[tim-fan]

On the other hand, insurance costs for robotaxis should be lower if they are able to drive significantly safer.

Then the one I'm more interested / excited for: optimizing the fleet for the cargo. If most trips involve single passengers, then most cars can be small electric single seaters. This can further reduce insurance costs as well as fuel, maintenance and depreciation.

I'd hope that's enough to offset the price of the sensors, compute hardware, and engineers to maintain the system.

But yes paying back investors; not sure how long that would lead to elevated costs for riders.