3 ms·

The unsustainable pricing point overlooks how driverless vehicles will drive the cost of door to door transit to almost 0 (especially as cars go electric and so

The unsustainable pricing point overlooks how driverless vehicles will drive the cost of door to door transit to almost 0 (especially as cars go electric and solar brings extremely cheap power). While it will bring many ills (e.g. increased obesity due to cheap door to door transit, more spread out cities), let's not delude ourselves with this article's misguided rhetoric -- mass transit will be more affordable and accessible than ever in history to the masses. This article aims to treat the car sharing as ceteris paribus (all else equal) when in the current state of exponential change, it is anything but.

azakai 10y ago
Possibly, but fully driverless cars in urban areas are likely decades away (unlike driverless trucks or driving assisting cars, which will arrive sooner). And electric is good, but there are some issues that will take more time to sort out, like charge times. It's true improvements will arrive, but they add another set of uncertainties for urban planners.
- stale2002 10y ago
  It is not decades. It is 4 years. Every self driving car company is aiming for 2020 for mass consumer release.
maverick_iceman 10y ago
Don't know why you and any other pro-Uber voices are being downvoted/flagged in this thread. You're making a very sensible argument and I don't know why people would downvote/flag it.
- astrange 10y ago
  What's sensible about it? Public transit has much lower energy costs than a car right now and it sure isn't free. You might be able to get somewhere with a public unscheduled version of UberPool, but Uber is cheap because the drivers are getting screwed, not because it's actually efficient. (The drivers are getting screwed because they're not getting paid enough for extra maintenance and depreciation on their cars. If Uber switches to owning cars they're going to take on this problem.)

azakai 10y ago

Possibly, but fully driverless cars in urban areas are likely decades away (unlike driverless trucks or driving assisting cars, which will arrive sooner). And electric is good, but there are some issues that will take more time to sort out, like charge times. It's true improvements will arrive, but they add another set of uncertainties for urban planners.

stale2002 10y ago
It is not decades. It is 4 years. Every self driving car company is aiming for 2020 for mass consumer release.

maverick_iceman 10y ago

Don't know why you and any other pro-Uber voices are being downvoted/flagged in this thread. You're making a very sensible argument and I don't know why people would downvote/flag it.

astrange 10y ago
What's sensible about it? Public transit has much lower energy costs than a car right now and it sure isn't free. You might be able to get somewhere with a public unscheduled version of UberPool, but Uber is cheap because the drivers are getting screwed, not because it's actually efficient. (The drivers are getting screwed because they're not getting paid enough for extra maintenance and depreciation on their cars. If Uber switches to owning cars they're going to take on this problem.)