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Comment by sytelus | Hacker News Reader

TLDR; Waymo will be spinning up new company next month exclusively for app based rides (name is being kept secret). Fares will be competitive with Uber/Lyft. They did year long test drive for 400 customers in Phoenix. These same customers would be offered initial access. Other competitors still remains far behind in terms of disengagement metric.

This will mark the first ever commercial self-driving cab service.

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There have been rumors of Waymo preparing 60,000 self-driving cars. So next year (or two) could be game changer.

That is not a rumor. Google and Fiat announced the deal. Remember, the entire game for self-driving-car journalists is finding new and creative ways to ignore the fact that Waymo is obviously far ahead of everyone else. They ordered 62000 vans, but Cruise's big advantage is partnership with GM. Uber kills people while Waymo has been shuttling hundreds of people around Arizona for months, but keep writing about how it's a horse race.

https://www.freep.com/story/money/cars/chrysler/2018/05/31/w...

Why spin up a new company? Is it to limit liability?

Waymo does the R&D for the autonomous driver.

Then separate companies build a business around each use case to monetize the driver.

1) Consumer rideshare

2) Courier / delivery

3) Corporate / fleet / trucking

4) License driver tech to OEMs

5) Lease self-driving vehicles outright

6) ???

It looks like Waymo might become provider of tech to sub-companies that operates specialized segments like self-driving cab, self-driving food deliveries, self-driving trucks, etc.

Chandler. A wealthier suburb of Phoenix.

While I was there, the local TV channels ran segments a couple times a day. Very well done.

I assume it was paid editorial content.

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