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Ahh someone who has thought past the surface, "can do what we currently do better" of this to some of the more disruptive changes that autonomous car technology

Ahh someone who has thought past the surface, "can do what we currently do better" of this to some of the more disruptive changes that autonomous car technology might bring. The use of the car's logs to meter all parking in a city is nice. Some new gaming of systems will begin. The price of parking gets weighed against the cost of just driving the car in circles for the duration of the stay, and the defector strategies, like shifting the car between locations which have a "cars can wait X minutes for free to do a pickup" rule, need to be watched for. A business model that might well feel the mixed bite of autonomous vehicles is roadside hotel/motels. If you invest in an autonomous car with "sleeper options" (or rent a sleeper car, bed(s) on smart wheels), any town within about 8 hours drive becomes psychologically much closer to home, just a night's sleep away. It becomes closer to absurd to ever stop at any hotel between you and your destination or to take such trips so that they use your waking time. But then hotels at the destination can cater to the "just want a safe parking area and a shower/bathroom in the morning" crowd. Opportunities here too for the car rental companies to provide end-to-end "sleeper car solutions"; competition and/or cross-promotion between car rental companies and hotels/parking-and-bathrooms chains. Towns geographically central between large farther-flung working cities could become hubs for meetings, think Voronoi diagram. Or they can choose, instead, to cater to the weekend tourism crowds from those large cities. Somewhere around Eureka California will become the easy weekend meet-up mecca for practically the whole west coast.

mhb 16y ago
Sounds a lot like a comfortable bus. And where are those?
- nooneelse 16y ago
  Fair point, but it has a couple of differences which line up with the reasons people give for not using buses, trains, and planes. Those are: no need to fit the travel plan into the bus schedule and having a vehicle in the destination city for no extra charge. People aren't always right when asked about their own reasons for choosing one option over another, but I think in this case these are important motivators as they add to the cost in terms of both money and also the psychological "hassle" factor. Further there are social signals sent by how one travels, and buses have let themselves become, or targeted being, the option for low class travel (unless it is one's personal bus, but even then it is still below the personal plane). Autonomous cars would have the opportunity to aim their marketing toward them being seen as a desirable, upper middle class travel option (or the un-extravagant option for the more wealthy). The cars themselves will likely be more expensive than cars with no autonomous capabilities, so they easily send a signal of "well-to-do".

mhb 16y ago

Sounds a lot like a comfortable bus. And where are those?

nooneelse 16y ago
Fair point, but it has a couple of differences which line up with the reasons people give for not using buses, trains, and planes. Those are: no need to fit the travel plan into the bus schedule and having a vehicle in the destination city for no extra charge. People aren't always right when asked about their own reasons for choosing one option over another, but I think in this case these are important motivators as they add to the cost in terms of both money and also the psychological "hassle" factor. Further there are social signals sent by how one travels, and buses have let themselves become, or targeted being, the option for low class travel (unless it is one's personal bus, but even then it is still below the personal plane). Autonomous cars would have the opportunity to aim their marketing toward them being seen as a desirable, upper middle class travel option (or the un-extravagant option for the more wealthy). The cars themselves will likely be more expensive than cars with no autonomous capabilities, so they easily send a signal of "well-to-do".