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I train commute everyday and despite the ability to watch a movie or whatever, I still just want to get to my destination and move on with my life. I think it'

I train commute everyday and despite the ability to watch a movie or whatever, I still just want to get to my destination and move on with my life. I think it'll be interesting to see society push the Time to arrival vs. general safety balance. I think we'll see a rising speed limit as the risk becomes more and more mathematical.

eric-hu 9y ago
Having spent the last two years in various Asian cities, I feel confident in saying most American cities could halve average commute times with no sacrifice to safety. To name a few cities that have much better commutes than the bay or NYC: Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei, and Seoul. Whether things get better in American cities is not a matter of technical innovation at all, but politics and economics.
- kerbalspacepro 9y ago
  There are four other US metro systems larger than the Bay's and smaller than NYC's... and they all suffer from the same problems. :)
dsfyu404ed 9y ago
>I think we'll see a rising speed limit as the risk becomes more and more mathematical. Risk and speed limits are already mathematical. See the 90th percentile rule. If self driving cars makes obvious the disparity between the letter of the law and actual practice then the law will get changed. Pretty much the only stakeholders that want the current mismatch between 90th percentile speed and speed limit are the cops who want a pretext to go fishing and the states that want revenue. Self driving taxis, delivery vehicles, etc that are doing (for example) 55mph "because the law" when the road should really be an 80 is a terrible user experience, especially on roads with mixed human/ai traffic. Insurance, self driving fleet owners, car companies, etc all have a huge incentive for self driving cars to be able to get from A to B just as fast as a human car. Nobody will take your self driving taxi if a human taxi is faster and comparably priced. We'll see a higher speed limits because the automakers, fleet operators, etc will lean on the states and if that doesn't work they'll lean on the feds (nhtsa, dot and similar) to lean on the states to set limits that are actually consistent with the 90% rule.
- deleted 9y ago
  [deleted]
- smileysteve 9y ago
  MADD is actually a primary reason for highway speed limits being as low as they are.
munk-a 9y ago
I am excited to see what effect moving transit into private vehicles will have. I currently enjoy my commute time with a book but there are other things I'd prefer to be doing. What if I could enjoy a bit more evening in exchange for shifting my showering/breakfasting/working out into the morning commute? I'd be pretty happy with that. Especially if we move sleeping into self-driving cars then that long commute of yours might start before you're awake
- r00fus 9y ago
  What I think would be even better is to exercise to commute - many folks I know have the joy of this option e.g. biking 10mi or less to your work and showering there. I'm more excited about hybrid bikes (allowing even older folks to be more mobile) than self-driving cars.

eric-hu 9y ago

Having spent the last two years in various Asian cities, I feel confident in saying most American cities could halve average commute times with no sacrifice to safety. To name a few cities that have much better commutes than the bay or NYC: Tokyo, Hong Kong, Shanghai, Taipei, and Seoul. Whether things get better in American cities is not a matter of technical innovation at all, but politics and economics.

kerbalspacepro 9y ago
There are four other US metro systems larger than the Bay's and smaller than NYC's... and they all suffer from the same problems. :)

dsfyu404ed 9y ago

>I think we'll see a rising speed limit as the risk becomes more and more mathematical. Risk and speed limits are already mathematical. See the 90th percentile rule. If self driving cars makes obvious the disparity between the letter of the law and actual practice then the law will get changed. Pretty much the only stakeholders that want the current mismatch between 90th percentile speed and speed limit are the cops who want a pretext to go fishing and the states that want revenue. Self driving taxis, delivery vehicles, etc that are doing (for example) 55mph "because the law" when the road should really be an 80 is a terrible user experience, especially on roads with mixed human/ai traffic. Insurance, self driving fleet owners, car companies, etc all have a huge incentive for self driving cars to be able to get from A to B just as fast as a human car. Nobody will take your self driving taxi if a human taxi is faster and comparably priced. We'll see a higher speed limits because the automakers, fleet operators, etc will lean on the states and if that doesn't work they'll lean on the feds (nhtsa, dot and similar) to lean on the states to set limits that are actually consistent with the 90% rule.

deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
smileysteve 9y ago
MADD is actually a primary reason for highway speed limits being as low as they are.

munk-a 9y ago

I am excited to see what effect moving transit into private vehicles will have. I currently enjoy my commute time with a book but there are other things I'd prefer to be doing. What if I could enjoy a bit more evening in exchange for shifting my showering/breakfasting/working out into the morning commute? I'd be pretty happy with that. Especially if we move sleeping into self-driving cars then that long commute of yours might start before you're awake

r00fus 9y ago
What I think would be even better is to exercise to commute - many folks I know have the joy of this option e.g. biking 10mi or less to your work and showering there. I'm more excited about hybrid bikes (allowing even older folks to be more mobile) than self-driving cars.