The fair price of self-driving software
In just a few years, some companies, which are working on self-driving software for private use or to be licensed to others, will have to decide how to price it.
In a recent interview with Sandy Monroe, Jim Farley, Ford’s CEO told Sandy that when he left Toyota to move to Ford, he had to sell his Prius. At that moment the car had the HOV sticker that would allow him to drive in the carpool lane and it saved him 5 minutes every day. He was able to get $5,000 more because of the sticker.
Self-driving software value
This makes me think how much people would be willing to pay for the autonomous driving software that car and technology companies will provide them in a few years.
It is very difficult to asses this price as it is more dependent on how much people will be willing to pay than in a classical cost plus margin scheme.
Car usage varies widely between different people. Some people use their vehicles a few times a week for a few minutes and others rely heavily on their cars for long trips and multiple hours a day driving. According to Business Insider citing the AAA, the average American drives around 50 minutes per day.