4 ms·

I don't see a great future there myself. Imagine this: where you pay per the minute or hour for location to location driving, at a rate that is a multiple of o

by kefka 11y ago

I don't see a great future there myself. Imagine this: where you pay per the minute or hour for location to location driving, at a rate that is a multiple of owning it yourself. And for the poverty, low, and middle income classes, car ownership is unattainable. Or if you are late on your car payment and the car drives back to the lot.

mattlutze 11y ago
An anecdotal counterpoint: I experimented with rent-per-minute cars in my local city last year. I learned that almost all my driving was commuting to work or sport practice, so I figured "what would it actually cost to get rid of the car?" It turns out I paid appreciably less than the self-owned car model by getting an unlimited public transportation pass and using self-driving cars when I didn't feel like riding a bus or tram. Something like 40% less, I don't remember exactly now. I'd previously been driving a 7 year old Ford, so it's not like I'm comparing it to something lux. Also, you won't have traditional car payments to be late on if it's all Just in Time provisioning and service. It's all about overlapping layers of service though. Private ownership will make sense for some. Never owning will as well. Robust bus networks, trams/trains in very dense established areas, self-driving (or at least shared economy) cars, and lastly private-owned vehicles all converge to provide a more accessible means of public transportation.
i1930058 11y ago
The barrier to entry into this market is exceedingly low. You only need a few self driving cars and there's your business. Competition will drive down prices.
- kefka 11y ago
  The barrier of entry isn't the problem. The problem is that this segment is going to reduce options to those of the lower class and poverty class. Now, it may be of the opinion that these people don't matter. And effectively, they have roughly a 0% economic impact. Now, prices will be driven down. But so will wages and job losses due to more automation. These people in the lowest segments will be separated their transportation via the ways I mentioned. Now, are less vehicles on the road good? Possibly. However if the public transportation isn't able to handle it, and these auto-Ubers are too expensive, then it's like having no transportation.
dragonwriter 11y ago
> Or if you are late on your car payment and the car drives back to the lot. If automated repossession were effective, that would drive down car ownership costs (specifically, finance charges) in a competitive market, since it would reduce the risk of loss which is part of the cost of financing, particularly for people with the worst credit condition (for whom the risk of loss for the financing firm poses a higher portion of the financing costs than other borrowers.)

by kefka 11y ago

mattlutze 11y ago

An anecdotal counterpoint: I experimented with rent-per-minute cars in my local city last year. I learned that almost all my driving was commuting to work or sport practice, so I figured "what would it actually cost to get rid of the car?" It turns out I paid appreciably less than the self-owned car model by getting an unlimited public transportation pass and using self-driving cars when I didn't feel like riding a bus or tram. Something like 40% less, I don't remember exactly now. I'd previously been driving a 7 year old Ford, so it's not like I'm comparing it to something lux. Also, you won't have traditional car payments to be late on if it's all Just in Time provisioning and service. It's all about overlapping layers of service though. Private ownership will make sense for some. Never owning will as well. Robust bus networks, trams/trains in very dense established areas, self-driving (or at least shared economy) cars, and lastly private-owned vehicles all converge to provide a more accessible means of public transportation.

i1930058 11y ago

The barrier to entry into this market is exceedingly low. You only need a few self driving cars and there's your business. Competition will drive down prices.

kefka 11y ago
The barrier of entry isn't the problem. The problem is that this segment is going to reduce options to those of the lower class and poverty class. Now, it may be of the opinion that these people don't matter. And effectively, they have roughly a 0% economic impact. Now, prices will be driven down. But so will wages and job losses due to more automation. These people in the lowest segments will be separated their transportation via the ways I mentioned. Now, are less vehicles on the road good? Possibly. However if the public transportation isn't able to handle it, and these auto-Ubers are too expensive, then it's like having no transportation.

dragonwriter 11y ago

> Or if you are late on your car payment and the car drives back to the lot. If automated repossession were effective, that would drive down car ownership costs (specifically, finance charges) in a competitive market, since it would reduce the risk of loss which is part of the cost of financing, particularly for people with the worst credit condition (for whom the risk of loss for the financing firm poses a higher portion of the financing costs than other borrowers.)