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Cars may become self driving, but that won't change the fundamental efficiency problem in that you can only fit so many people in a private car. What you're de
by chrischen 8y ago
Cars may become self driving, but that won't change the fundamental efficiency problem in that you can only fit so many people in a private car.
What you're describing can already be done by calling a Lyft, albeit at slightly higher costs than a self driving car.
- CamperBob2 8y agoA network of self-driving cars is a train, or could be considered one if engineered properly. Of course, self-driving cars don't run on fixed rails, which costs them a lot of popularity around here. People don't seem to understand that fixed rail is only good for transporting lots and lots of people, very efficiently and safely, from one place where they don't want to be to another place where they don't want to be.
- jwr 8y agoWell, that depends on how you build your railways. The way I see it done in the US this is indeed the case, as the stations (especially in California) seem to be in bizarre places and there is rarely a way to get to say an airport by train. But you can also build railways that make sense. See Japan for an excellent example, as well as most of Europe. These get you from where you are to where you want to be quickly and efficiently.
- chrischen 8y agoI fully support public transit, including trains, but the geography of the US is not conducive to dense trains due to the urban sprawl. Ideally the sprawl is minimized for maximum efficiency (in both enhanced inter-personal cooperation, living cost) but it's hard to sell that when gas is cheap, and land is plenty. There's another issue unique to the US, is that there is a diverse spectrum of races, income levels, and cultural groups that make it hard for these different groups to live together in a dense area peacefully (as compared to a homogenous place like Japan). Much of the inane urban planning in The US is actually a result of people just trying to prevent black people or poor people from moving into their neighborhoods.
- arethuza 8y agoWell, where I live train stations are generally located very centrally and conveniently in the cities I go to regularly. I'd far rather get a train into the local cities than drive - which would take longer and cost more.
- CamperBob2 8y agoWhat part of California do you live in?
- arethuza 8y agoI don't - but your statement above seemed to be applying to fixed rail in general and not just in California. Edit: As someone who generally likes trains I've tried to use them in California and found it pretty much impossible - but that's a problem with California not "fixed rail".
- hirundo 8y agoAs Uber is a major investor in self-driving tech, self driving short term rentals are all but inevitable, and likely to become the normal way cars are used. You can rent the whole car or pay less by car pooling, managed by an app. Probably it still will never be as energy efficient as a train on rails, but it's a lot better than one car one rider. And unlike the train, it can easily drop one rider off anywhere along the way. Or combine the two: turn trains into land ferries where the route allows, and drive road cars onto train cars on one end and off on the other.
- matchbok 8y agoUber is nowhere near a "leader" in the space. If by leader you mean stealing tech from Google, then yes.