Uber and Waymo are fundamentally different businesses.

· Bits and Bobs 8/10/26
  • Uber and Waymo are fundamentally different businesses.
    • Waymo has to buy each of its cars, so it can only scale as quickly as it's willing to invest capital.
      • On the upside, if Waymo wants to invest capital to increase supply, they can do it themselves.
    • Uber doesn't own the cars, it just has the rider + driver network, which can grow without limit in theory without Uber having to put in more capital.
      • The downside is that if Uber wants more capacity on the road its only option is to induce supply… though the basic market dynamics should do that naturally.
    • This is another example of atoms and bits behaving very differently.
    • This means that Zoox and Waymo, assuming they both have a similar product that is above the quality bar for most people, will primarily compete based on how much capital they want to put into supply in a given market.
    • Waymo can flood any given market with way more supply, making it hard for Zoox to get a demand toehold.
    • The best bet for Zoox would be to go into markets too small for Waymo to bother with at first, and then hope to establish a toehold network of demand, and then hope to hold on to it with a better brand.