Hacker News Reader

Comment by toomuchtodo | Hacker News Reader

All that self driving progress Uber made is going to be wiped out by Google's lawsuit.

They'll probably settle and move on with life

I'm not sure that Waymo's lawsuit is the existential threat to Uber's self-driving program that other people think it is.

But if we grant for a moment the premise that the lawsuit could substantially set back Uber's program if it is won, and that it has a decent chance of winning, then what is the incentive for Google to settle? Uber doesn't just get to decide to settle unilaterally.

If we don't grant that premise, what is our basis for believing that the premise is untrue? Personally, I don't claim to really understand the ins and outs of these kinds of lawsuits, and am comfortably agnostic.

One reason for settlement would be a partnership.

Yeah, but Google doesn't need Uber. Google has the self driving tech (clearly), has the reach (Google Maps on Android and iOS). Uber? Ain't nobody need Uber.

That would be amazing if Google just added in Uber's entire business as a feature into Maps.

Since Uber is already in there [1], Google just needs to push out an app update that swaps the copy to "Waymo". Boom. A string change, and Uber's business model goes poof.

Was mighty kind of Uber and its investors to prove out the business model for Google.

[1] https://newsroom.uber.com/googlemaps/

That's a really interesting point! Other complexity in this business is the operational nightmare of efficiently managing a fleet, but if there's one company that has the tech chops to make this happen fast, it's Google.

Not a bad point, but Uber has market share. If you brow beat them into a partnership on favorable terms it would be quite useful.

Ehh, just strike a deal with Apple to share revenue if they ban Uber from the app store. Where's Uber going if they're not on the Play or App store?

Reply on news.ycombinator.com