Waymo founder predicts ‘landslide’ robotaxi adoption in Singapore, driven by high car costs
Waymo founder Sebastian Thrun predicts Singapore will adopt robotaxis en masse sooner than San Francisco because high car costs make AVs cheaper than ownership.
The technology pushes AVs’ initial costs up, but they are cheaper to run, safer and greener: Sebastian Thrun
Derryn Wong
[SINGAPORE] Self-driving car pioneer Sebastian Thrun expects that there would be widespread adoption of autonomous vehicles (AVs) in Singapore – and even sooner than in cities such as San Francisco, simply because it makes more financial sense.
“Once the economics of AVs beat car ownership – and that’s going to happen in Singapore before San Francisco for obvious reasons – we are going to see a massive landslide in which the population will just accept self-driving cars,” he said.
Thrun was speaking to The Business Times in a remote call on the sidelines of Livex, a global urban development and investment exhibition held in Abu Dhabi earlier in October.
Source: The Business Times https://www.businesstimes.com.sg/international/global/waymo-founder-predicts-landslide-robotaxi-adoption-singapore-driven-high-car-costs
