Since they're using entirely electric cars that they will likely never sell so depreciation and maintenance will be favorable. There is the up-front cost of equipping the cars with equipment though, which I imagine is substantial.

For the high resolution maps, that cost is fixed per market area. It could limit a rollout to new markets by driving area.

On the other hand, they certainly have a much better vehicle utilization than the other ride-app companies. They cars are cooperating in covering an area, not competing for the rides there.

I mean, they're Google -- I'm guessing they're pulling out their "pointcloud of the entire world" for this one. The first point is a great one, tho; rideshare companies exist by offloading as much cost as possible onto their employees, and even then barely make it work.

Plus, at least some of the Waymos are super-fancy Jaguars -- tho it looks like roughly 20K Jaguars to 65K Chrysler minivans, according to Wikipedia. Still, they're all brand new vehicles; even with bulk discount, that can't be cheap.