I haven’t seen it mentioned anywhere and not sure I fully understand the legal speak of the permit, so I’m wondering - are they allowed to drive their cars (in California or elsewhere) with no people at all?
Reason is that while being an autonomous Uber might be the holy grail, self-driving empty capability will surely bring immediate value in balancing and maintaining car share and rental fleets.
They can't currently but that is the end goal. That's kind of why I feel Uber drivers trying to organize is just going to backfire on them since they are just temporary drivers until automation can take over.
So you think the drivers' strategy should be to fight for lower wages for themselves in hopes that Uber will be able to stay in business should self-driving cars emerge as a viable competitor?
Uber will replace human drivers with robots the second they can and not a moment later regardless of how much organization their current human drivers have done
On the contrary; drivers should try to get as much as possible ASAP while self-driving isn't here yet, because nothing will save them if and when it comes.
Reason is that while being an autonomous Uber might be the holy grail, self-driving empty capability will surely bring immediate value in balancing and maintaining car share and rental fleets.
Is this being explored by Waymo? Others?