Urban culture caters heavily to autonomous singles, both in its social diversity and in its amenities: gyms, coffee shops, food deliveries, laundromats, and the like ease solo subsistence.
In China the founder of LeTV, the Chinese Netflix is investing heavily in autonomous vehicles because he sees it at a new media platform and untapped opportunity for attention.
One could speculate that Uber, which recently has invested heavily in autonomous technology, envisions itself playing a role along these lines.
The search giant, which itself has pivoted to go all in AI and has invested heavily in autonomous driving, said the technology "has not only become a nationwide buzzword but also a key engine in transforming lives across the globe".
Magna, which is a key supplier to essentially ever major automaker in operation right now, has been investing heavily in autonomous driving technology, but has previously cautioned that it still believes true self-driving tech won't be widely available to consumers for a long while yet, with cost accounting for part of that.
Meanwhile, companies like Uber and Google are investing heavily in autonomous-driving technology, betting that such vehicles will reshape transportation.
Domino's, Uber and Auro are heavily invested in autonomous driving research.
Even large, deep-pocketed technology companies investing heavily in an autonomous future — e.g. Google and Uber — seem unwilling and unlikely to become car manufacturers themselves.
This is why Uber is investing heavily in developing autonomous vehicles: Eliminating the driver in the on-demand model radically changes the economics to the considerable benefit of the service provider.
