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0 pointsusaphp6y ago0 comments

> Pay the drivers an extra $x/mile to clamp the Apple Maps image gathering device to the roofs of their cars.

Scenario 1 (buy Lyft): So if Lyft has around 1 million drivers in USA [1], and Apple will pay them an average of $50/month to use the device + the cost of the device/installation (around $100) that would cost around $150,000,000 on top of the acquisition price. And you cant really be sure that they covered all roads.

Scenario 2 (hire drivers): US total road length is about 4 million miles, average driver can cover about 160 miles a day (8 hours * 20Mph). If you want to drive through all of the US in 30 days you would need around 800 drivers. If you pay them $5000/month to do that, that would cost you "just" $4 million.

[1] https://investor.lyft.com/news-releases/news-release-details...

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viscanti6y ago

Presumably there's more valuable data than just maps. I would imagine that Lyft could give valuable real-time data like areas of the city where there's traffic congestion and slower drive times. It's unclear how you'd value that, but it seems like an acquiring company would get more than just raw map data for all available streets.

reaperducer6y ago

Remember that Apple currently maintains its own fleet of such mapping vehicles, so there would be some savings, as well.

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