This Week In Rideshare: Lyft Drivers, Uber AI and Tesla’s “We, Robot”.
Lyft entices drivers, Uber uses AI and Tesla’s cybercab event. LegalRideshare breaks it down.
LYFT IMPROVES PAY
Lyft is trying to improve pay for drivers. Reuters reported:
Lyft is looking to make its ride-hailing platform more attractive to drivers by rolling out measures such as higher pay for longer-than-estimated trips and prioritizing members with a safe driving record.
In its latest move unveiled on Tuesday, Lyft is introducing a “preferred drivers” program, where members with a higher safe-driving score will receive more ride requests, a new earnings dashboard and electric vehicle rides that are linked to battery range.
Drivers will also be able to see the estimated hourly rate for each ride to help decide if a ride is worth their time and will get paid more for trips that are at least five minutes more than the estimated time.
UBER USES AI FOR EV
Uber is using AI for EV. Reuters adds:
Uber Technologies will roll out an AI assistant powered by OpenAI’s technology to help drivers transition to electric vehicles, as part of its efforts to lower emissions.
It will provide personalized answers tailored to the driver’s city and eligible incentives, Uber said. The company will also expand the chatbot’s use to answer queries beyond EVs in early 2025.
About 180,000 Uber drivers monthly are moving to EVs in North America and Europe.
“Uber drivers are adopting EVs five times faster than the average motorist in the U.S., Canada and Europe. In London, nearly 30% of all miles driven on Uber are now electric,” CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said.
TESLA’S CYBERCAB EVENT
Tesla’s cybercab event was short on details and long on promises. Forbes explains:
The surprisingly short event consisted of a talk on the virtue of robotaxis by Elon Musk, plus an opportunity for guests to ride in a prototype vehicle around the studio lot. Also present were Optimus Prime robots which danced and served drinks. One rare surprising reveal was a 20-passenger “Robovan” meant for group transportation.
Few details were provided. The Robotaxi, also known as Cybercab, is a two-seater which will eventually cost around $30,000. It will use wireless inductive charging rather than the Tesla NACS connector. Individuals will be able to buy them and operate fleets to make income, but no details on this were provided, and Tesla no longer operates a press office to answer questions.
In reality Tesla FSD is still in very primitive shape. It’s at about the safety level that Waymo was in 2016, and Waymo is only now starting to scale 8 years after that. While Tesla may progress faster than Waymo did, it suggests they have a long way to go in making working Robotaxi software and associated infrastructure.
It begins with another idea cited by Musk, that most private cars sit idle over 90% of the time, often much more. The thesis is that asset should be put to use, making money. That’s true for ordinary cars, but not for taxis. The typical taxi drives more than 60,000 miles/year. It wears out quite quickly, in 5–6 years, so it doesn’t wear out with time like a personal car, it wears out exclusively with miles. So if it sits idle, it’s only wasting the interest on the capital and the cost of parking. These costs turn out to be minor for a taxi fleet. One you turn your car into a reasonably used taxi, its life depends on how many miles of driving it does, not how long it sits idle.
Musk compared this approach to AirBnB. Originally AirBNB often rented out people’s actual homes and apartments while they were away from home. Today, almost all rentals are properties dedicated to being AirBnBs. Cars are likely to be the same, with dedicated fleets taking most of the business. Musk did talk about private owners who might buy several robotaxis and run a fleet, and that could be a possible business, but they would just need to put that fleet into a ride hail service, like Tesla’s or Uber. It’s unclear why Tesla would bother selling vehicles to people if they can so easily make money if Tesla hires them out. If the car is somebody’s private car some of the time, that can be a synergy, but to be the owner of a small robotaxi fleet is not likely to be a lucrative business.
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