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Uber may be looking to purchase thousands of autonomous cars, but it seems that no deal has been finalized:
Ride-hailing service Uber has sounded out car companies about placing a large order for self-driving cars, an auto industry source said on Friday. "They wanted autonomous cars," the source, who declined to be named, said. "It seemed like they were shopping around."
Loss-making Uber would make drastic savings on its biggest cost -- drivers -- if it were able to incorporate self-driving cars into its fleet. Volkswagen's Audi, Daimler's Mercedes-Benz, BMW and car industry suppliers Bosch and Continental are all working on technologies for autonomous or semi-autonomous cars.
Earlier on Friday, Germany's Manager Magazin reported that Uber had placed an order for at least 100,000 Mercedes S-Class cars, citing sources at both companies. The top-flight limousine, around 100,000 of which Mercedes-Benz sold last year, does not yet have fully autonomous driving functionality.
Another source familiar with the matter said no order had been placed with Mercedes-Benz. Daimler and Uber declined to comment.
Auto industry executives are wary of doing deals with newcomers from the technology and software business who threaten to upend established business models based on manufacturing and selling cars. "We don't want to end up like Nokia's handset business, which was once hugely profitable...then disappeared," a second auto industry source said about doing a deal with Uber. [...] Earlier this week Mercedes rival BMW said it was considering launching its own ride hailing service in what would amount to a rival business to Uber.
An order of 100,000 Mercedes S-Class cars would cost billions, even with a steep discount. Reuters hasn't removed the reference to the 100,000 Mercedes-Benz cars, as seen above.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by GungnirSniper on Monday March 21 2016, @01:23PM
You're an economic Luddite.
We can't have motorized vehicles, it will put buggy whip makers out of work.
We can't have machines make things, it will put craftsmen out of work.
We can't have telegraphs, it will make mailmen destitute.
We can't have refrigerators in homes, what will happen to icemen and ice houses?
We can't have sprinkler systems, firefighters will become redundant.
These vehicles aren't going to be self-cleaning, so there will be some people working to keep them fresh and neat.
You're also ignoring the benefits of cheaper personal transportation. Bars and restaurant patrons will be more able to drink knowing there is a safe, non-surge-priced ride available to them. Too-young-to-drive teens will be able to get around without moms in minivans. Elderly people who are unsafe driving themselves won't be housebound. DUI drivers can be taken off the road without taking them away from the economy. Travel to the airport and back will be cheaper. In many of these cases, the money isn't taken out of circulation but spent elsewhere. Then these Uber drivers will get other work that produces something, perhaps, instead of just a service.
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(Score: 3, Insightful) by bitstream on Monday March 21 2016, @01:49PM
You are right that for most people the money will be spent elsewhere. But the problem is that the money will be drained from most people and be spent on the coffers of the top earners (not by work). Thus taking them out of circulation and shrinking the economy.
Anybody heard about a shrinking economy as of late with difficult to find jobs? ;-)
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Monday March 21 2016, @04:52PM
Spent on the coffers? You mean re-invested in newer ways to make money?
And yes, thanks for reading my journal here. I'm working on another certification to increase my value in the job market.
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(Score: 2) by RedBear on Monday March 21 2016, @06:30PM
I never said any of that. I made the simple statement that the relationship between capitalism and human employment is antagonistic rather than symbiotic. When corporations can no longer afford to employ any humans, no humans will be employed. And as usual in these conversations, you're ignoring the fact that we are no longer in a rapidly growing economy and population where we are discovering (and using up) vast new natural resources every decade. What saved our economies in the past will not necessarily save us in the future. There were never very many buggy whip makers. There are millions of taxi and Uber drivers that could be quite rapidly replaced as autonomous vehicle technology arrives. The situations are not comparable.
Sure, 30 Uber drivers who were all making some kind of living wage will be replaced with one guy at the local Uber depot who vacuums cars out all day long. Sounds like a fair trade.
I don't want you to take this the wrong way. I don't intend to insult you, I'm just making a factual statement. You are a fool. I've seen people say things like this a million times about a million different different reasons that corporations have used to justify reducing their workforces. The implication is always that somehow the company's products or services will get cheaper and better. Never seen it actually happen in the real world. If anything in my observation products and services always get worse, and more expensive.
I cannot fathom why you would believe that giving your money directly to Uber rather than Uber drivers will cause transportation to be cheaper. Uber will still be happy to charge exactly what the market will bear, and will use surge pricing when they think it will benefit their profit margins without impacting their public relations too much. Everything in that whole paragraph is already available with the way things are now. The only difference when the cars drive themselves will be that a million or so Uber drivers will be looking for another new career in an extremely depressed economy. Yay!
¯\_ʕ◔.◔ʔ_/¯ LOL. I dunno. I'm just a bear.
... Peace out. Got bear stuff to do. 彡ʕ⌐■.■ʔ
(Score: 2) by GungnirSniper on Monday March 21 2016, @08:45PM
The inherent beauty of the capitalist model is everyone tries to improve the efficiency of the system. People will continue to prefer the human touch for decades, if not eternally, so competitors like Lyft will stay in business. The market will respond appropriately, rather than this fantastical ideal that businesses should exist to employ people. We all know how the USSR turned out, and it was killed by frozen Jell-O Pudding pops [chron.com] and the intentional over-employment of workers doing busywork.
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(Score: 2) by darkfeline on Tuesday March 22 2016, @02:35AM
Innovation is great so long as there's enough jobs for everyone, in our current economic system.
>Then these Uber drivers will get other work that produces something, perhaps, instead of just a service.
Like what, exactly? We throw away so much food, electronics, and consumer goods every year (in the US), we clearly aren't lacking anything.
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