt;I drive for Uber part time and the majority of riders do choose the POOL option so I think you&amp;#x27;re wrong here.</text></comment>
<story><title>Google has reportedly stopped developing its own self-driving car</title><url>https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/12/google-has-reportedly-stopped-developing-its-own-self-driving-car/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>Ensorceled</author><text>Sharing isn&amp;#x27;t viable.  I don&amp;#x27;t want my 20 minute taxi&amp;#x2F;CaaS ride to become 30+ minutes as we drive off my route to pick up another rider (and wait for them to come downstairs, pick their way across the slush, close their umbrella, and FINALLY get in the god damn cab)</text></item><item><author>petra</author><text>&amp;gt;&amp;gt; Are cars going to be (even more) commoditised&lt;p&gt;Self driving cars as a service are much better deal for the consumer. And they&amp;#x27;ll be more commoditized[1], same as taxis are, from the consumer perspective. On the other hand, building the car with the highest reliability , and the lowest cost of operation , is a hard challenge.&lt;p&gt;But: if electric cars are going to win, cars may become mostly batteries on wheels, so a lot of power will go to the battery companies, maybe even to the point they&amp;#x27;ll build the cars(like Samsung is working on).&lt;p&gt;And about Tesla: a lot of it&amp;#x27;s value is about brand. cars as a service kill  branding(if everybody transports with a Tesla,it&amp;#x27;s  nothing special) . Maybe that&amp;#x27;s one reason why they don&amp;#x27;t want their vehicle as a service.&lt;p&gt;[1]One thing i&amp;#x27;m curious about : is taxi sharing realistic in a world of self-driven cars ? one guess: to make it viable, someone would have to build cars that are both shareable, but offer privacy for each of the passengers. And actually, this doesn&amp;#x27;t require self-driving to offer great value, so i wonder why aren&amp;#x27;t we seeing work on this?</text></item><item><author>emdowling</author><text>It&amp;#x27;s fascinating to see Google and (purportedly) Apple move in a similar direction away from developing their own actual cars and instead building the software platform. It makes a lot of sense for Google, who have always struggled with selling products direct to consumers. It is more surprising for Apple, but makes sense if you look at how they can add the most value.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m looking forward to seeing how this plays out. Are cars going to be (even more) commoditised at the low end and differentiated by the platform on top of it (Apple, Google, Tesla) in the same way phone carriers were commoditised by the iPhone? My gut is that they won&amp;#x27;t (industrial design is a huge part of choosing a car manufacturer), so the dynamics between platform and carrier (Toyota, Fiat Chrysler, etc) are going to be fascinating to see unfold. The traditional car industry moves at such a glacial pace, yet you have two tech titans ceding a lot of control to them.&lt;p&gt;Of course, you then have the &amp;quot;apps&amp;quot; that will run on top of them, like Uber. How they interplay with it all is another dimension too. Tesla has fired the first shot here by restricting usage of non-Tesla car pooling services. It is a worrying thought to think that buying a BMW might mean I&amp;#x27;m locked into only renting out my car through Apple-approved car riding services (and while I can&amp;#x27;t see Apple creating their own car pooling service, never say never).&lt;p&gt;Tesla seems to be the only player doing the entire stack from top to bottom. Very reminiscent of early Apple.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>alexc05</author><text>Though, with a self driving car sharing would not necessarily mean you both need to use it at the same time. The car could pick you up, drive your 20 minutes, then drive to the other person on its own and drive their 20 minutes. &amp;quot;Serial sharing&amp;quot; not &amp;quot;parallel&amp;quot;</text></comment>