Uber are getting shirty
Discussion
Sa Calobra said:
Don said:
Whilst I completely agree that employees should have proper rights...
why should Uber shelve plans for driverless cars?
All the big tech outfits are rushing to get the technology. It is coming. That's inevitable and nothing to do with Uber (other than them being a minor player in the industry, so far).
Driving as a profession is absolutely but surely going to be a short lived phenomenon from now on. This will be in our lifetimes, too. Less than twenty years, I reckon. The technology is almost good enough already: given our technological rate of progress twenty years might be an overestimate....
...but I digress.
They are angling about drivers livelihoods yet in the same business they are pushing and developing driverless technology to switch as soon as it's allowed/benchtested enough. why should Uber shelve plans for driverless cars?
All the big tech outfits are rushing to get the technology. It is coming. That's inevitable and nothing to do with Uber (other than them being a minor player in the industry, so far).
Driving as a profession is absolutely but surely going to be a short lived phenomenon from now on. This will be in our lifetimes, too. Less than twenty years, I reckon. The technology is almost good enough already: given our technological rate of progress twenty years might be an overestimate....
...but I digress.
Hypocracy is too strong a word?
ClaphamGT3 said:
Bit driverless technology will come. Current estimates are that level 5 autonomous vehicles will be commercialised and type-approved by as early as 2021. By that time Uber looks likely to have a proposition that will allow them to access that market. The LTDA will still be driving their God-awful vehicles, whining on about having spent 4 years doing the knowledge and playing the small child 'it's not fair' card to anyone will listen as their livelihoods disappear just as surely as the Fleet Street type setters and compositors' did in the 1980s
Absolutely right.Gecko1978 said:
The future is driverless cars you hail via an app with no artifocial wait time. These will be EVs and likely owned by a 3rd party who never even sets foot in it eh like a buy to let you might own 20/cabs they all go to a central lock up to charge up you pay a fee for that rest of time they are on the road making you money. The black cab an mini cab driver as a job is dead. Frankly this is a good thing no more tourist routes or costs for going wrong way. Flat fair in a efficient safe driverless vehicle. That is the future an tfl knows it will impact all sorts of public transport jobs so is trying to stop the tide of change.
True.Edited by Gecko1978 on Sunday 24th September 19:53
However, Uber will also be dead at that point as they get disintermediated by the car manufacturers.
The app tech is a very low barrier to entry at that point.
Vaud said:
ClaphamGT3 said:
Bit driverless technology will come. Current estimates are that level 5 autonomous vehicles will be commercialised and type-approved by as early as 2021. By that time Uber looks likely to have a proposition that will allow them to access that market. The LTDA will still be driving their God-awful vehicles, whining on about having spent 4 years doing the knowledge and playing the small child 'it's not fair' card to anyone will listen as their livelihoods disappear just as surely as the Fleet Street type setters and compositors' did in the 1980s
Absolutely right.jamoor said:
Vaud said:
It isn't. The platform behind the app is very, very costly to develop and tune.
The app is just a neat front end.
True but the car manufacturers will just have their own fleet of cars that will take you anywhere.The app is just a neat front end.
Why would they need uber?
Burwood said:
Wrong, pal. Many major car manufacturers are investors in uber and or their main global competitors.
Nothing wrong with hedging your bets, but there are big changes coming and the manufacturers with their huge capital arms are far better placed to benefit than companies reliant upon third parties.Because consumers don't want multiple apps.
They don't care which manufacturer takes them home, so there will always be a place for an app that can distil all available capacity to them at the point of need.
Uber may become more like sky scanner interfacing common apis or licensing their core platform to the manufacturers? Or just "auction" the view and need of the user based on user value to the available capacity...
They don't care which manufacturer takes them home, so there will always be a place for an app that can distil all available capacity to them at the point of need.
Uber may become more like sky scanner interfacing common apis or licensing their core platform to the manufacturers? Or just "auction" the view and need of the user based on user value to the available capacity...
Automatic and driverless cars on the streets of London.
Vandalism
Break downs
Collisions
Theft.
Sabotage
Who will sort this chaos out ?
The Police
They're struggling now.
The Councils
Oh, how funny
TfL
It will cost you
In theory it all sounds very Gerry Anderson
Very Clive Sinclair
Very George Orwell
Very Steve Jobs
A bit Docklands Light Railway
Next it's planes
People getting onto intercontinental ballistic transport
I, for one, will be hugely interested to see how it all works out.
Driverless cars.
2117
Vandalism
Break downs
Collisions
Theft.
Sabotage
Who will sort this chaos out ?
The Police
They're struggling now.
The Councils
Oh, how funny
TfL
It will cost you
In theory it all sounds very Gerry Anderson
Very Clive Sinclair
Very George Orwell
Very Steve Jobs
A bit Docklands Light Railway
Next it's planes
People getting onto intercontinental ballistic transport
I, for one, will be hugely interested to see how it all works out.
Driverless cars.
2117
loafer123 said:
Burwood said:
Wrong, pal. Many major car manufacturers are investors in uber and or their main global competitors.
Nothing wrong with hedging your bets, but there are big changes coming and the manufacturers with their huge capital arms are far better placed to benefit than companies reliant upon third parties.Otherwise a user would have to have Ford, Mercedes, BMW, apps, etc all polling for ride availability. Possible but you need an intermediary to manage the offers.
I am digressing but if anyone would like a debate about UX/CX, data privacy and federated analytics...
I think the likely outcome is people subscribing to manufacturers AVs instead of buying cars.
In London, consolidation models like Uber may still have success, but they will have more competition from manufacturers where none exists now.
When do you think this is all going to emerge...10 years?
loafer123 said:
I think the likely outcome is people subscribing to manufacturers AVs instead of buying cars.
In London, consolidation models like Uber may still have success, but they will have more competition from manufacturers where none exists now.
When do you think this is all going to emerge...10 years?
Sooner than that would be my hunch. We have been involved in quite a lot of research around this - and its impact on the built environment. The investment from manufacturers is immense and major towns and cities across the U.K. Are putting a great deal of work on how to manage this. No one has a crystal ball but it is not in any way fanciful to say that, within 10 years we will see all NON autonomous vehicles banned from urban centresIn London, consolidation models like Uber may still have success, but they will have more competition from manufacturers where none exists now.
When do you think this is all going to emerge...10 years?
stuttgartmetal said:
Automatic and driverless cars on the streets of London.
Vandalism
Break downs
Collisions
Theft.
Sabotage
Who will sort this chaos out ?
The Police
They're struggling now.
The Councils
Oh, how funny
TfL
It will cost you
In theory it all sounds very Gerry Anderson
Very Clive Sinclair
Very George Orwell
Very Steve Jobs
A bit Docklands Light Railway
Next it's planes
People getting onto intercontinental ballistic transport
I, for one, will be hugely interested to see how it all works out.
Driverless cars.
2117
I like haikuVandalism
Break downs
Collisions
Theft.
Sabotage
Who will sort this chaos out ?
The Police
They're struggling now.
The Councils
Oh, how funny
TfL
It will cost you
In theory it all sounds very Gerry Anderson
Very Clive Sinclair
Very George Orwell
Very Steve Jobs
A bit Docklands Light Railway
Next it's planes
People getting onto intercontinental ballistic transport
I, for one, will be hugely interested to see how it all works out.
Driverless cars.
2117
Vaud said:
It isn't. The platform behind the app is very, very costly to develop and tune.
The app is just a neat front end.
Yes, but... if AI-enhanced resource allocation is the future, there will not be a shortage of players. If physical infrastructure and equipment is not required (don't own the vehicles, just mediate their use) then the barrier to entry is only the algorythm and the market position.The app is just a neat front end.
The algorythm can be developed elsewhere (and will be if the addressable market is large enough); so that leaves market position.
On that analysis, Uber is indeed about creating brand awareness, market traction and driving out competition. And building large data centres / compute installations
So, with a mathematics hat on for a moment, solving the "travelling salesman problem" seems like a good place to spend time...
Gassing Station | News, Politics & Economics | Top of Page | What's New | My Stuff