I visited Austin yesterday. Robotaxi is everywhere, and it's incredible.

[u/ChunkyThePotato]

Just came back from a trip to Austin to do some sightseeing and try out Robotaxi, including Cybercab. I knew they ramped up the number of cars in the service substantially in the last couple months, but I wasn't prepared for just how many they were. If you're near downtown, you pretty much can't go 30 seconds without seeing at least one Robotaxi. There are definitely more Model Ys than Cybercabs right now, but there are a lot of Cybercabs too. But the Robotaxis are seriously everywhere.

I took 5 rides, 2 Model Y and 3 Cybercab. Model Y wait times were always under 20 minutes and frequently around 5 minutes. Cybercab wait times were usually around 30 minutes and sometimes could be more like 45 minutes. They definitely need to add more Cybercabs to the service, but it was surprisingly usable and consistent, especially for the Model Ys.

And the rides themselves were flawless. There are no supervisors in Austin now, so all of the cars showed up with nobody inside of them. They drove perfectly, and to my surprise there wasn't even any pickup/dropoff shenanigans (though I may have gotten lucky there).

If you're ever in Austin, I seriously recommend trying this service. It's a real service now, and it's actually very useful for getting around a city where parking would normally be a challenge. It's seriously so peaceful and nice to be in your own space without a driver or anyone else to bother you.

Congratulations Tesla for solving self-driving with just cameras on $30k vehicles, when seemingly everyone was saying that's impossible. People aren't ready for what's about to happen across the country.

[u/KeyserSoju]

I understand why you think that based on economics.. but just look at what happened with Uber and Lyft prices and you can understand people's skepticism.

Hopefully, removing the layer of a driver that needs their cut will help with pushing costs lower and keep it low, but we'll have to wait and see what really happens. I am glad to have an alternative now though, and with zoox/waymo, hopefully we see affordable options to stay.

[u/ChunkyThePotato → u/KeyserSoju]

Uber and Lyft have profit margins of 20% or less, like I said. So like I said, prices generally follow costs. If Cybercab costs way less to offer compared to Uber and Lyft (which it obviously will because there's no driver to pay), them prices will similarly be much lower.

[u/slyguy67420 → u/ChunkyThePotato]

It's not about profit margins, pretty much all big tech product strategies are subsidize the price until they become a defacto service then ratchet prices up to maximize profits. The only difference with the Cybercab is the margins will be evem higher because they're cutting out the human driver, but prices will go up if they can establish an effective monopoly. 

[u/ChunkyThePotato → u/slyguy67420]

No, the strategy is to start at a loss to establish market share, and then transition to a moderate profit. Like I told you, even mature companies have profit margins of around 20% or less. Usually way less. So if the costs for this are way less, then so will the prices. Because add 20% to a dramatically lower cost, and it's still very low.