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That raises another question for me: I thought Uber and Lyft[0] had COVID-related cleaning protocols that require their drivers to disinfect some surfaces of the car after each ride. How can a driverless car do that?

[0] https://www.lyft.com/driver/clean

Do they? I've ridden plenty of ubers in the past year and haven't noticed any such disinfecting.

Why would you? Presumably they don't do it while you're there.

And you still think they do it?

You would smell the alcohol

Sounds like getting rid of some hygiene theater is another benefit of self-driving cars then.

Covid transmission via surfaces is basically non-existent, as far as we can tell.

Easy to add cameras and have someone remotely decide to send the car to get cleaned.

I'm sure that any of these services are going to depend on customers reporting when a car shows up in an unacceptable condition.

That sounds like a great way to burn reputation among your customers. "Why would I take a self driving car from the bar, the last one was full of puke?"