
Waymo vs. Uber - the1plummie
With Waymo pushing rapidly into self driving ride sharing, what&#x27;s Ubers future look like? Uber&#x27;s network of riders and drivers might not be a strong moat against Waymo as riders can and will easily switch to lower cost service that Waymo is going to offer. So it seems crazy that investors are still pouring billions of funds into Uber. Do they bank on Uber going to beat Waymo in self driving game? What am I missing here?
======
askafriend
Self-driving isn't binary. Human drivers aren't going anywhere for the next
10-20 years at least in most parts of the world.

Uber is fine, they have a healthy business in their hands and a lot of
potential to expand into a number of verticals with their operational
expertise.

------
agitator
Think about it. What would you do if you were an Uber investor? Uber has a
solid market, solid ecosystem, they just need to transition from humans to
robots.

If investors do nothing, they are guaranteed to lose on their already existing
investment. By dumping more money into the org, they can either beat Waymo or
follow Waymo, and in either case, the return on that investment is
astronomical. The cost will drop so substantially that people will stop buying
cars and throw money on ride sharing services. And its not like 1 will win the
whole market right off the bat, its a huge world, with many markets, many
price points, many potential sales strategies. It makes sense to try to make
money on this, because the cost/benefit analysis says it's worth the gamble.

