The issue for car manufacturers right now, is two-fold:
- Margins on cars are very thin, and haven’t gotten better.
- Car manufacturers depend on people buying cars. No one born in the 90s and above cares about doing that.
The issue with Waymo is not political or about safety. It’s that it annihilates now and forever the need to drive. The need for car ownership.
Who wants to lease a beautiful car for $800/month, having to drive, care about traffic, insurance, gas/electricity and all that? Less and less folks. The future is to not drive, period. I know people talk a lot about public transportation, but that’s a wrap as well; we went from public transportation to cars for many reasons, the obvious ones being the convenience and freedom afforded.
Waymo bridges those two designs.
I dream of daydreaming going to work instead of having to check my speed and decrease it because this idiot in front of me is checking their phones, or because this moron is not signaling that they’re about to make a turn even though it’s obvious that they’re about to. And I will have to do that 100 times a day so it seems. Pointless shit.
The only time people will enjoy driving is on road trips, and those are rare. Daily commute VS two or three times a year.
Car manufacturers are in massive trouble and because they supply enormous amounts of jobs to thousands of contractors, this is a huge blow into the economy. Hence UBI, again.