6 ms·

It will be interesting to see what happens when autonomous cars are wide spread, we may see a democratisation of the industry. If I own a Tesla I might want it

It will be interesting to see what happens when autonomous cars are wide spread, we may see a democratisation of the industry. If I own a Tesla I might want it to pay for itself by providing rides while I'm at work or sleep, the amount of vehicles with the capability would drive up availability and drive down costs. Because the cars are all smart the value of an uber or a lyft as a middle man is decreased.

bsbechtel 10y ago
Ironically ride sharing was supposed to democratize the taxi industry. It did and we got two major players instead of thousands of small and medium sized players.
AlexandrB 10y ago
So you'd be willing to rent out your $50,000 car to complete strangers without even being there to act as a social deterrent to them making a huge fucking mess of it. Public infrastructure experiences a lot of vandalism and abuse. Prepare for your car to be treated like public infrastructure.
- username223 10y ago
  > Public infrastructure experiences a lot of vandalism and abuse. Prepare for your car to be treated like public infrastructure. Prepare for your car to have interior cameras and a load of other sensors (e.g. smoke detector) constantly streaming to "the cloud." Of course, there will be no way to turn them off, because then passengers would do that. Then you just bill the passenger for the damages, and send him a link to the incriminating footage. Then again, I would hate to use my personal car as a taxi, or my spare bedroom as a hotel, so I'm clearly not a good candidate for the "sharing" economy. Maybe I'm not desperate enough.
- motoboi 10y ago
  A metro car can't lock its doors and drive to the nearest police station. That should give enough deterrence.
  - ams6110 10y ago
    So we're giving self-driving cars arrest powers now? Will they have automated restraints in case the passenger decides they want to try to break out?
- toomuchtodo 10y ago
  > So you'd be willing to rent out your $50,000 car to complete strangers without even being there to act as a social deterrent to them making a huge fucking mess of it. Totally. I've even allocated investment capital for the sole purpose of putting a few Teslas into service as full time taxis on the Tesla Network. I let people into my rental properties, why not other investment assets?
  - username223 10y ago
    > I let people into my rental properties, why not other investment assets? Because monthly rent is big, and leases are usually longer than a month. A Tesla Taxi is more like a motel room with hourly rates.
    - bmelton 10y ago
      > A Tesla Taxi is more like a motel room with hourly rates. So, more like AirBNB than a leased rental agreement?
      - username223 10y ago
        Yes. Or more like renting out your bed while you're not sleeping in it.
        morgante 10y ago
        So like Airbnb. Different people have different boundaries and I respect that. I have no problem with renting my room/house out while I'm away, and I'd have no problem with renting my car out without me in it.
    - toomuchtodo 10y ago
      Investment income is investment income.
- disordinary 10y ago
  It's like air b&b, you build the cost of wear and tear and maintenance into your pricing. As others said, a modern vehicle will have cameras and the ability to lock it's doors and drive someone to a police station. You also have a car like the Tesla Model X which has a separate compartment in the back, so the customers will be isolated from the driving area.
  - manarth 10y ago
    "and the ability to lock it's doors and drive someone to a police station" That's unlikely, without a change in the law. Some modern cars do allow the doors to be locked remotely, but they don't prevent the doors from being unlocked from inside. Nor could I imagine an autonomous vehicle not stopping (for safety) when a door opened. I imagine that being able to identify the person renting the car, and cameras to show their actions, would be deterrence for most. For the rest, there's insurance.

bsbechtel 10y ago

Ironically ride sharing was supposed to democratize the taxi industry. It did and we got two major players instead of thousands of small and medium sized players.

AlexandrB 10y ago

So you'd be willing to rent out your $50,000 car to complete strangers without even being there to act as a social deterrent to them making a huge fucking mess of it. Public infrastructure experiences a lot of vandalism and abuse. Prepare for your car to be treated like public infrastructure.

username223 10y ago
> Public infrastructure experiences a lot of vandalism and abuse. Prepare for your car to be treated like public infrastructure. Prepare for your car to have interior cameras and a load of other sensors (e.g. smoke detector) constantly streaming to "the cloud." Of course, there will be no way to turn them off, because then passengers would do that. Then you just bill the passenger for the damages, and send him a link to the incriminating footage. Then again, I would hate to use my personal car as a taxi, or my spare bedroom as a hotel, so I'm clearly not a good candidate for the "sharing" economy. Maybe I'm not desperate enough.
motoboi 10y ago
A metro car can't lock its doors and drive to the nearest police station. That should give enough deterrence.
- ams6110 10y ago
  So we're giving self-driving cars arrest powers now? Will they have automated restraints in case the passenger decides they want to try to break out?
toomuchtodo 10y ago
> So you'd be willing to rent out your $50,000 car to complete strangers without even being there to act as a social deterrent to them making a huge fucking mess of it. Totally. I've even allocated investment capital for the sole purpose of putting a few Teslas into service as full time taxis on the Tesla Network. I let people into my rental properties, why not other investment assets?
- username223 10y ago
  > I let people into my rental properties, why not other investment assets? Because monthly rent is big, and leases are usually longer than a month. A Tesla Taxi is more like a motel room with hourly rates.
  - bmelton 10y ago
    > A Tesla Taxi is more like a motel room with hourly rates. So, more like AirBNB than a leased rental agreement?
    - username223 10y ago
      Yes. Or more like renting out your bed while you're not sleeping in it.
      - morgante 10y ago
        So like Airbnb. Different people have different boundaries and I respect that. I have no problem with renting my room/house out while I'm away, and I'd have no problem with renting my car out without me in it.
  - toomuchtodo 10y ago
    Investment income is investment income.
disordinary 10y ago
It's like air b&b, you build the cost of wear and tear and maintenance into your pricing. As others said, a modern vehicle will have cameras and the ability to lock it's doors and drive someone to a police station. You also have a car like the Tesla Model X which has a separate compartment in the back, so the customers will be isolated from the driving area.
- manarth 10y ago
  "and the ability to lock it's doors and drive someone to a police station" That's unlikely, without a change in the law. Some modern cars do allow the doors to be locked remotely, but they don't prevent the doors from being unlocked from inside. Nor could I imagine an autonomous vehicle not stopping (for safety) when a door opened. I imagine that being able to identify the person renting the car, and cameras to show their actions, would be deterrence for most. For the rest, there's insurance.