Infighting, Busywork, Missed Warnings:How Uber Wasted $2.5B on Self-Driving Cars

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8 pointsharambae2 comments

I remain baffled at how Uber thought it was in any position to develop self-driving cars. Their unique value has always been as a middleman, connecting drivers to passengers with a slick app.

Self-driving would barely even qualify as a pivot, it's a 100% reinvention of the company retaining nothing but the passenger interface. Could've saved a lot of money and effort and not killed someone by just selling the brand to Waymo once SDVs are a reality.

Self driving car would have been disruptive to their business model. Their biggest cost is drivers comp. Getting rid of drivers would boost their profit by an incredible amount. Not to mention all the political issues surrounding driver as contractors or full time employees with benefits.

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