Are Electric Vehicles This Next Decade’s E-Book?

[Riverumbbq]

Looks like less freedom and lowered expectations to me due to less perceived economic opportunity.

Why ? Rural citizens and many suburbanites will still opt for personal automobile ownership, although it's likely to be more expensive.

What are the lowered expectations ?
Convenience & monetary savings would be a higher expectation from my viewpoint. No more standing in lines for a drivers license or registration, no more auto insurance companies to deal with, no more down time while your car is being serviced by a garage, no more smog checks, no more DUI's, no more speeding or mechanical violation tickets to deal with, no more spending Sunday washing & waxing the car, ... police dealing with real crime rather than traffic stops & vehicle related issues. Sure seems like a net gain to me.

Less perceived economic opportunity ? How ?
More time means more money if anything. Tech & modernization always brings some economic shift. Railroads & vehicles killed Wells Fargo, autos killed the horse & buggy, aircraft affected everything, but very few would call that less economic opportunity being created. I realize some people have a more difficult time with adapting to a changing world, but it's gonna change with or without you, so enjoy the ride.

 

[nighttrain]

Convenience & monetary savings would be a higher expectation from my viewpoint. No more standing in lines for a drivers license or registration, no more auto insurance companies to deal with, no more down time while your car is being serviced by a garage, no more smog checks, no more DUI's, no more speeding or mechanical violation tickets to deal with, no more spending Sunday washing & waxing the car, ... police dealing with real crime rather than traffic stops & vehicle related issues. Sure seems like a net gain to me.
JUST MOVE TO IOWA, WE HAVE ALL THIS OUT IN THE COUNTRY!
train

 

[coconut]

Why ? Rural citizens and many suburbanites will still opt for personal automobile ownership, although it's likely to be more expensive.

What are the lowered expectations ?
Convenience & monetary savings would be a higher expectation from my viewpoint. No more standing in lines for a drivers license or registration, no more auto insurance companies to deal with, no more down time while your car is being serviced by a garage, no more smog checks, no more DUI's, no more speeding or mechanical violation tickets to deal with, no more spending Sunday washing & waxing the car, ... police dealing with real crime rather than traffic stops & vehicle related issues. Sure seems like a net gain to me.

Less perceived economic opportunity ? How ?
More time means more money if anything. Tech & modernization always brings some economic shift. Railroads & vehicles killed Wells Fargo, autos killed the horse & buggy, aircraft affected everything, but very few would call that less economic opportunity being created. I realize some people have a more difficult time with adapting to a changing world, but it's gonna change with or without you, so enjoy the ride.

Lowered Expectations-

Less individuality. Hey Joe I rented the car you did last week! Kinda like borrowing your dad's Buick.

Less freedom. You'll get the car when and if they get it to you.

Less Privacy. It will be monitored for speed and location and probably whatever is said or seen in the vehicle.

Less perceived economic opportunity-

If you make enough money you will want to buy your own car. Or boat. Or motorcycle. Or aircraft. Or snowmobile. You will likely buy a house to keep such things and hopefully build equity. If you don't see yourself making enough money you will compromise by whatever car sharing or renting option available. People haven't changed. Basic wants and needs are the same. The difference is they don't believe they can afford the costs of the car or house or insurance etc. That is the big difference.

 

[Riverumbbq]

Lowered Expectations-

Less individuality. Hey Joe I rented the car you did last week! Kinda like borrowing your dad's Buick.

Less freedom. You'll get the car when and if they get it to you.

Less Privacy. It will be monitored for speed and location and probably whatever is said or seen in the vehicle.

Less perceived economic opportunity-

If you make enough money you will want to buy your own car. Or boat. Or motorcycle. Or aircraft. Or snowmobile. You will likely buy a house to keep such things and hopefully build equity. If you don't see yourself making enough money you will compromise by whatever car sharing or renting option available. People haven't changed. Basic wants and needs are the same. The difference is they don't believe they can afford the costs of the car or house or insurance etc. That is the big difference.

The wealthier class will always have access to those things you describe, but not everyone requires a boat, a snowmobile or a plane of their own, and with a better distribution system for transportation, the same may one day be said for personal car ownership in a more urban environment.
Rapid transit is geared towards big cities and major metropolitan population hubs, not the diminishing farm belt. Many millions of people will find relief in time & money as well as the overall convenience, and this easily translates to higher productivity in the workplace.

Worrying over a cars arrival time would be a silly excuse, not a real world problem. Unless you have a long standing contract, from the moment you place a call for your vehicle, everything goes digital, with texted reminders, right down to the final billing, and it's not like there won't be competition in the marketplace, if one company fails, you go elsewhere.

The privacy issues you speak to is already a thing in today's vehicles with GPS & CV tech, if you are worried about what's being said, then stipulate that as a new law which protects those freedoms of speech and will carry a huge fine for violators. It's also possible some clever entrepreneur invents a portable auto debugging or cloaking device which will render microphones useless. When I need that kind of privacy, I simply keep my mouth shut.

Renters in urban settings should be the first to rejoice as reduced property taxes from buildings who would no longer require parking spaces, that savings should be directly passed on as cheaper rent. Also reduces or eliminates the need for congestive street parking in both residential & commercial districts.
jmo.

 

[coconut]

The wealthier class will always have access to those things you describe, but not everyone requires a boat, a snowmobile or a plane of their own, and with a better distribution system for transportation, the same may one day be said for personal car ownership in a more urban environment.
Rapid transit is geared towards big cities and major metropolitan population hubs, not the diminishing farm belt. Many millions of people will find relief in time & money as well as the overall convenience, and this easily translates to higher productivity in the workplace.

Worrying over a cars arrival time would be a silly excuse, not a real world problem. Unless you have a long standing contract, from the moment you place a call for your vehicle, everything goes digital, with texted reminders, right down to the final billing, and it's not like there won't be competition in the marketplace, if one company fails, you go elsewhere.

The privacy issues you speak to is already a thing in today's vehicles with GPS & CV tech, if you are worried about what's being said, then stipulate that as a new law which protects those freedoms of speech and will carry a huge fine for violators. It's also possible some clever entrepreneur invents a portable auto debugging or cloaking device which will render microphones useless. When I need that kind of privacy, I simply keep my mouth shut.

Renters in urban settings should be the first to rejoice as reduced property taxes from buildings who would no longer require parking spaces, that savings should be directly passed on as cheaper rent. Also reduces or eliminates the need for congestive street parking in both residential & commercial districts.
jmo.

Sure the wealthier will not be impacted. But that isn't the issue. The issue is the inability to maintain what is taken for granted as a middle class lifestyle. I fail to see the convenience in having to make arrangements for a car to be delivered as compared to your own already on the street or in your driveway. How much of your life is planned? Very little of mine is planned. I might have to or decide to want to leave whenever I want. That is convenience. That is also freedom.

A cars arrival time is a big deal especially if it doesn't arrive period. Everything goes "digital"? So in your experience that is trouble free? Ask airline passengers. Ask anyone with a service outage.

Yes those clever entrepreneurs frequently come up with solutions that are quickly deemed to be illegal. You may keep your mouth shut but maybe your passengers won't.

From what I've seen of cities any extra space gained from less needed parking spaces will be used to continue to pack more people in like sardines. I would expect the savings in space you claim to be like the claims that electronic records keeping would result in the paperless office. We know how that turned out. Plus eliminating the property tax revenue from individual cars and parking pass revenue will merely be passed onto the rental car user and likely all taxpayers under some other guise to make up for lost revenue.

 

[1maGoh]

The wealthier class will always have access to those things you describe, but not everyone requires a boat, a snowmobile or a plane of their own, and with a better distribution system for transportation, the same may one day be said for personal car ownership in a more urban environment.
Rapid transit is geared towards big cities and major metropolitan population hubs, not the diminishing farm belt. Many millions of people will find relief in time & money as well as the overall convenience, and this easily translates to higher productivity in the workplace.

Worrying over a cars arrival time would be a silly excuse, not a real world problem. Unless you have a long standing contract, from the moment you place a call for your vehicle, everything goes digital, with texted reminders, right down to the final billing, and it's not like there won't be competition in the marketplace, if one company fails, you go elsewhere.

The privacy issues you speak to is already a thing in today's vehicles with GPS & CV tech, if you are worried about what's being said, then stipulate that as a new law which protects those freedoms of speech and will carry a huge fine for violators. It's also possible some clever entrepreneur invents a portable auto debugging or cloaking device which will render microphones useless. When I need that kind of privacy, I simply keep my mouth shut.

Renters in urban settings should be the first to rejoice as reduced property taxes from buildings who would no longer require parking spaces, that savings should be directly passed on as cheaper rent. Also reduces or eliminates the need for congestive street parking in both residential & commercial districts.
jmo.

This car rental service you speak of...

Sounds like taxis. Or Uber. Only less middle/lower class people making money off of it. Taxis and Uber are pretty much maxed out in terms of usage now right?

The only thing that's going to get more people to use this is, as Mack likes to point out, being forced to because of insurance or other legal methods of forcing people into it.

And it's not going to be cheap. It will be, at best, sightly more expensive than closest current alternative. I haven't checked to see if Uber and Lyft have stopped operating at a loss yet, but that's why they were so cheap when they came on. They had to operate at a loss to entice people away from traditional taxis. Once they try to make a real profit, slightly above that will be the price for the super fast, super safe, etc etc on demand car rental service... If you want the commuter option. You want to be alone? That will be extra.

 

[tklongball]

The biggest problem with ebooks, is that they should be cheaper than they are. Rather than passing the publishing savings on to the consumer, they keep it. So you are left with buying an e-reader for convenience only, then having to pay paperback prices for the books. Barnes and noble generally charges me the same price or a dollar more for nook over paperback. Then they wonder why people don't flock to e-books.

Basically it is up to them. I would guess that if they charged $4.99 for a book on nook that they were charging $9.99 for in paperback, tons of people would make the switch and they would sell a great deal more. Most people don't want to pay extra for the opportunity to pay extra.

 

[Riverumbbq]

Sure the wealthier will not be impacted. But that isn't the issue. The issue is the inability to maintain what is taken for granted as a middle class lifestyle. I fail to see the convenience in having to make arrangements for a car to be delivered as compared to your own already on the street or in your driveway. How much of your life is planned? Very little of mine is planned. I might have to or decide to want to leave whenever I want. That is convenience. That is also freedom.

A cars arrival time is a big deal especially if it doesn't arrive period. Everything goes "digital"? So in your experience that is trouble free? Ask airline passengers. Ask anyone with a service outage.

Yes those clever entrepreneurs frequently come up with solutions that are quickly deemed to be illegal. You may keep your mouth shut but maybe your passengers won't.

From what I've seen of cities any extra space gained from less needed parking spaces will be used to continue to pack more people in like sardines. I would expect the savings in space you claim to be like the claims that electronic records keeping would result in the paperless office. We know how that turned out. Plus eliminating the property tax revenue from individual cars and parking pass revenue will merely be passed onto the rental car user and likely all taxpayers under some other guise to make up for lost revenue.

Look, i'm not a politician trying to convince you to accept the inevitable, i'm just suggesting a means where urban American transportation would benefit millions of people. I would go a lot further than just making driverless cars as available as an Uber or Taxi, I'd be doubling down on tunnels, electric buses & trolly's, subways, monorails and rail transit, even people moving sidewalks, etc.

Those against this may be happier in the suburbs or more rural areas, but most jobs are found in the big cities. In the early 1950's when the suburban movement really took off there was a breadwinner & this thing called a housewife, both automobiles and fuel were far cheaper, middle-class 4 bedroom homes sold for $15,000. dollars, traffic was lighter, people didn't lock their doors at night and kids were safe playing outdoors on their own. Some of those 1950's suburbs are now as congested as downtown big city areas due to massive growth & poor zoning. Now that vehicles, fuel and homes have become so expensive, and housewives joined the working class for the most part in order to maintain lifestyle, more kids than ever are latch-key, ... and many former suburbanites are trying to move back into the city to be closer to jobs and cut expenses.

I don't know you, but based on this conversation i'm guessing you live a more suburban or rural lifestyle, so if i'm right it's doubtful you'll be overly affected by big city rapid transit development, but engineers and city planners in places like L.A. will be expected to find solutions for present and future transportation needs, and tech offers some of those answers.
jmo.

 

[Riverumbbq]

This car rental service you speak of...

Sounds like taxis. Or Uber. Only less middle/lower class people making money off of it. Taxis and Uber are pretty much maxed out in terms of usage now right?

The only thing that's going to get more people to use this is, as Mack likes to point out, being forced to because of insurance or other legal methods of forcing people into it.

And it's not going to be cheap. It will be, at best, sightly more expensive than closest current alternative. I haven't checked to see if Uber and Lyft have stopped operating at a loss yet, but that's why they were so cheap when they came on. They had to operate at a loss to entice people away from traditional taxis. Once they try to make a real profit, slightly above that will be the price for the super fast, super safe, etc etc on demand car rental service... If you want the commuter option. You want to be alone? That will be extra.

I'm not stressing the dollar savings so much as the convenience at this writing. Still, there should be lower costs associated. When I mention a rental car service, what i'm trying to get at is something more the size of a very large automobile dealership, sales would actually become a small segment of their business, they would maintain a huge fleet of various vehicles, they would service them and insure them, they would also have purchasing power by means of fleet buying, something we individuals can't do on a single auto. When an order comes in for a car, the dealership merely checks availability on the desired car in stock, pushes a button and releases the driverless vehicle to its destination. If he doesn't have the auto on his own property, he can scan other dealerships in your vicinity for availability and delivery. Individuals using the service will have previously become a kind of club member, and pre-approval of credit will be done only once, not every time you want to rent a new car. The only real difference between this and a smaller agency like Hertz or Enterprise is scale, convenience & lower costs. If you have an everyday contract to take you to work or drop you off at a subway station and doing the same in reverse, you'd get a discounted rate. Thing is, unlike with a current rental agency where you pay by the day & mileage, along with fuel & often for parking, you would only pay for the time and mileage the vehicle is used, because when you get to your destination, the driverless electric rental automatically returns to a nearby dealership.

 

[Riverumbbq]

I've owned my Ford truck now for 13 years and it only has 16k miles on it LOL. Maybe I should use it once in awhile.

Damn, and I thought I rarely used my F350. It's a 2006 with only 80,000 miles on it, yours almost qualifies as a barn discovery.

 

[1maGoh]

they would maintain a huge fleet of various vehicles, they would service them and insure them, they would also have purchasing power by means of fleet buying, something we individuals can't do on a single auto. When an order comes in for a car, the dealership merely checks availability on the desired car in stock, pushes a button and releases the driverless vehicle to its destination

The only real difference between this and a smaller agency like Hertz or Enterprise is scale, convenience & lower costs.

Thing is, unlike with a current rental agency where you pay by the day & mileage, along with fuel & often for parking, you would only pay for the time and mileage the vehicle is used

Sounds like Uber or a taxi, except the parts about membership, contracts, and credit checking, which all make the service more difficult to use.

I get what you're saying and there's a lot of neat technology that goes into it that can improve service and cost on the dealer/rental owner side. The problem is that it's functionally a taxi. And all that best technology is going to be expensive, especially at first. To be competitive, places like this will have to operate at a loss for years until they can suffocate rival near-industry peers like driving your own car, mass transit, Uber, and taxis. When that tech becomes available your still looking at 7-10 years for wide spread adoption and a couple more after that before it becomes the norm. It's been at least 10 years since Uber started and Austin still has taxis.

This isn't changing everything any time soon and it's not as appealing as it looks initially. Mostly because people are shitty and shitty people are going to run the company, set the prices, determine the policies, etc. They will find a way to screw customers over for an extra buck until there's a real peer competitor. When there is the services are going to try and lock in customers. Once customers are locked in, we're back to screwing them over. Look at phone companies. They don't care. That don't have to.

If this becomes the predominant or only source of transport, these places won't either.

 

[coconut]

I don't know you, but based on this conversation i'm guessing you live a more suburban or rural lifestyle

Yes suburban/rural.

 

[Riverumbbq]

Sounds like Uber or a taxi, except the parts about membership, contracts, and credit checking, which all make the service more difficult to use.

I get what you're saying and there's a lot of neat technology that goes into it that can improve service and cost on the dealer/rental owner side. The problem is that it's functionally a taxi. And all that best technology is going to be expensive, especially at first. To be competitive, places like this will have to operate at a loss for years until they can suffocate rival near-industry peers like driving your own car, mass transit, Uber, and taxis. When that tech becomes available your still looking at 7-10 years for wide spread adoption and a couple more after that before it becomes the norm. It's been at least 10 years since Uber started and Austin still has taxis.

This isn't changing everything any time soon and it's not as appealing as it looks initially. Mostly because people are shitty and shitty people are going to run the company, set the prices, determine the policies, etc. They will find a way to screw customers over for an extra buck until there's a real peer competitor. When there is the services are going to try and lock in customers. Once customers are locked in, we're back to screwing them over. Look at phone companies. They don't care. That don't have to.

If this becomes the predominant or only source of transport, these places won't either.

I'm 67 years old, so I don't expect to see any of this in my lifetime, this is just a projection of what the future may have in store imho.

I disagree on companies taking big losses while waiting to grow their business, it's really more of an extension of what the big car rental agencies are already doing, but on a much larger scale and far more convenient for its customers. Right now, renting a vehicle takes about 15-20 minutes of paper work before they hand you the keys, even if you're a pretty regular user. With what i'm proposing, you do that once and done. It's like a taxi/Uber only because they also pick you up and deliver you & cover insurance/maintenence, but you remove the labor intensive driver & privacy issues with the vehicle being driverless.

Uber may never replace taxis completely, they have had some pretty bad safety reviews with regards to vehicles and abusive drivers, the hope was to displace the expense of a taxi, but wide-spread allegations of rape, assault and verbal abuse isn't going to win many friends. You create a market where taxi/Uber drivers are gone, eliminating half the expense, where vehicles are built strictly for comfort & convenience, business will grow fast. If such a business existed today, I would have sold my vehicles yesterday.
jmo.

 

[1maGoh]

I'm 67 years old, so I don't expect to see any of this in my lifetime, this is just a projection of what the future may have in store imho.

I disagree on companies taking big losses while waiting to grow their business, it's really more of an extension of what the big car rental agencies are already doing, but on a much larger scale and far more convenient for its customers. Right now, renting a vehicle takes about 15-20 minutes of paper work before they hand you the keys, even if you're a pretty regular user. With what i'm proposing, you do that once and done. It's like a taxi/Uber only because they also pick you up and deliver you & cover insurance/maintenence, but you remove the labor intensive driver & privacy issues with the vehicle being driverless.

Uber may never replace taxis completely, they have had some pretty bad safety reviews with regards to vehicles and abusive drivers, the hope was to displace the expense of a taxi, but wide-spread allegations of rape, assault and verbal abuse isn't going to win many friends. You create a market where taxi/Uber drivers are gone, eliminating half the expense, where vehicles are built strictly for comfort & convenience, business will grow fast. If such a business existed today, I would have sold my vehicles yesterday.
jmo.

But it's not like what car rental places are doing. It's exactly like taxis and Uber.

And Uber/Lyft taking huge losses is exactly what happened. It's not a maybe or a possibility. It's a fact. I mean, they were startups and lots of those that get VC money take huge losses to build up market share. It's not unusual. Read the book Blitzscaling by the PayPal/LinkedIn guy. Good stuff.

Anyway, the problem for Uber is that Lyft came along and the bad reviews popped up and that allowed taxis to hang on and they don't have the market share to raise prices to actually make a real profit yet (I think, again it's unconfirmed if they still lose money on every ride or not).

Edit: Confirmed they are losing money, unless you feel like excluding a bunch of money they have to pay.

Uber lost $1.1 billion last quarter, says rides are profitable (sort of)

Uber's rides made a profit if you ignore interest, depreciation, and other costs.

www.arstechnica.com

 

[Riverumbbq]

But it's not like what car rental places are doing. It's exactly like taxis and Uber.

And Uber/Lyft taking huge losses is exactly what happened. It's not a maybe or a possibility. It's a fact. I mean, they were startups and lots of those that get VC money take huge losses to build up market share. It's not unusual. Read the book Blitzscaling by the PayPal/LinkedIn guy. Good stuff.

Anyway, the problem for Uber is that Lyft came along and the bad reviews popped up and that allowed taxis to hang on and they don't have the market share to raise prices to actually make a real profit yet (I think, again it's unconfirmed if they still lose money on every ride or not).

I see it quite different. Uber consists of owner/drivers acting as independent agents, ... big rental agencies like Hertz & Enterprise are already in the rental car business and has the purchasing power and past experience to buy thousands of vehicles at a time at fleet rates. Their business plan would only require slight change. Uber/Lyft offers little in comparison and will die on the vine quickly once a driverless car is introduced and shuttles passengers off to their destination for less cost.

 

[Dieter the Brock]

I'm 67 years old, so I don't expect to see any of this in my lifetime, this is just a projection of what the future may have in store imho.

I disagree on companies taking big losses while waiting to grow their business, it's really more of an extension of what the big car rental agencies are already doing, but on a much larger scale and far more convenient for its customers. Right now, renting a vehicle takes about 15-20 minutes of paper work before they hand you the keys, even if you're a pretty regular user. With what i'm proposing, you do that once and done. It's like a taxi/Uber only because they also pick you up and deliver you & cover insurance/maintenence, but you remove the labor intensive driver & privacy issues with the vehicle being driverless.

Uber may never replace taxis completely, they have had some pretty bad safety reviews with regards to vehicles and abusive drivers, the hope was to displace the expense of a taxi, but wide-spread allegations of rape, assault and verbal abuse isn't going to win many friends. You create a market where taxi/Uber drivers are gone, eliminating half the expense, where vehicles are built strictly for comfort & convenience, business will grow fast. If such a business existed today, I would have sold my vehicles yesterday.
jmo.

I almost died taking an Uber from LAX to SB - it was late and the guy had been driving all day, and then by the time I got in his car, all night. We were just past Ventura and before Carpenteria on the 101 when I woke up and then noticed the dude started nodding off. Lucky I woke up cause the guy drifted at 80 something right toward the center divider - car would have been split in half. So i say “Hey man!” And he wakes up and corrects his steering.
I talked to him the rest of the way, like chatting him up to keep him from dozing off again. When we got to my place I offered to let the dude sleep it off in my driveway but he got back out of the road.
It was fucking insane.
I mean holy shit, how do you explain that to the wife? i died in an Uber.
Since he was a driver for both Lyft and Uber nobody was monitoring the hours this guy was driving, like cabs do or bus drivers do. Horror show

 

[Riverumbbq]

I almost died taking an Uber from LAX to SB - it was late and the guy had been driving all day, and then by the time I got in his car, all night. We were just past Ventura and before Carpenteria on the 101 when I woke up and then noticed the dude started nodding off. Lucky I woke up cause the guy drifted at 80 something right toward the center divider - car would have been split in half. So i say “Hey man!” And he wakes up and corrects his steering.
I talked to him the rest of the way, like chatting him up to keep him from dozing off again. When we got to my place I offered to let the dude sleep it off in my driveway but he got back out of the road.
It was fucking insane.
I mean holy shit, how do you explain that to the wife? i died in an Uber.
Since he was a driver for both Lyft and Uber nobody was monitoring the hours this guy was driving, like cabs do or bus drivers do. Horror show

It's crazy they haven't faced more regulation, Uber is like taking a taxi in a 3'rd world country.
It's unfortunate what you experienced, but these stories are getting all too common.

 

[1maGoh]

I see it quite different. Uber consists of owner/drivers acting as independent agents, ... big rental agencies like Hertz & Enterprise are already in the rental car business and has the purchasing power and past experience to buy thousands of vehicles at a time at fleet rates. Their business plan would only require slight change. Uber/Lyft offers little in comparison and will die on the vine quickly once a driverless car is introduced and shuttles passengers off to their destination for less cost.

The business side for the owners is different. I'm taking about the service provided. The one the customers use. The one the customers pay money for. The money the owners want. That service, the fundamental functionality that the businesses will provide is exactly what taxis and Uber/Lyft are doing and nothing like what Hertz/Enterprise are doing.

On the backside, the way to manage the money and resources will certainly be closer to Hertz than Uber, but it will also be pretty damn close to a taxi company.

Tell me if I'm describing Yellow Cab Company or hypothetical Rent Auto-Autos Inc, the fictional autonomous vehicle renting company. Here's the use case:

1. I notify the company I want a vehicle, where I am, and where I want to go.
2. Company sends a car to where I am.
3. Car takes me to my destination.
4. I pay company.
5. Car goes to the next pickup or back to the nearest company location

Now compare that to Hertz or Rent Auto-Autos.

1. I schedule a timeframe for me to take a car for a specific length of time, either in advance or by spring up to the lot
2. Either the company picks me up in the car to take me to the lot or I drive to the lot
3. I pay
4. I keep the car for a specific length of time and do anything I want with it for that entire period
5. I return the car to the lot

Customers are already paying for the first scenario, which is what you're suggesting these companies provide. The market is set and established already.

 

[Riverumbbq]

The business side for the owners is different. I'm taking about the service provided. The one the customers use. The one the customers pay money for. The money the owners want. That service, the fundamental functionality that the businesses will provide is exactly what taxis and Uber/Lyft are doing and nothing like what Hertz/Enterprise are doing.

On the backside, the way to manage the money and resources will certainly be closer to Hertz than Uber, but it will also be pretty damn close to a taxi company.

Tell me if I'm describing Yellow Cab Company or hypothetical Rent Auto-Autos Inc, the fictional autonomous vehicle renting company. Here's the use case:

1. I notify the company I want a vehicle, where I am, and where I want to go.
2. Company sends a car to where I am.
3. Car takes me to my destination.
4. I pay company.
5. Car goes to the next pickup or back to the nearest company location

Now compare that to Hertz or Rent Auto-Autos.

1. I schedule a timeframe for me to take a car for a specific length of time, either in advance or by spring up to the lot
2. Either the company picks me up in the car to take me to the lot or I drive to the lot
3. I pay
4. I keep the car for a specific length of time and do anything I want with it for that entire period
5. I return the car to the lot

Customers are already paying for the first scenario, which is what you're suggesting these companies provide. The market is set and established already.

I'm not sure what your point is in describing what we already know about Uber/Taxis and a rental car agency. I can speak from my own experiences having rented many cars and to a lesser degree, taxis.
The savings per ride for a customer using a driverless rental over a taxi/Uber should be substantial as the driver is eliminated from the labor pool, the savings from a traditional rental car agency would be less, although a driverless car should be somewhat less expensive due to scale and fleet purchasing of not only the automobile but the insurance also, ... still, the real gain is comfort with increased design features as drivers are no longer what you build around, ... and the convenience of not dealing with insurance, servicing, DMV, police, etc.
A large rental car agency using driverless vehicles offers a service far different from either of the existing available services, but any business plan transition that might be required to form it should be easier tackled by a company(s) that is/are already well versed in something familiar or similar.
Automobile manufacturers are closing plants and making changes already as they seek future growth, they could join forces or compete against rental agencies for market share. They also can expand in a manner similar to how food distributers offer discounts for shelf space to supermarkets.
The future is wide open to this kind of speculation, what transpires will likely take longer or come with some new tech which turns everything upside down, we'll just have to see.

 

[coconut]

The savings per ride for a customer using a driverless rental over a taxi/Uber should be substantial as the driver is eliminated from the labor pool,

Eliminating jobs without supplying better ones is not wise.