Earlier this week, Tesla, Hertz, and Uber announced a sequence of deals that have the potential to rattle the gig-fueled mobility market. First, Hertz agreed to buy 100,000 Model 3 Tesla cars for the full price of $43,000 (a deal worth $4.2B). The following day, it was announced that half of these cars would be made available to Uber drivers for the price of $334 per week (with the promise to lower it to $299 over time).
Great point about how Tesla's self-driving data collection benefits from the higher volume and variety of driving that Uber drivers do each week! Tesla would also learn about the most popular routes and route attributes so if they introduced an Uber competitor, they would already have data on millions of Uber trips on which to plan their approach (which cities and routes to target first, # of rides/cars, waiting expectations, etc)
Great article! Definitely agree with your interpretation of Hertz's position; I feel they could also be attempting to increase user experience factor. P2P rental networks like Turo have a relatively streamlined rental process. If Hertz can take advantage of Tesla's connectivity features like "Smart Summon," they could offer superlatively convenient service.
Also, your point about drivers "training their replacements" was interesting. It could be a major talking point when we get to Level 4/5 and how it will change transportation.
Great point about how Tesla's self-driving data collection benefits from the higher volume and variety of driving that Uber drivers do each week! Tesla would also learn about the most popular routes and route attributes so if they introduced an Uber competitor, they would already have data on millions of Uber trips on which to plan their approach (which cities and routes to target first, # of rides/cars, waiting expectations, etc)
Great article! Definitely agree with your interpretation of Hertz's position; I feel they could also be attempting to increase user experience factor. P2P rental networks like Turo have a relatively streamlined rental process. If Hertz can take advantage of Tesla's connectivity features like "Smart Summon," they could offer superlatively convenient service.
Also, your point about drivers "training their replacements" was interesting. It could be a major talking point when we get to Level 4/5 and how it will change transportation.
Great read Gad, thank you!