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Comment by zizee | Hacker News Reader

Who is the customer for this? Sub $30k appeals to regular people. But why would regular people want to own a robotaxi? I want robotaxis to exist so I don't have to own a car. I want someone else to own it, and I pay to use it once in a while.

If this works, wouldn't just Tesla operate as a taxi company?

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Wait, why wouldn't I want my own robotaxi if it's cheap enough? Unless taking taxiw is much cheaper it seems much better to own one, especially for electric cars which have less maintenance requirements.

A lot of people I know like their cars and don't want to take taxis everywhere. Maybe I'm missing how it wouldn't be appealing to regular people.

I mean if the cost is the same then yeah you might as well own it, but that seems unlikely, unless you're in the car for most of the day. Owning means you'll need your own insurance and do your own maintenance (yes, EVs require this). What's the actual advantage to owning the car? So you can leave your stuff in it? Not owning it will force you to take your stuff out, which you should be doing anyway!

> if the cost is the same then yeah you might as well own it

The cost per mile will be the same for whomever owns the vehicles, thus i think many will likely be in the position where they would pay at minimum equal, and likely more by adding in a middleman. For a parallel look into the critical point of usage when renting a vehicle is cheaper per year than owning one today.

> What's the actual advantage to owning the car?

Minimal latency to go. No dependancy on availability of vehicles so you can be fully in control to meet your commitments.

The primary place this is an issue is competition at rush hours or holidays, where a large percentage of the population are all in commute simultaneously all delocalized from each other. An operator would need nearly 1 specific car for each of all of them in order to guarantee each could make their commitment… so, if cost is similar, and one vehicle needs to be guaranteed for you anyways, the questions becomes why wouldn’t people ensure that themselves by owning it?

I'm not say no one would want this. I'm saying that it's odd play. Most people that own their own cars do not want the limits of 2-seaters. 29k is a price point that appeals most to private buyers. If robotaxis exist, a lot of people would opt to not own a car at all.

Hypothetical here, but my mum's 88 and various relatives have had to give up driving around age 90 due to becoming dangerous, so I've been kind of looking out for something like this that could get her around in that event.

Another thing re the price point, in other news "Apollo launched its sixth-generation robotaxi at Apollo Day 2024 in Wuhan, Hubei province today, costing 200,000 yuan ($27,670), a 60 percent drop compared to its predecessor." https://cnevpost.com/2024/05/15/baidu-apollo-launches-6th-ge...

So maybe they are trying to keep up with the Apolloses. Which are actually out there taking rides - they are similar to Waymo.

I don‘t want a car, I want mobility

For sure but the best thing about owning a vehicle is object permanence - for both the vehicle and whatever is inside it. At a certain point it’s just easier and more efficient to own something than rent/subscribe etc. Of course taxis/rentals all serve a purpose but usually not for daily use.

What you need is a horse. Full self-driving, all terrain, net zero, ubiquitous fuelling infrastructure, built in alarm and self-defence capabilities, and fully reusable and recyclable.

I jest but I’m actually considering a horse to take my daughter to school, as it would shorten the journey considerably, as we live in tortured terrain in the middle of nowhere, and would allow her to go alone in a few years - again, mobility and utility are the goals for us here, not a car.

My father grew up in a somewhat rural Irish village and there was one farmer who would take his horse and cart to the pub (fairly anachronistic even in his day) in the knowledge that no matter how passed-out drunk he got the other patrons would load him into the cart and the horse would take him home. Take that, self-driving cars!

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