> taxis ... results in a price of 56 rappen (about half of 1 euro) per kilometre driven.
Ahem... a 7 minute ride from our hotel to the train station came up to 35 CHF. That's around 5 km, so around 7 CHF/km or 6.25 EUR/km. Just something to these dreamy 56 rappen and realism of the study in perspective.
> The ideal level of demand and price lies at a fleet of some 3,000 automated taxis, which results in a price of 56 rappen (about half of 1 euro) per kilometre driven. This roughly corresponds to the current per kilometre costs of a conventional private vehicle, but is much lower than the 2.73 Swiss francs per kilometre of a conventional taxi.
If you look at the full context, I think the article states that this is the price which could be achieved by an optimally sized fleet of driverless taxis - it even says right there that the actual, current price with conventional taxis is much higher than that figure.
The current taxi fees in Zurich are actually even higher than 2.73, even before factoring in the base fee and fees for waiting times, but I don't see how that in itself would limit what prices driverless taxis can realistically achieve.
In Zurich, the maximum base fare is 8 CHF, while the maximum price per kilometer driven is 5 CHF [1]. UberX currently costs 1.80 CHF per kilometer [2]. It's not all that unrealistic to assume that this cost will go down to 56 Rp. when letting autonomous vehicles drive.
Ahem... a 7 minute ride from our hotel to the train station came up to 35 CHF. That's around 5 km, so around 7 CHF/km or 6.25 EUR/km. Just something to these dreamy 56 rappen and realism of the study in perspective.