Uber Melbourne flying taxis by 2023

[marty351]

Originally Posted by kmav23

There is a reason why big companies Google, Amazon, apple and car makers etc are trying to build autonomous cars, it's a trillion dollar industry.

Amazon and Space X are fighting it out for space now.

I'd rather see a man/woman/team on Mars before flying cars.

ooooh, that rhymes. (copyright marty351)

[Jastel]

Melbourne doesn't even have a TRAIN to the airport yet....

[Sprintey]

Originally Posted by Crazy Dazz

On a serious note, this is what is wrong with the Corporate World as it currently works.

Uber had a great idea, they pioneered ride-sharing on a large scale, got a huge job on the competition and should have parleyed that into an immensely profitable sustainable business. But the drive is to keep growing at an explosive rate, and once markets become established the only way to do that is to expand by diversifying. Which is great if there are legitimate opportunities available. But instead they are squandering billions on crap like autonomous cars, and this BS.
And the drive to fund this from their core business means they are being undercut by their competitors.

The autonomous cars are what will make the Uber business model profitable - article I linked had 50+% of business income gone in wages iirc. If they can liberate that, they are quite profitable.

[Citroënbender]

The number of Uber-marked vehicles I see breaching road rules - most commonly disregarding "No Stopping" signs - makes me hope that an autonomous fleet might be an improvement for other road users too.

[Sprintey]

There are no road rules anymore! The burden of road rules got shifted onto the poor kids doing 120 logged hours for Ps, while anyone else can come on all sorts of licences and drive any way they like!

As an example, one of our son's friends here for his masters, reckons the 12 points are a challenge and if you haven't used through them all you aren't living!

[Crazy Dazz]

Originally Posted by Sprintey

Here's a great recent article on them Dazz:

https://americanaffairsjournal.org/2...f-destruction/

I would disagree with some of their points, but essentially yes.
There is a disconnect between the Business, and the Corporate. The latter being overinflated by massive investment, overhyped, and with an (unfortunately all too common) model of chasing inflated share prices based on constant growth and acquisition.

Be interesting to see if the ride-share business survives once the corporate parent collapses.
Or more likely it will go through one of those corporate mergers, where everybody comes out claiming to be a winner, after writing off $20B.

[Crazy Dazz]

Originally Posted by Sprintey

The autonomous cars are what will make the Uber business model profitable - article I linked had 50+% of business income gone in wages iirc. If they can liberate that, they are quite profitable.

That's probably salaries paid to their executives and developers.

Not sure how an autonomous car would be cheaper than Sandeep and his 5yr old Corolla, working for about $3 an hour after fuel costs.

[Jastel]

Don't forget the lawyers, court cases and bribes to Pollies.