Ride-Hailing App Features to Prepare for a Self-Driving Fleet
Company: Google
Role: Product Manager
Category: Product Design & Strategy
Difficulty: medium
Interview Round: Other
Imagine you are the product manager for a ride-share app. What features would you build so that the company is ready for autonomous vehicles?
```hint Replace the driver's jobs
A human driver does far more than steer: finding the rider, choosing where to stop, waiting, helping, handling problems and noticing a messy cabin. List those jobs, then decide which part of the product has to take each one over when the driver's seat is empty.
```
### Clarifying Questions
- Will the company run its own self-driving fleet, or send trips to vehicles owned and operated by autonomous-vehicle partners?
- Should I assume a mixed network for years, with self-driving cars serving trips only in certain areas and conditions while human drivers serve the rest?
- Is the focus the rider app only, or also internal tools such as dispatch, fleet operations and remote support?
- What horizon are we preparing for: a first launch in one city, or a broad rollout several years out?
### What a Strong Answer Covers
- A definition of what being "ready" means for a ride-share platform that may not build the vehicles itself, and why it matters strategically.
- The stakeholders (riders, autonomous fleet partners, human drivers, support and operations staff, cities) with a reasoned choice of whom to design for first.
- The jobs a human driver performs that vanish in a driverless car, turned into rider pain points and concrete features.
- Platform capabilities behind the app, such as mixed-fleet dispatch, partner integration and remote assistance, prioritized into a first version.
- Success metrics with safety and trust guardrails, and the main risks: incidents, regulation, partner dependence and driver relations.
### Follow-up Questions
- A rider is in a driverless car that has stopped somewhere unsafe and will not move. Walk through what the product does over the next two minutes.
- When both a self-driving car and a human driver could take a trip, how should dispatch decide between them?
- What would you build for the company's human drivers as the self-driving share of trips grows?
Overview: A product design prompt asking a ride-share product manager which features would get the company ready for self-driving cars. It tests replacing the jobs a human driver performs, designing for riders in a mixed fleet, prioritizing platform work such as partner dispatch and remote support, and setting safety and trust metrics.