Waymo, Tesla Robotaxi, Cost Per Mile, And Public Transit

 Let’s break it down with real numbers.

🟢 PART 1: Robotaxi vs Human-Driven Taxi (Cost Per Mile)

Let’s take an average human-driven taxi and compare it to a Waymo or Tesla robotaxi:

Assumptions:

Item	Human Taxi	Robotaxi (Electric)
Driver Salary (inc. benefits)	$0.75/mile	$0
Fuel Cost	$0.20/mile	$0.04/mile (electricity)
Maintenance	$0.10/mile	$0.06/mile
Insurance & Licensing	$0.15/mile	$0.15/mile
Vehicle Depreciation	$0.25/mile	$0.25/mile
Total Cost per Mile	$1.45	$0.50

✅ Savings per mile: $0.95 (65%)

So, a robotaxi is 65% cheaper per mile than a human-driven taxi — driven largely by removing the driver and lowering energy costs.

---

🟢 PART 2: Autonomous Bus vs Human-Driven Bus

Now let’s scale up to a self-driving electric bus.

Assumptions for 40-seater bus:

Item	Human Bus	Self-Driving Electric Bus
Driver Salary (loaded)	$0.40/passenger-mile	$0
Fuel (Diesel vs Electric)	$0.15/passenger-mile	$0.03
Maintenance	$0.05	$0.03
Insurance & Misc.	$0.07	$0.07
Vehicle Cost (amortized)	$0.13	$0.13
Total Cost per Passenger-Mile	$0.80	$0.26

✅ Savings per passenger-mile: $0.54 (67.5%)

That’s massive. Cities could reduce costs dramatically — from $0.80 to $0.26 per passenger-mile.

---

🟢 PART 3: What This Means for Free Public Transit

Let’s do a city-wide calculation:

• Say a city runs 10 million passenger-miles per day.

• Current Cost (Human Bus): 10M x $0.80 = $8M/day

• Autonomous Electric Bus: 10M x $0.26 = $2.6M/day

💸 Daily savings = $5.4M → That’s almost $2 billion/year in savings.

So with enough scale, it may actually be cheaper for cities to run free autonomous electric bus systems than to operate or subsidize current systems. Free, frequent, clean — and automated.

---

🟢 Bottom Line

• 🚖 Robotaxis slash 65%+ of costs vs regular taxis.

• 🚌 Self-driving buses cut public transit costs by two-thirds.

• 📉 Removing drivers + switching to electric = huge compounding savings.

• 💡 At scale, free transit isn’t just utopian — it’s fiscally smart.

Velocity Money: Crypto, Karma, and the End of Traditional Economics
The Next Decade of Biotech: Convergence, Innovation, and Transformation
Beyond Motion: How Robots Will Redefine The Art Of Movement
ChatGPT For Business: A Workbook
Becoming an AI-First Organization
Quantum Computing: Applications And Implications
Challenges In AI Safety
AI-Era Social Network: Reimagined for Truth, Trust & Transformation