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I don't see why autonomous vehicles are so big. Virtually all travel is one person, ideally it would be a tiny 4 wheel electric with the sole passenger highly r

I don't see why autonomous vehicles are so big. Virtually all travel is one person, ideally it would be a tiny 4 wheel electric with the sole passenger highly reclined. The hangover from internal combustion is real.

numismatex 9y ago
Because A) Crash-safety and B) Luxury still being in the bigger packages.
dingaling 9y ago
Even the original DARPA Grand Challenge in 2005 was won by a system installed on VW Taureg, an enormous two-tonne SUV.
- ovi256 9y ago
  They used a big SUV to get rough road capability, necessary for the Grand Challenge, and to have the space to rack all the equipment they needed. 13 years later, an Nvidia Jetson (a single board computer) has more computing power than their whole setup, and a medium drone can carry it.
ckinnan 9y ago
As autonomy is implemented and refined, and safety improves dramatically, new regulatory and economic models will emerge. This will spark design innovation. No doubt both single rider and shuttle-bus options will emerge, with much lighter builds as crashes decrease.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
nikanj 9y ago
The same reason non-autonomous ones are so big. It's a status symbol, plus there's the arms race of "bigger truck wins in an accident"
- majewsky 9y ago
  > bigger truck wins in an accident And that's why I go by tram. :)
  - ShorsHammer 9y ago
    Jokes aside, it seems foolish to create an entirely new class of vehicle that drives itself while completely ignoring the physics of big bits of metal.
amelius 9y ago
It's a test-vehicle, not the end-product.
lmm 9y ago
What does autonomy have to do with it? Most regular cars would be better off as single-person vehicles; there are a few small-scale efforts in this direction (the Smart car, the G-Whiz electric car, I think BMW has an enclosed-canopy motorbike) but they largely haven't caught on.
- Tepix 9y ago
  BMW built the C1 from 2000-2002. They showed an electric version, the C1-E as a concept in 2009.

numismatex 9y ago

Because A) Crash-safety and B) Luxury still being in the bigger packages.

dingaling 9y ago

Even the original DARPA Grand Challenge in 2005 was won by a system installed on VW Taureg, an enormous two-tonne SUV.

ovi256 9y ago
They used a big SUV to get rough road capability, necessary for the Grand Challenge, and to have the space to rack all the equipment they needed. 13 years later, an Nvidia Jetson (a single board computer) has more computing power than their whole setup, and a medium drone can carry it.

ckinnan 9y ago

As autonomy is implemented and refined, and safety improves dramatically, new regulatory and economic models will emerge. This will spark design innovation. No doubt both single rider and shuttle-bus options will emerge, with much lighter builds as crashes decrease.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

nikanj 9y ago

The same reason non-autonomous ones are so big. It's a status symbol, plus there's the arms race of "bigger truck wins in an accident"

majewsky 9y ago
> bigger truck wins in an accident And that's why I go by tram. :)
- ShorsHammer 9y ago
  Jokes aside, it seems foolish to create an entirely new class of vehicle that drives itself while completely ignoring the physics of big bits of metal.

amelius 9y ago

It's a test-vehicle, not the end-product.

lmm 9y ago

What does autonomy have to do with it? Most regular cars would be better off as single-person vehicles; there are a few small-scale efforts in this direction (the Smart car, the G-Whiz electric car, I think BMW has an enclosed-canopy motorbike) but they largely haven't caught on.

Tepix 9y ago
BMW built the C1 from 2000-2002. They showed an electric version, the C1-E as a concept in 2009.