> Any company that is working on self-driving cars will want to acquire Lyft: Google, Apple, Tesla, GM, etc
To me this is like expecting Netflix to want to acquire Blockbuster ten years ago. The investments Lyft has been making into self driving cars are mostly for show. Blockbuster was investing in the web back in 2009, but they were never close to catching up. If Lyft was far along in building self driving cars, they would be far along in other AI applications too. Everything Google and Amazon does that pushes the boundaries of AI makes them more capable of building a network of self driving cars. Google, Amazon, Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, or IBM might not build a self driving car network themselves, but if they're the kingmakers, will they want to help Uber or Lyft or other companies with more resources?
To me this is like expecting Netflix to want to acquire Blockbuster ten years ago. The investments Lyft has been making into self driving cars are mostly for show. Blockbuster was investing in the web back in 2009, but they were never close to catching up. If Lyft was far along in building self driving cars, they would be far along in other AI applications too. Everything Google and Amazon does that pushes the boundaries of AI makes them more capable of building a network of self driving cars. Google, Amazon, Apple, Samsung, Microsoft, or IBM might not build a self driving car network themselves, but if they're the kingmakers, will they want to help Uber or Lyft or other companies with more resources?