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Comment by humanrebar | Hacker News Reader

> So basically this becomes viable with...

Well, some startups think they can make it viable. Either they can or can't, but making fun of them for reinventing "buses" isn't going to help.

Likely any company in this space is looking to as many users as possible while breaking even, banking on self-driving tech developing in the meantime. When the vans drive themselves, the economics will change drastically.

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A datapoint: there was a startup in Boston named Bridj that folded because it turned out to not be a viable model.

...facebook wasn't the first social network. To be clear, I'm not arguing it's a great idea. I'm arguing that it's not worth dismissing the work as ludicrous.

The fact that I'm arguing this on HN of all places makes me wonder what happened to the attitudes of hackers, geeks, and entrepreneurs. Let people do something dumb and fail. It's OK to do that sometimes. If it's dumb, don't invest in it.

When your biggest expense is employees, it's obvious that you're not going to get anywhere without increasing revenue or decreasing # of employees.

That's when you don't hire employees but entrepreneurs, you know, gig economy so you only need to pay them for however much rides they manage to get instead of a living wage like old fashioned bus drivers get.

Decreasing employees, or reducing wages, or renouncing labor regulations that ensure people make a living, etc.

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