“Busier than 99% of Austin drivers”
Of self-driving and small business-spending
Waymos are utilized to the max
Once Waymo, always Waymo (unless there are no more Waymos)
SMBs are spending more on . . . tech? The fastest growing sector will surprise you
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“Busier than 99% of Austin drivers”
Dara Khosrowshahi, the CEO of Uber, said a thing about self-driving Waymos that perhaps received less attention than it deserved:
Uber Q1’25 Earnings Call
“The average Waymo in Austin is busier than 99% of Austin drivers, as defined by the number of trips per day.”
Austinians can’t get enough of their Waymos. To be fair, there only about 100 Waymos in Austin, so it’s not surprising that utilization rates are so high, but whatever. If you Waymo, they will come.
In a somewhat related vein, the transaction data bears out Waymo’s rising popularity (or, at least, customer loyalty).
Waymo customers use Waymo more and more, in every city where Waymos are available:
Waymo captures an increasingly large share of “ubering,” once a customer gets started.
People take a Waymo, and then keep taking more Waymos.
There are some selection effects here (i.e. the people who use Waymo are inclined to like Waymo), and SF’s share has topped out at 15% (for now), but still it’s neat to see: the self-driving experience is really good (otherwise, folks wouldn’t keep coming back for more).
The real challenge, from a business standpoint, is maintaining those kinds of utilization rates once the fleets get larger (while shifting the balance sheet burden from the driver to the company), but hey, it’s progress for now.1
A coda on small business spending
Earlier in the week, Random Walk noted that there is some evidence that businesses are dialing back their advertising spend.
It’s not the strongest evidence in the world, but since everyone wants a freakout, I try to give the people what they want.
Interestingly, one cost that small and medium businesses are not dialing back is tech services (at least according to BofA’s data):
Payments from SMBs to tech services firms are growing ~10% mom, and have been steadily growing for ~year.
And they said selling tech to small businesses was hard.
What are businesses spending on?
Payments and workflows, it seems:
“Accepting more digital payments” is the top use case (~50%), followed by improving workflows, and then AI.
And they said that payments was a really big opportunity (which, it turns out, was true).
And who is the biggest spender on tech services among small businesses? This one was really surprising, actually.
The sector that increased their tech spend the most (which isn’t the same as being the biggest spender, but still) is . . . construction:
Construction SMBs have increased tech service spend by ~20% yoy in Q1.
Construction isn’t exactly known for its tech adoption, and that’s probably part of the reason why yoy growth is so impressive (because it’s starting off a low base), but still, it’s surprising.
Good for construction. Good for tech. Good for Service Titan TTAN 0.00%↑ maybe?
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Random Walk has written variously in the past about why self-driving is a “post-hype sleeper” for transformative technology, in particular, the potential to bring new “nice places to live” in scope, by reducing commute-hassle as a limiting factor.
Anecdotally, we are getting "assigned" Waymos all the time now. We were early adopters, and so we've made a point to take them with friends and visitors. The novelty quickly wears off after the first ride for people; it's becoming normal. Still fun to see tourists gawk at them, though!
"Since everyone wants a freakout" - very 1970's - thanks for the AM Laugh Moses