5 ms·

I live in a rural location and don't want to wait 30 mins for a car to arrive from the nearest city to take me 10 minutes away to fetch groceries. Also my child

I live in a rural location and don't want to wait 30 mins for a car to arrive from the nearest city to take me 10 minutes away to fetch groceries. Also my children (7 months and 3 years) require car seats set to their size/weight for safety. I find it is inconceivable that I and my peers with young children in rural locations make up a market large enough for firms to target with ad-hoc rentals. Purchases (or PCP) already provide a plethora of reasonable priced options for us at a level of convenience that is actually useful.

lordnacho 10y ago
My guess is some people will want to own a car, so they'll finance it partly by being a local cab. That way, their car is nearby when they need it, but serves other people who happen to want a ride.
- bitJericho 10y ago
  Entire counties could offer cars to its residents similar to bus service now. One car could probably serve a dozen people. My guess is many people will want their own cat tho. It would be wonderful for me to go to bed and wake up 1000 miles away.
  - kuschku 10y ago
    > My guess is many people will want their own cat tho. Which is exactly the argument I wanted to make ;) > It would be wonderful for me to go to bed and wake up 1000 miles away. Trains do that already :)
    - bitJericho 10y ago
      They're not on time where I'm from.
usrusr 10y ago
The good news is that unlike a manned taxi, a robocab does have much fixed per-hour cost. Basically, when a community can afford to have a considerable number of personal vehicles on passive standby, it could be enough of a market to support a somewhat similar number of robocabs on passive standby. Remote areas will certainly not be where commercial robocabs will start, but there is no reason to assume that it would be generally impossible our necessarily more inconvenient. Not-so-commercial robot car pools might even start getting viable in rural areas, because some countries mandate a minimum level of public transport coverage and basing a few robocabs in remote villages could be many orders of magnitude cheaper (and certainly more useful) than repeatedly driving an empty bus around just to fulfill a schedule so sparse that only the most desperate will ever bother using it. Another angle that might lead to pockets of rural adoption much earlier than expected: many rural populations already have a lot of experience with pooling agricultural vehicles, this could occasionally be a seed for adopting local pool e.g. to support the elderly and doubling as a fallback for personal vehicles.
Drdrdrq 10y ago
Minor nitpick: not so sure we will still need child safety seatc in a self driving car, once the technology matures.
coldtea 10y ago
>I live in a rural location and don't want to wait 30 mins for a car to arrive from the nearest city to take me 10 minutes away to fetch groceries Well, tough luck then. We have to make some sacrifices for the environment. Our ancestors not that long ago, merely 50-70 years or so, walked on foot, for miles, to get to the same grocery store.

lordnacho 10y ago

My guess is some people will want to own a car, so they'll finance it partly by being a local cab. That way, their car is nearby when they need it, but serves other people who happen to want a ride.

bitJericho 10y ago
Entire counties could offer cars to its residents similar to bus service now. One car could probably serve a dozen people. My guess is many people will want their own cat tho. It would be wonderful for me to go to bed and wake up 1000 miles away.
- kuschku 10y ago
  > My guess is many people will want their own cat tho. Which is exactly the argument I wanted to make ;) > It would be wonderful for me to go to bed and wake up 1000 miles away. Trains do that already :)
  - bitJericho 10y ago
    They're not on time where I'm from.

usrusr 10y ago

The good news is that unlike a manned taxi, a robocab does have much fixed per-hour cost. Basically, when a community can afford to have a considerable number of personal vehicles on passive standby, it could be enough of a market to support a somewhat similar number of robocabs on passive standby. Remote areas will certainly not be where commercial robocabs will start, but there is no reason to assume that it would be generally impossible our necessarily more inconvenient. Not-so-commercial robot car pools might even start getting viable in rural areas, because some countries mandate a minimum level of public transport coverage and basing a few robocabs in remote villages could be many orders of magnitude cheaper (and certainly more useful) than repeatedly driving an empty bus around just to fulfill a schedule so sparse that only the most desperate will ever bother using it. Another angle that might lead to pockets of rural adoption much earlier than expected: many rural populations already have a lot of experience with pooling agricultural vehicles, this could occasionally be a seed for adopting local pool e.g. to support the elderly and doubling as a fallback for personal vehicles.

Drdrdrq 10y ago

Minor nitpick: not so sure we will still need child safety seatc in a self driving car, once the technology matures.

coldtea 10y ago

>I live in a rural location and don't want to wait 30 mins for a car to arrive from the nearest city to take me 10 minutes away to fetch groceries Well, tough luck then. We have to make some sacrifices for the environment. Our ancestors not that long ago, merely 50-70 years or so, walked on foot, for miles, to get to the same grocery store.