Autonomous vehicles and robotaxis will affect car ownership, but how much?

bobcat

bobcat

Well-known Member
Location
Northern Calif
It is estimated that once robotaxis become widespread, the cost per mile would be around .50 per mile, which means a 20 mile round trip would cost you $10. If you normally drive 10,000 miles a year, that would be a cost of around $5,000.

Now contrast that to buying a vehicle (EV or otherwise), insuring it every month, maintenance, fuel or charging, and depreciation. Car ownership can be expensive. The robotaxi industry is betting many will ditch car ownership and just hail the driverless car when they need one. It would be just like hailing a cab in the past, but cheaper and quicker.

I don't think I would ever give up my vehicle, but I can see some advantages. It's just one less thing in life to deal with.
 

When autonomous vehicles become safe they will be great for seniors in keeping their independence.
And also provide safety for the rest of us from those seniors who keep driving when they shouldnt. :D

If robotaxis become safe and common place it probably will affect car ownership.
If I could call one and it would show up in say 20 min I would be open. I dont go out that often.
I would probably still keep the car for a while though just in case.
 
I don't know if I'd get rid of my car. I have to pick up my business mail at my p.o. box 2-3 times a week, and wouldn't want to call a cab for that. Sometimes on a nice day, I like to just take a drive for pleasure through the countryside around here, but I probably wouldn't pay for a cab to do it. I already stay home more than I should, and would end up staying home even more to save money. [Knowing that the cab wouldn't cost me more than upkeep on a car wouldn't incentivize me to call the cab - I'd still be careful of the cost.]

I wish our town had cabs, in case my car wouldn't start, or it was in the shop a few days for repairs, or it might be in the shop a month if it was ever damaged in an accident - then I'd have no way to go anywhere, since there are no car rental places here. Within walking distance (about a mile) there is a truck rental place - the big trucks are intended for moving, but they also have regular pickups for moving. I might go rent one of those.
 
bobcat said:
It is estimated that once robotaxis become widespread, the cost per mile would be around .50 per mile, which means a 20 mile round trip would cost you $10. If you normally drive 10,000 miles a year, that would be a cost of around $5,000.

Now contrast that to buying a vehicle (EV or otherwise), insuring it every month, maintenance, fuel or charging, and depreciation. Car ownership can be expensive. The robotaxi industry is betting many will ditch car ownership and just hail the driverless car when they need one. It would be just like hailing a cab in the past, but cheaper and quicker.

I don't think I would ever give up my vehicle, but I can see some advantages. It's just one less thing in life to deal with.
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i don't see anything about safety precautions for the passenger if something goes wrong with the car though. that would worry me.
 
MACKTEXAS said:
I don't know if I'd get rid of my car. I have to pick up my business mail at my p.o. box 2-3 times a week, and wouldn't want to call a cab for that. Sometimes on a nice day, I like to just take a drive for pleasure through the countryside around here, but I probably wouldn't pay for a cab to do it. I already stay home more than I should, and would end up staying home even more to save money. [Knowing that the cab wouldn't cost me more than upkeep on a car wouldn't incentivize me to call the cab - I'd still be careful of the cost.]

I wish our town had cabs, in case my car wouldn't start, or it was in the shop a few days for repairs, or it might be in the shop a month if it was ever damaged in an accident - then I'd have no way to go anywhere, since there are no car rental places here. Within walking distance (about a mile) there is a truck rental place - the big trucks are intended for moving, but they also have regular pickups for moving. I might go rent one of those.
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we have cab service but they are horrible and charge more than uber. uber is around $6 a mile. it cost me $22 to go to the eye doctor and back. if the ev was that cheap i might be on board but i would want to know what would be done for rider safety if something goes wrong like the car malfunctions or stalls, how do we get out of the car? ya know?
 
MACKTEXAS said:
I don't know if I'd get rid of my car. I have to pick up my business mail at my p.o. box 2-3 times a week, and wouldn't want to call a cab for that. Sometimes on a nice day, I like to just take a drive for pleasure through the countryside around here, but I probably wouldn't pay for a cab to do it. I already stay home more than I should, and would end up staying home even more to save money. [Knowing that the cab wouldn't cost me more than upkeep on a car wouldn't incentivize me to call the cab - I'd still be careful of the cost.]

I wish our town had cabs, in case my car wouldn't start, or it was in the shop a few days for repairs, or it might be in the shop a month if it was ever damaged in an accident - then I'd have no way to go anywhere, since there are no car rental places here. Within walking distance (about a mile) there is a truck rental place - the big trucks are intended for moving, but they also have regular pickups for moving. I might go rent one of those.
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Does your town have any Uber or Lyft service from private individuals?
 
bobcat said:
Does your town have any Uber or Lyft service from private individuals?
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I'm sure there are individuals who could be hired to drive a person places, but I never see any service like Uber operating here. It might be they would come, but the cost would be prohibitive since the nearest city to headquarter a service like that is a minimum of 35 miles away in any direction.
 
Uber and Lyft are mainly phone apps. I'm not sure how many seniors have those on their phones. We have Lyft here but I've not seen that many of them so I don't have that app.
 
I’m not convinced there’s really a monetary benefit to using a robotaxi for most people. I can’t see how, on average, it would end up being less expensive overall than owning a car.

A robotaxi would still need servicing and repairs. It would still have the cost of fuel or electricity as an overhead. Depreciation (resale value) still applies. And since it’s run as a business, there are additional costs to cover, such, vehicle insurance, separate business liability insurance (hopefully also a policy covering customers), not to mention dividends to shareholders. How about business taxes?

That’s before we even consider computing and cloud services to keep the system running -- not that I'm an espert on that type of thing.

So when I see figures like $0.50 per mile, it feels like a huge underestimate. Once you factor in all the real world costs of running a business like this, plus the 'profit margin' every stakeholder in the buisness will want to take, it’s hard to see how it could be consistently cheaper than personal car ownership, especially over time. Businesses aren’t created to make a loss.

Who pays for all of this? You, as the customer.

Just thought. Wait until they introduce 'dynamic pricing'. I wouldn’t put it past them. Apparently you can’t even go to Vegas these days without seeing it applied to drinks you order. The more you want something, depending on demand, the more you pay. 'Dynamic pricing' is creaping into a lot of everyday things these days.
 
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Magna-Carta said:
I’m not convinced there’s really a monetary benefit to using a robotaxi for most people. I can’t see how, on average, it would end up being less expensive overall than owning a car.

A robotaxi would still need servicing and repairs. It would still have the cost of fuel or electricity as an overhead. Depreciation (resale value) still applies. And since it’s run as a business, there are additional costs to cover, such, vehicle insurance, separate business liability insurance (hopefully also a policy covering customers), not to mention dividends to shareholders. How about business taxes?

That’s before we even consider computing and cloud services to keep the system running -- not that I'm an espert on that type of thing.

So when I see figures like $0.50 per mile, it feels like a huge underestimate. Once you factor in all the real world costs of running a business like this, plus the 'profit margin' every stakeholder in the buisness will want to take, it’s hard to see how it could be consistently cheaper than personal car ownership, especially over time. Businesses aren’t created to make a loss.

Who pays for all of this? You, as the customer.

Just thought. Wait until they introduce 'dynamic pricing'. I wouldn’t put it past them. Apparently you can’t even go to Vegas these days without seeing it applied to drinks you order. The more you want something, depending on demand, the more you pay. 'Dynamic pricing' is creaping into a lot of everyday things these days.
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Well, from what I understand is it's scale of economics, as well as upfront costs. If a business like Tesla or BYD makes their own cars, they do it at a fraction of what a consumer spends to buy one. When vehicles are used for personal use, they sit idle nearly 95% of the time, whereas a robotaxi will be collecting fees all day which spreads out the expense items like insurance, which they would also get a substantial break on due to fleet rates, and having a much lower risk of accidents than human drivers. Even their electric rates would likely be cheaper.

They would have their own fleet mechanics which would be cheaper than taking a single vehicle to a garage. Even bulk purchasing of parts and tires would be considerably lower. Some of their maintenance may even be done by their own robotics.

I have no idea if the projections will actually come true for them, and how many will utilize it, but it does seem to be catching on, so I guess time will tell.
 
I see it as a financial fact of life for many.

I think we will see a shift away from privately owned vehicles and stand alone homes in the future.

A concentration of younger people in large urban areas where public transportation, studio living, delivery services, etc… make sense.

It all reminds me of the shift from the farms to the cities during the industrial revolution, we’ll see.
 
Always see plenty of robotaxis in San Francisco but have never used them given public transportation. Has a place in urban core areas, however even urban people would need to have complementing rental vehicles available for traveling to distant and rural destinations that are much less expensive than today.
 
I drive a 2004 CRV that the women in my family have owned for 21 years (my mom, me, my daughter, me again). It has 105,000 miles on it. It looks good, inside and out.

I do not want to ride in a vehicle that drives itself, so I will just keep my car.
 

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