Price Hikes May Turn Off Robot Taxi Customers

A prototype self-driving car based on a hybrid Ford Fusion and developed by the Uber’s Advanced Technologies Center (ATC) in Pittsburgh. Credit: Uber Robot taxis represent one of the first goals for both tech giants and automakers developing self-driving cars. Popular ridesharing services such as Uber and Lyft have also made plans to eventually switch over from human drivers to self-driving cars. But a recent study suggests many Americans may not be willing to pay more for the privilege of riding a robot taxi compared with hailing a human driver. Adults surveyed on self-driving car technology were mostly unwilling to pay more than $1 per mile to use a robot taxi, according to recent research by The University of Texas at Austin. By comparison, the cost of hailing a car using a ridesharing service such as Uber or Lyft costs about $1.50 per mile on average. About 41 percent of ...