One odd point, Waymo and Uber have a nascent partnership developing.
From Barron's, November 5, Updated Dec. 5, 2024 3:51 pm ET / Original Dec. 5, 2024 11:57 am ET :
Uber Stock Is Falling Because Waymo Is Expanding to Florida
The driverless ride-hailing platform says it will bring its vehicles to Miami early next year. It aims to offer services for customers in 2026.
Shares of Lyft and Uber Technologies dived after the driverless ride-hailing platform Waymo said it is expanding to Miami.
Uber stock slid 9.6% to $65.23 in Thursday trading, while Lyft shares fell 10.1% to $15.50. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.2% and 0.6%, respectively.
“In early 2025, we’ll begin reacquainting Waymo’s all-electric Jaguar I-PACEs to Miami’s streets,” Waymo said in a statement. “Through our new fleet partnership with Moove, a global leader in innovative mobility solutions, we’ll work to open our doors to riders in 2026, offering our ride-hailing service via the Waymo One app.”
Waymo was created in Google’s X research lab in 2009 and spun off into a separate company in 2016. Alphabet still controls the company, which offers self-driving rides in Los Angeles, San Francisco, and metropolitan Phoenix. Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai said on his company’s third-quarter earnings conference call in October that Waymo was completing more than 150,000 paid driverless-taxi rides each week.
Investors are worried that self-driving cabs will eat into Uber and Lyft’s market. How self-driving technology will shake out is far from certain.
Uber works with Waymo. It plans to deploy Waymo self-driving vehicles in the Uber network in 2025. The first cities Uber users will have the chance to drive in Waymo vehicles will be Atlanta and Austin, Texas....
....MORE
Since December 2021 Austin is Tesla's hometown. The Waymo/Uber move may be a bit too "in your face" for Tesla to ignore.
If interested see also:August 1, 2024
"China’s Robotaxi Dreams Spark Economic Anxiety Over AI’s Threat"
August 25, 2024
Uber Chooses Self-Driving Car Partners
October 24, 2024
"Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi calls Elon Musk's vision for Tesla robotaxis 'pretty compelling'" (UBER; TSLA)
October 25, 2024
"Alphabet's self-driving unit Waymo closes $5.6 billion funding round as robotaxi race heats up in the U.S." (GOOG; TSLA)
November 23, 2024
"Baidu’s supercheap robotaxis should scare the hell out of the US"
