3 ms·

"I live in an apartment, I can't charge one on the street." The electric car revolution is going to come at the same time as the self-driving revolution. That

by dzdt 8y ago

"I live in an apartment, I can't charge one on the street." The electric car revolution is going to come at the same time as the self-driving revolution. That will change the calculus of parking significantly. No longer does your car need to be parked right next to your building to be convenient: it can be anywhere a short drive away and summoned at the touch of a button. So charging infrastructure doesn't have to be at every on-street location; it can be centralized to parking lots or garages on a neighborhood basis.

tjoff 8y ago
That's either a very pessimistic view of electric car progress or a very optimistic view of self-driving capabilities. I think electric car revolution will be at least two decades earlier than self-driving. As far as electric goes we are starting to reap benefits of vast investment in better tech, manufacturing and vehicles purpose built for it. Self-driving is very far away and the best publicly available systems only do slightly more than lane-assist, the by far simplest part of self-driving.
- mattferderer 8y ago
  The earliest electric cars I noticed on the streets were glorified golf carts. They were ideal for very short distances, like getting to work & running errands. Couldn't self driving cars in the very near future follow this same path? Find a very densely populated area. Get self driving cars to work very well in that area for short trips. Slowly expand to similar areas? I haven't followed either of these very closely, so please correct me where I'm wrong.
  - adrianN 8y ago
    That's kind of where self driving busses go. The first prototypes run short routes on aiports or something like that. But I don't think that short routes on normal streets are significantly easier than long routes on normal streets.
pja 8y ago
it can be anywhere a short drive away and summoned at the touch of a button The roads around where I live are /already/ at nose to tail capacity at the times I might actually want such a service. What do you think is going to happen when you add electric cars travelling from wherever they're being stored to the customer?
- skybrian 8y ago
  If it makes carpooling and/or getting to public transportation easier, it could improve things.
darkerside 8y ago
You're coupling a very complex solution (self driving) to a much simpler one (electric vehicles) in order to solve a niche problem (urban dwellers without garage parking) who could either be served with other potential solutions, like charging at workplace, or might simply become even less likely to own a car than they already are.
hakfoo 8y ago
You arguably don't even need full self-driving for that. A special "autonomous park/return mode", say, capped to 10kph, only following a single preprogrammed route, with a complete lead foot on the brake. Nobody would want to ride in an everyday self-drive that had those restrictions, but it's perfectly acceptable for an empty trip to a central parking structure.

by dzdt 8y ago

tjoff 8y ago

That's either a very pessimistic view of electric car progress or a very optimistic view of self-driving capabilities. I think electric car revolution will be at least two decades earlier than self-driving. As far as electric goes we are starting to reap benefits of vast investment in better tech, manufacturing and vehicles purpose built for it. Self-driving is very far away and the best publicly available systems only do slightly more than lane-assist, the by far simplest part of self-driving.

mattferderer 8y ago
The earliest electric cars I noticed on the streets were glorified golf carts. They were ideal for very short distances, like getting to work & running errands. Couldn't self driving cars in the very near future follow this same path? Find a very densely populated area. Get self driving cars to work very well in that area for short trips. Slowly expand to similar areas? I haven't followed either of these very closely, so please correct me where I'm wrong.
- adrianN 8y ago
  That's kind of where self driving busses go. The first prototypes run short routes on aiports or something like that. But I don't think that short routes on normal streets are significantly easier than long routes on normal streets.

pja 8y ago

it can be anywhere a short drive away and summoned at the touch of a button The roads around where I live are /already/ at nose to tail capacity at the times I might actually want such a service. What do you think is going to happen when you add electric cars travelling from wherever they're being stored to the customer?

skybrian 8y ago
If it makes carpooling and/or getting to public transportation easier, it could improve things.

darkerside 8y ago

You're coupling a very complex solution (self driving) to a much simpler one (electric vehicles) in order to solve a niche problem (urban dwellers without garage parking) who could either be served with other potential solutions, like charging at workplace, or might simply become even less likely to own a car than they already are.

hakfoo 8y ago

You arguably don't even need full self-driving for that. A special "autonomous park/return mode", say, capped to 10kph, only following a single preprogrammed route, with a complete lead foot on the brake. Nobody would want to ride in an everyday self-drive that had those restrictions, but it's perfectly acceptable for an empty trip to a central parking structure.