7 . Waymo vehicles are testing so frequently in our neighborhood that we usually see four of them on our 15-minute dog walk. My daughter Carson likes Waymo because they look distinct. The fact that a robot is driving, however, fails to impress her. This is just the reality she has been born into.
Already Waymo vehicles are in motion for San Francisco to be the first major city with a driverless ride-hailing (打车服务) service.
Yet I remain doubtful, It’s not so much the technology. When I arranged for Waymo to pick up my family for a 20-minute test ride, the robot made no obvious mistakes. And in the “truly driverless” ride-hailing service Waymo has been operating for more than two years in Phoenix, it has yet to be involved in any major incidents. No, the reason these services aren’t widely available is mostly to do with the absence of a clear business model.
Back in 2014, Travis Kalanick, then-CEO of Uber, said the prospect of driverless cars posed an existential challenge to Uber. Human drivers account for two-thirds of the cost of an Uber journey, he reasoned, so “when there is no other human in the car, the cost of taking an Uber anywhere is cheaper”.
Since then, it’s become clear that the economics are more complex. What made Uber so disruptive is the gig (零工) economy. The app serves nearly 100 million people each month in more than 10,000 cities, without Uber owning a single car. Its drivers are contractors, so it only pays them when they are carrying passengers. If the driver is waiting around at the airport, say, it’s not Uber’s problem. It has sophisticated software to match riders with drivers, and to do it quickly.
The driverless industry throws away these advantages. Instead of hiring drivers on the cheap, Waymo needs to build or purchase vehicles costing some $200, 000 apiece. Owning too many cars and they are wasting capital. Too few and they’ll be frustrating passengers with lengthy wait times. A driver also plays the role of conductor, ensuring the car is fueled and avoiding illegal activity. Driverless cars will have to be serviced and monitored to do the same thing. “Driverless does not mean humanless,” says Ashley Nunes, a researcher at MIT. His work on the subject has concluded that robotaxis can’t compete with the gig economy on price. “Robotaxis replace one set of human costs, the human driver, with another, inefficiency,” he adds.
When robotaxis finally open to the public in San Francisco, they risk becoming a gimmick (噱头). Fun to try, sure, but they’ll cost the same as an Uber, arrive no faster and decline to speed up when you’re in a rush.
1. What does the writer think of the technology of Waymo vehicles?
| A．Reliable. | B．Imperfect. | C．Expensive. | D．Mysterious. |
2. According to Travis Kalanick, driverless cars _______.
| A．would be more and more complex |
| B．would lack a clear business model |
| C．would gain market share at the expense of Uber |
| D．would fail to win over Uber in ride-hailing services |
3. Which of the following is one of “
these advantages” (paragraph 6)?
| A．Uber serves nearly 100 million people each month. |
| B．Uber allows its drivers to wait around at the airport. |
| C．Uber has a sophisticated software to manage its drivers. |
| D．Uber pays drivers only when they are carrying passengers. |
4. Which of the following statements is the writer most likely to agree with?
| A．The public in San Francisco don’t want to try robotaxis. |
| B．It is the gig economy that makes robotaxis lose their appeal. |
| C．Robotaxis don’t have the advantages they are thought to have. |
| D．Driverless vehicles can avoid illegal activity if programmed properly. |
