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>Without need for parking, commercial districts could get denser and denser, and people could have nice large homes far away for cheaper than ever. If people a

by gozur88 10y ago

>Without need for parking, commercial districts could get denser and denser, and people could have nice large homes far away for cheaper than ever. If people are living farther away from their jobs, you're likely to get more congestion, not less.

nindalf 10y ago
If this scenario has a majority of cars autonomously driven, congestion is less of a problem. The cars would cooperate to solve congestion issues that individual human drivers struggle with. Also, as a passenger you're probably sleeping or being productive within the car, so the increased commute time is less of a problem.
- Tiktaalik 10y ago
  > The cars would cooperate to solve congestion issues that individual human drivers struggle with. Does this effect overcome the added amount of cars on the road from people who can now drive that wouldn't be able to before? I'm skeptical.
  - gozur88 10y ago
    That was my point. If I buy a van that drives itself I can tolerate much longer commutes - I'll just put a bed in the back and sleep my way to work. So what if it takes three hours. Incidentally, I was talking with a government transportation engineer recently, and that's what keeps them up at night - trips that are too long or just too inconvenient today become doable with self driving cars.
kevan 10y ago
Theoretically autonomous cars will decrease congestion through better driving patterns and maybe coordinating with each other, meaning we could support a lot more traffic with the infrastructure we already have.
- ams6110 10y ago
  The operative word is "theoretically." It remains to be demonstrated that thousands of independent autonomous vehicles can really operate in congested areas more effectively than human drivers. AFAIK none of the current autonomous control technology coordinates in any way with other vehicles or any kind of central control facility. Human drivers using Waze is probably the closest approximation of that to date.

by gozur88 10y ago

nindalf 10y ago

If this scenario has a majority of cars autonomously driven, congestion is less of a problem. The cars would cooperate to solve congestion issues that individual human drivers struggle with. Also, as a passenger you're probably sleeping or being productive within the car, so the increased commute time is less of a problem.

Tiktaalik 10y ago
> The cars would cooperate to solve congestion issues that individual human drivers struggle with. Does this effect overcome the added amount of cars on the road from people who can now drive that wouldn't be able to before? I'm skeptical.
- gozur88 10y ago
  That was my point. If I buy a van that drives itself I can tolerate much longer commutes - I'll just put a bed in the back and sleep my way to work. So what if it takes three hours. Incidentally, I was talking with a government transportation engineer recently, and that's what keeps them up at night - trips that are too long or just too inconvenient today become doable with self driving cars.

kevan 10y ago

Theoretically autonomous cars will decrease congestion through better driving patterns and maybe coordinating with each other, meaning we could support a lot more traffic with the infrastructure we already have.

ams6110 10y ago
The operative word is "theoretically." It remains to be demonstrated that thousands of independent autonomous vehicles can really operate in congested areas more effectively than human drivers. AFAIK none of the current autonomous control technology coordinates in any way with other vehicles or any kind of central control facility. Human drivers using Waze is probably the closest approximation of that to date.