100% agree that non-economically-sustainable, only-profitable-at-massive-scale approaches are unlikely to work.
But the reason that this space is so alluring - and why I think there is a point - is that the vast majority of retail still happens offline (in excess of 80%, if not more, in most western countries). Many comment that this is because, while 2-day free shipping has done wonders for the consumer soft goods space, we still focus the majority of our spend on food, grocery, convenience items, and "general" (US Dept of Commerce term for WMT, Target, etc).
So there's a huge prize there for the taking - if you can make it work. Which is where small, safe autonomous vehicles that can credibly (and cheaply) perform last-mile delivery come in.
100% agree that non-economically-sustainable, only-profitable-at-massive-scale approaches are unlikely to work.
But the reason that this space is so alluring - and why I think there is a point - is that the vast majority of retail still happens offline (in excess of 80%, if not more, in most western countries). Many comment that this is because, while 2-day free shipping has done wonders for the consumer soft goods space, we still focus the majority of our spend on food, grocery, convenience items, and "general" (US Dept of Commerce term for WMT, Target, etc).
So there's a huge prize there for the taking - if you can make it work. Which is where small, safe autonomous vehicles that can credibly (and cheaply) perform last-mile delivery come in.