[_yo2u]

I think waymo has advanced the tech pretty far but I am still worried about the legal and business aspects of self driving cars:

1. liability cross section scales with size of fleet if waymo is solely responsible for developing their algorithms

2. added operational cost of running a self driving car - is it worth it to average consumer? This is something everyone throws numbers out for but here is what i'm thinking:

- we have lots of examples of transportation systems that have some level of automation (eg. train, subway, planes) but even after decades of robust operations, nearly all of them still require operators in the loop. This is especially striking since rail systems/subways are as closed-loop and simple as you can get in terms of automation. As an outsider, it's unclear to me why they are needed but they are there. Is it because as fleets age, their parts wear down in unpredictable ways? Is it some regulatory requirement?

- for self driving cars, will the same expectation be there eventually? either a remote assistance driver or a chauffer safety driver? If that is the case, then it will be difficult for a self driving car to be cheaper esp with the added cost of all self driving tech stack and operational costs.

[jffry]

> added operational cost of running a self driving car - is it worth it to average consumer?

Early high-cost self-driving cars largely won't be owned by individual consumers where the cars spend the majority of their time parked. They will be owned by companies that sell access to them as taxis by the minute/mile and can justify the cost by minimizing downtime.