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I know Tesla is a premium car but...image if the masses had access to an autopilot like this, or better. Many can't afford the ambulance costs. Autopilot can ch
by heimatau 10y ago
I know Tesla is a premium car but...image if the masses had access to an autopilot like this, or better. Many can't afford the ambulance costs. Autopilot can change this excessive cost on the market.
- andmarios 10y agoBetter yet, image if masses had free access to ambulances! Oh wait, this is the case in most 1st world countries...
- Tempest1981 10y agoSometimes it's hard to get the ambulances to show up quickly, even in Silicon Valley: http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_23119425/santa-clara-county-threatens-yank-rural-metros-ambulance http://www.mercurynews.com/ci_23119425/santa-clara-county-th... Private enterprise, trying to maximize profit. Public services, trying to minimize costs. Mostly works.
- gozur88 10y agoFree? No, of course not. You pay for them as part of your taxes. It isn't any cheaper to pay a bunch of government bureaucrats who use what's left to provide ambulance service than to just pay the ambulance myself.
- mandeepj 10y agoI pay taxes but for ambulance I paid around $750 for a ~8 mile trip. I think everyone.has to pay for an ambulance. Not sure about senior citizens
- gozur88 10y agoSo if you paid more taxes and the ambulance was "free", how is that better?
- manicdee 10y agoYou pay while you are able to earn. The service is free when you are unable to earn. This form of socialist self insurance is much more efficient than a bunch of private ambulance companies selling subscriptions (aka "ambulance insurance").
- gozur88 10y agoIn most places in the US ambulance service is contracted out by the local government.
- Findeton 10y agoOr you can do like everyone else and have a "communist" cheaper, high quality socialized healthcare so that if you have a problem you call the ambulance and you don't go bankrupt (you don't pay a cent for that).
- seanmcdirmid 10y agoWell, except the largest communist country has nothing like that.
- ulber 10y agoThe "communist" in the comment you replied to is poking fun at the common attitude among Americans towards stronger welfare systems common in other 1st world countries, like the Nordic countries for example. I feel your literal reading given the quotation marks was unjustified.
- seanmcdirmid 10y agoI'm sorry. It's just that I live in this communist country and get to experience the dysfunction daily. To me, communism just means ultra capatalism with censored Internet, so these jokes never make sense, even in the context of HN's rabid American-centrism.
- toomuchtodo 10y agoI've seen people die without access to healthcare in the US that they would've received in real first world countries, so its hard not to see the irony when people complain about "communism" or "socialism" single payer. The dysfunction you describe seeing and that I've seen are same coin, different sides.
- gozur88 10y agoYou've "seen" people die? Under what circumstances?
- Pinckney 10y agoA taxi or a friend who can drive would seem to provide the same benefit, if you don't care about your transport providing life support.
- heimatau 10y agoA taxi costs money and I doubt they'd take on that liability. Not all friends are ready to drop things on a hat. But...those are possible, cheaper options but not as cheap as free with purchase of a car, which was my point.