5 ms·

The comment you replied to is the typical "city-dweller" POV. What few people realize is that there are millions of people that live in rural areas where the t

by rplst8 10y ago

The comment you replied to is the typical "city-dweller" POV. What few people realize is that there are millions of people that live in rural areas where the taxi/uber/shared asset model just does not work.

mark_edward 10y ago
Why do people pretend that rural people are a majority or even close to it. In the US it's 20% of the population. Edit: No these services aren't suitable for everyone but they're suitable for a huge and growing amount of people, urbanization and civilization are the same thing. ICEs filling cities like Beijing carrying 1-2 people is literally killing people.
- sickbeard 10y ago
  You can be a city-dweller and not live in the city core.
- wavefunction 10y ago
  Rural people are incredibly important to the other 80%.
  - usrusr 10y ago
    The combine harvester is incredibly important for everybody, yet nobody considers them a mainstream mode of transport.
    - gumby 10y ago
      This was down voted so I upvoted it. It sounds flip but is insightful.
      - gumby 10y ago
        Huh, minus 3 for this comment as well. Are the differing needs of rural people really not important to the average HN commenter?
  - mark_edward 10y ago
    What does that have to do with the proliferation of self-driving and/or electrified cars? This is a non-sequitur. Do you think tractors and trucks will disappear?
- ghaff 10y ago
  The "urban areas" where 80% of the US population resides is nothing like what most people would consider urban. I believe my neighbor's 35 acre orchard and forest is considered urban because we live in a town with a population of about 7,000 people. "The Census Bureau defines "urban" for the 1990 census as comprising all territory, population, and housing units in urbanized areas and in places of 2,500 or more persons outside urbanized areas."
- rplst8 10y ago
  20% of the population is still a huge number.
mc32 10y ago
Another item is that in developing nations, where there is a burgeoning car market, for many people car ownership = status, at least for the time being, so car ownership is going to be a thing for a while before attitudes change.
gumby 10y ago
I (author of the comment you mention) personally need a 4WD dinosaur burner that will start after being left parked in the snow for a week away from where there's any sort of cell service. But I know that puts me in the minority and I also know don't need that all the time. I don't see the "shared asset" model working at all. Not clear if it even works at the moment -- Uber's business is mostly cream-skimming the wealthiest users. But a self driving fleet can serve most rural communities as well (at the expense of a lower utilization rate than in urban areas). A car sitting in a driveway most of the time is a very expensive luxury. Most rural communities are less wealthy than most urban areas. A set of self-driving vehicles near by is a lot cheaper than a lot of idle cars. Electric, and pay-by-the-ride are not panaceas. It's an 80/20 breakdown. I have, at one point, lived a ninety minute drive from the nearest town. I don't see how electric can handle what is really an edge case. I also don't understand the economics of electric utes (pickup trucks).
Gibbon1 10y ago
I have a friend that lives in a rural area. So I asked him and he said it's 110 miles to Costco in Reno. Otherwise all his trips are short, few miles. If he could charge the car at Costco in Reno he could get away with an electric car with ~150 miles range. One comment of mine, there is one gas station in his town, if that ever closed it'd make owning a gasoline powered car a right PITA because the next gas station is 40 miles away.

by rplst8 10y ago

mark_edward 10y ago

Why do people pretend that rural people are a majority or even close to it. In the US it's 20% of the population. Edit: No these services aren't suitable for everyone but they're suitable for a huge and growing amount of people, urbanization and civilization are the same thing. ICEs filling cities like Beijing carrying 1-2 people is literally killing people.

sickbeard 10y ago
You can be a city-dweller and not live in the city core.
wavefunction 10y ago
Rural people are incredibly important to the other 80%.
- usrusr 10y ago
  The combine harvester is incredibly important for everybody, yet nobody considers them a mainstream mode of transport.
  - gumby 10y ago
    This was down voted so I upvoted it. It sounds flip but is insightful.
    - gumby 10y ago
      Huh, minus 3 for this comment as well. Are the differing needs of rural people really not important to the average HN commenter?
- mark_edward 10y ago
  What does that have to do with the proliferation of self-driving and/or electrified cars? This is a non-sequitur. Do you think tractors and trucks will disappear?
ghaff 10y ago
The "urban areas" where 80% of the US population resides is nothing like what most people would consider urban. I believe my neighbor's 35 acre orchard and forest is considered urban because we live in a town with a population of about 7,000 people. "The Census Bureau defines "urban" for the 1990 census as comprising all territory, population, and housing units in urbanized areas and in places of 2,500 or more persons outside urbanized areas."
rplst8 10y ago
20% of the population is still a huge number.

mc32 10y ago

Another item is that in developing nations, where there is a burgeoning car market, for many people car ownership = status, at least for the time being, so car ownership is going to be a thing for a while before attitudes change.

gumby 10y ago

I (author of the comment you mention) personally need a 4WD dinosaur burner that will start after being left parked in the snow for a week away from where there's any sort of cell service. But I know that puts me in the minority and I also know don't need that all the time. I don't see the "shared asset" model working at all. Not clear if it even works at the moment -- Uber's business is mostly cream-skimming the wealthiest users. But a self driving fleet can serve most rural communities as well (at the expense of a lower utilization rate than in urban areas). A car sitting in a driveway most of the time is a very expensive luxury. Most rural communities are less wealthy than most urban areas. A set of self-driving vehicles near by is a lot cheaper than a lot of idle cars. Electric, and pay-by-the-ride are not panaceas. It's an 80/20 breakdown. I have, at one point, lived a ninety minute drive from the nearest town. I don't see how electric can handle what is really an edge case. I also don't understand the economics of electric utes (pickup trucks).

Gibbon1 10y ago

I have a friend that lives in a rural area. So I asked him and he said it's 110 miles to Costco in Reno. Otherwise all his trips are short, few miles. If he could charge the car at Costco in Reno he could get away with an electric car with ~150 miles range. One comment of mine, there is one gas station in his town, if that ever closed it'd make owning a gasoline powered car a right PITA because the next gas station is 40 miles away.