[the urban politician]

Originally Posted by VivaLFuego

Part of the business model is also outsourcing the depreciation expense of the capital assets (vehicles), which has been estimated at something like $11 billion so far in the US alone. If you eliminate the drivers willing to acquire rapidly depreciating assets for you, who will eat that cost for the automated vehicles, which will be more expensive to purchase and maintain than a late model Camry?

Well, Uber can purchase the cars and the consumer can cover the depreciation. The money saved is in not having to pay the driver

I do enjoy that all of you real estate guys are getting woke now that the SV techbros are "disrupting" your industry... eventually a sufficient swath of national public opinion will turn against this entire class of rent-seeking a-holes wasting an entire generation's greatest creative human talent on valueless endeavors.

I don't count on that happening--at least for our younger generation. Many Millennials, being the fools that they are, speak out of both sides of their mouth. On one hand they hate Capitalist "evil corporations" yet on the other hand they hold up these tech founders as their heroes, even though big tech pretty much has all of the same lousy and self-centered, monopolistic business practices as the industries that they've "disrupted".