Waymo’s robotaxis are now available to everyone in Los Angeles

[edwest4]

https://www.theverge.com/2024/11/12/24293598/waymo-los-angeles-robotaxi-no-waitlist

 

[Grey Havoc]

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/tesla-just-got-biggest-break-181700002.html

Competition is fierce, too.

Google’s Waymo remains the U.S. leader, operating its driverless fleet across roughly 250 square miles in Los Angeles and the San Francisco Bay Area.

Also, Phoenix is still active, and with Dallas now coming online through a partnership with Avis, Waymo is set to go beyond its recent feats (completing a million rides recently).

Uber is taking a much different route, working as an aggregator instead of building its own autonomous vehicle.

It’s already integrating Waymo rides in Austin and Atlanta, and inked a massive, multi-year deal with Lucid and Nuro to deploy over 20,000 autonomous Lucid Gravity SUVs over six years.

Though forecasts differ, analysts agree that the robotaxi industry is set for explosive expansion over the next few years.

Goldman Sachs projects that the global robotaxi rideshare market could potentially grow by an estimated 90% compound annual growth rate through 2030.

In China alone, Goldman expects the market to hit close to $12 billion by 2030 and $47 billion by 2035. That effectively translates to 500,000 vehicles in service by 2030 and 2.3 million by 2035.

Grand View Research offers a similar view, estimating the global market to grow from $1.95 billion in 2024 to a whopping $43.7 billion by 2030, a CAGR of about 73.5%.

Early traction suggests that demand is likely to come to fruition, especially with Waymo already delivering millions of rides, and by late 2024, it was handling roughly 100,000 rides a week across its service areas.

I have to wonder though, is the robotaxi market actually a classic bubble that is overdue for bursting?