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> anyone who gets a vehicle where the previous occupant smelled funny, left crap in the car, etc This technology will be pervasive and interconnected. If the

by zanny 11y ago

> anyone who gets a vehicle where the previous occupant smelled funny, left crap in the car, etc This technology will be pervasive and interconnected. If the previous passenger damaged the car or disrespected the future occupants, a good ride sharing company would discontinue their service after a number of infractions. It is in their interest for profit to insure their riders are happy, and bad apples ruining the experience destroy their reputation. You will probably be able to, from your phone, flag the previous driver as negligent. Depending on the degree of confidence the company has in you and automated tools, they may face consequences without human involvement. Or maybe someone needs to review surveillance footage to confirm the infraction. Either way, that person is told to stop or lose their service. If you false-flag, you can face your own consequences. That also means there is a market for companies that respect their customers in that way and those that do not, that would be cheaper since they cannot attract wealthier clients. The same applies to airlines and busses. If you are disrespectful of your fellow passengers you can easily get yourself banned from future service.

shostack 11y ago
I agree that it seems likely there will be mechanisms for rating/handling passengers who damage a vehicle. Where those will fall woefully short and will still result in the issue I cited are situations like: - Someone who smelled funny, had bad gas, etc. - Baby threw up and the mom wiped it down best she could but the entire car has a whiff of puke - Dirt and grime being tracked in. Different people have vastly different standards for cleanliness in their vehicles - Water/snow/sludge. Something to be said about going from an indoor garage to your vehicle to an indoor garage at a destination during bad weather. If the vehicle is picking up other people, etc., there's likely to be lots of water/dirt inside. - Food smells and perfumes can set off allergies, sensitive noses, etc. I sure as heck don't want to be in a vehicle where someone was just transporting McDonalds, or where an old lady with way too much perfume was sitting for the past hour - Wrappers, etc. can be left and often times dropped without any sort of onboard camera picking it up - Germs. Dear god the germs. How many sick people will be in these things without any way for future passengers to know? If I had a child, I sure wouldn't want them in such a vehicle. I personally would also not want to be in such a vehicle. Worst case scenario, someone with a serious disease transmitted via blood or bodily fluids (read: HIV+, STDs, etc.) could leave hard to detect amounts on various surfaces. What is the company going to do? Require a blood sample and medical testing from all passengers? So there's a whole host of things that are hard to track/place blame on people for without being a technological/legal/political nightmare. And I totally realize some of these are a bit on the extreme end of the spectrum. Point is, when owning a vehicle is no longer possible, you won't have a choice about being subjected to this. And worth calling out specifically here is the whole surveillance aspect of it. Forget your vehicle knowing where you are. Between traffic cams, license plate readers, OnStar, Google Maps/Waze, etc. I think the war on tracking your location has been lost. What hasn't been entirely lost yet is privacy within the vehicle. I fully expect there to be invasive cameras and sensors watching everything I do in these self-driving cars in the future. Ad-supported ride? Eye-tracking software will monitor whether you are watching the screen when the ad plays. Temperature/pulse monitors in seats could measure your response to such ads. And that's just scratching the surface of the privacy invasion. I'm trying not to sound like I am wearing a tin-foil hat, but I think the past few years have proven that these things aren't just possible, they are likely and maybe even inevitable.
- zanny 11y ago
  I'm sure in the same way many people can own and ride horses, or own their own boats while most travel on communal naval vessels, the option will still exist to own your own private auto. The technology needs to advance to the point where it can handle human drivers, and at that point it will be more than sufficiently capable of handling peer autos who behave much more logically. It will just be way more economically efficient to have the subscription model so you maximize vehicular utilization, so you just pay the premium difference of that efficiency. I cannot imagine they will be significantly more expensive than a Tesla is today.

by zanny 11y ago

shostack 11y ago

I agree that it seems likely there will be mechanisms for rating/handling passengers who damage a vehicle. Where those will fall woefully short and will still result in the issue I cited are situations like: - Someone who smelled funny, had bad gas, etc. - Baby threw up and the mom wiped it down best she could but the entire car has a whiff of puke - Dirt and grime being tracked in. Different people have vastly different standards for cleanliness in their vehicles - Water/snow/sludge. Something to be said about going from an indoor garage to your vehicle to an indoor garage at a destination during bad weather. If the vehicle is picking up other people, etc., there's likely to be lots of water/dirt inside. - Food smells and perfumes can set off allergies, sensitive noses, etc. I sure as heck don't want to be in a vehicle where someone was just transporting McDonalds, or where an old lady with way too much perfume was sitting for the past hour - Wrappers, etc. can be left and often times dropped without any sort of onboard camera picking it up - Germs. Dear god the germs. How many sick people will be in these things without any way for future passengers to know? If I had a child, I sure wouldn't want them in such a vehicle. I personally would also not want to be in such a vehicle. Worst case scenario, someone with a serious disease transmitted via blood or bodily fluids (read: HIV+, STDs, etc.) could leave hard to detect amounts on various surfaces. What is the company going to do? Require a blood sample and medical testing from all passengers? So there's a whole host of things that are hard to track/place blame on people for without being a technological/legal/political nightmare. And I totally realize some of these are a bit on the extreme end of the spectrum. Point is, when owning a vehicle is no longer possible, you won't have a choice about being subjected to this. And worth calling out specifically here is the whole surveillance aspect of it. Forget your vehicle knowing where you are. Between traffic cams, license plate readers, OnStar, Google Maps/Waze, etc. I think the war on tracking your location has been lost. What hasn't been entirely lost yet is privacy within the vehicle. I fully expect there to be invasive cameras and sensors watching everything I do in these self-driving cars in the future. Ad-supported ride? Eye-tracking software will monitor whether you are watching the screen when the ad plays. Temperature/pulse monitors in seats could measure your response to such ads. And that's just scratching the surface of the privacy invasion. I'm trying not to sound like I am wearing a tin-foil hat, but I think the past few years have proven that these things aren't just possible, they are likely and maybe even inevitable.

zanny 11y ago
I'm sure in the same way many people can own and ride horses, or own their own boats while most travel on communal naval vessels, the option will still exist to own your own private auto. The technology needs to advance to the point where it can handle human drivers, and at that point it will be more than sufficiently capable of handling peer autos who behave much more logically. It will just be way more economically efficient to have the subscription model so you maximize vehicular utilization, so you just pay the premium difference of that efficiency. I cannot imagine they will be significantly more expensive than a Tesla is today.