←back to thread

Rivian Unveils Custom Silicon, R2 Lidar Roadmap, and Universal Hands Free

(riviantrackr.com)
319 points doctoboggan | 5 comments | 11 Dec 25 18:17 UTC | HN request time: 0.22s | source
Show context
TulliusCicero ◴[11 Dec 25 18:50 UTC] No.46235375[source]▶
Autonomy subscriptions are how things are going to go, I called this a long time ago. It makes too much sense in terms of continuous development and operations/support to not have a subscription -- and subscriptions will likely double as insurance at some point in the future (once the car is driving itself 100% of the time, and liability is always with the self driving stack anyway).

Of course, people won't like this, I'm not exactly enthused either, but the alternative would be a corporation constantly providing -- for free -- updates and even support if your car gets into an accident or stuck. That doesn't really make sense from a business perspective.

replies(18): >>46235819 #>>46235936 #>>46235949 #>>46236024 #>>46236150 #>>46236188 #>>46236255 #>>46237451 #>>46237487 #>>46238071 #>>46238397 #>>46238855 #>>46239572 #>>46240212 #>>46240694 #>>46242103 #>>46242505 #>>46242708 #
1. setgree ◴[11 Dec 25 22:21 UTC] No.46238071[source]▶
The other possible future is you rent the car for exactly when you need it and don’t pay a monthly bill— or your monthly bill pays for a certain number of rides/minutes/miles per month. In which case the subscription costs are managed by the provider, who might be the manufacturer and might not.

At least in cities, a fully-functioning, on-demand autonomous fleet would probably be superior to car ownership in just about every way except as a status symbol.

replies(3): >>46238601 #>>46241255 #>>46242712 #
2. 1shooner ◴[11 Dec 25 23:06 UTC] No.46238601[source]▶
The monopolist providing this service would be de-incentivized from ever equipping for all the demand, and the last 10% of capacity being bid on by the last 20% of demand would make this a constant stress and struggle.

Meanwhile it's an excuse for another century of more car lanes and less mass transit infrastructure.

3. tadfisher ◴[12 Dec 25 05:51 UTC] No.46241255[source]▶
There used to be a service like this, called Car2Go. Not autonomous, but more like how scooter/bike rentals work. It was fantastic, and in no way profitable.
replies(1): >>46242555 #
4. addandsubtract ◴[12 Dec 25 09:55 UTC] No.46242555[source]▶
There are still services like that. Miles, for example, or Bolt I think have cars, too.
5. tonyhart7 ◴[12 Dec 25 10:24 UTC] No.46242712[source]▶
Yeah, its called taxi

we already have those