It depends on how you use them and the brake pads you use. Like alloy rims, they will wear much faster if you ride them in the wet… particularly if you don’t clean the rims and pads after riding them in the rain.
My oldest pair of carbon rims (Reynolds) are 3 years old and have over 20,000 miles on them. The braking surface is in great shape, though there are a few little flakes at the edges on one part of the rim. It hasn’t impacted how the brakes feel or perform.
The really important thing is to use ONLY the brake pads that the manufacturer suggests. This is particularly important with Reynolds and Zipp. Fortunately the pads that both companies suggest/sell are the best for each wheel manufacturer respectively.
For a while, the blue Reynolds pads were hard to come by. I used what Reynolds had previously suggested the year before releasing their blue compound (Swiss Stop Yellow). Though these worked very well for a while, yellow brake pad material began to accumulate on the braking surface of the rim, making stopping a rather lumpy and inconsistent adventure. Switching back to the blue pads fixed the problem almost instantly. I always keep a few extra sets of Reynolds blue pads around the shop.
Some manufacturers actually make the brake pad thing pretty easy to keep on top of by providing lifetime replacement brake pads along with their wheels. When you run out of pads, contact the manufacturer and order some up. Most will charge you shipping only. Since a good set of carbon brake pads can cost $40-60, and some folks go through 2-3 sets per year, that isn’t a bad thing.
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The Reynolds definitely sound a little different… even from other carbon rims.
