I’m not sure if I ever believed that hogwash. I think it was a fantasy meant to try to justify ludicrous stock prices on unprofitable companies. After 14 years of serious investment, it’s not clear if self driving cars are ever going to become mainstream, and certainly not soon enough to keep Uber and Lyft afloat.
It's a bit odd to be skeptical that self driving cars won't ever be mainstream. Computers have only been a thing for ~78 years and yet they're already capable of doing so much.
But now instead of drivers, you need to acquire land/buildings/people to manage the fleet of self driving cars. Someone has to refuel/recharge the vehicles, clean/maintain them, etc. Sounds like a taxi company to me.
