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I think the "uncomfortable to get in and out" needs to be addressed. Without the steering wheel, perhaps the seat can swivel, or perhaps passengers can exit fro

I think the "uncomfortable to get in and out" needs to be addressed. Without the steering wheel, perhaps the seat can swivel, or perhaps passengers can exit from the front or back. I doubt, at typical car speeds, aerodynamics is a big factor. It's not like a jet.

kuschku 9y ago
An interesting idea that Mercedes showed in their self-driving prototypes (which only ran on a hardcoded loop for that test) was having all seats face the middle, so the passengers could look at one another. That's a lot more comfortable, and already common for the rear two rows in larger cars.
- IntronExon 9y ago
  It sounds fun, but I know at least two people who would be violently carsick in that situation.
  - munificent 9y ago
    Most trains I've ridden on have seats like this and it seems to work out OK. If you're one of the people who gets motion sickness if not facing forward, just grab one of the forward-facing seats.
    - icebraining 9y ago
      Trains generally make much wider curves, so the effect is minimized.
ufmace 9y ago
That touches some on one of the big potential advantages of having a "cloud" of cheap self-driving cars available. Right now, people need their own car and can mostly only afford one, so they only buy cars that are at least pretty good at everything. And that's like 90% of the market, economies of scale are so strong that car companies don't really make anything but that. Cars that drive on the freeway get a decent advantage from being aerodynamic. And right now, basically nobody wants to buy a car that can't run on the freeway efficiently. If the self-driving car world moves car ownership from individuals to large taxi fleets, then markets open up for all sorts of specialized vehicles. Now we can make something that's super easy to enter and exit but has poor aerodynamics and high-speed handling. They might be awful on the highway, but the self-driving car taxi company will still buy some as long as they have enough non-highway ride requests and interest in the vehicle type.

kuschku 9y ago

An interesting idea that Mercedes showed in their self-driving prototypes (which only ran on a hardcoded loop for that test) was having all seats face the middle, so the passengers could look at one another. That's a lot more comfortable, and already common for the rear two rows in larger cars.

IntronExon 9y ago
It sounds fun, but I know at least two people who would be violently carsick in that situation.
- munificent 9y ago
  Most trains I've ridden on have seats like this and it seems to work out OK. If you're one of the people who gets motion sickness if not facing forward, just grab one of the forward-facing seats.
  - icebraining 9y ago
    Trains generally make much wider curves, so the effect is minimized.

ufmace 9y ago

That touches some on one of the big potential advantages of having a "cloud" of cheap self-driving cars available. Right now, people need their own car and can mostly only afford one, so they only buy cars that are at least pretty good at everything. And that's like 90% of the market, economies of scale are so strong that car companies don't really make anything but that. Cars that drive on the freeway get a decent advantage from being aerodynamic. And right now, basically nobody wants to buy a car that can't run on the freeway efficiently. If the self-driving car world moves car ownership from individuals to large taxi fleets, then markets open up for all sorts of specialized vehicles. Now we can make something that's super easy to enter and exit but has poor aerodynamics and high-speed handling. They might be awful on the highway, but the self-driving car taxi company will still buy some as long as they have enough non-highway ride requests and interest in the vehicle type.