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Comment by toephu2 | Hacker News Reader

I don't like the wait time though. I don't want to wait 5 minutes for my Waymo to arrive for a 10 minute trip down to the grocery store when I can wait 0 minutes and hop in my own car and just drive there myself.

I do like autonomous cars though, but they won't completely remove car ownership.

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It costs something like $10k-$12k per year to own a car in the US. That's a lot of robotaxi rides. But I can't imagine self-driven cars disappearing either, though I can imagine them being banned in city centers within a decade.

It doesn't cost anywhere close to that unless you are driving an absolutely insane amount of miles or have some ridiculous supercar where the insurance rates are insane.

Honestly it does not sound that far from reality.

I guess the parent is referencing this kind of study:

> The overall average cost to own and operate a new car in 2025 is $11,577 (decrease of $719 from 2024).

https://newsroom.aaa.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/UPDATE-A...

I guess we were thinking of different numbers. That's including depreciation, interest and sales tax, which I would consider purchase cost, not part of the cost to own. But

Makes total sense to include depreciation and finance if you're making a like-for-like comparison with robotaxis.

By self-driven cars you mean, a human self? By context I think you do but self-driven is maybe a strange phrase to use to differentiate from self-driving.

agreed. they'll make the most sense in dense cities like NYC where having a car is more inconvenient because you have to worry about parking.

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