5 ms·

It's that hard to walk to a car we need to reinvent the wheel? It's getting ridiculous

tyfon 7y ago
I won't use this feature personally much beyond playing around a bit with it, and in any case it has not arrived in my country yet. However I can see it will be beneficial to people with disabilities and the like. It's not all about laziness. It is also a (small) step towards the fully self driving features they aim for.
melling 7y ago
Yes it sounds unreasonable to me too. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/536961-the-reasonable-man-adapts-himself-to-the-world-the-unreasonable https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/536961-the-reasonable-man-a... It’s this constant battle between those who can’t imagine and the unreasonable man.
- mrpopo 7y ago
  In today's world, is such a marginal progress worth the ecological sacrifices being made in its name?
eternalny1 7y ago
Think of this as another step towards full automation. This isn't necessarily just a "nice to have" to have your car come to you in the parking lot. This is also potentially to have a semi-truck get itself out of the parking lot one day, or your taxi to show up from a remote stand.
braythwayt 7y ago
One way in which this could (I am being very speculative) be useful is that when we pass a tipping point and most cars are autonomous enough for summoning, this could change the architecture of public buildings like malls, condos, and offices: Parking could be deliberately placed far away: Cars could drop you at the front doors, then drive off and park themselves, returning to pick you up when you are done. This could revitalize downtown shopping districts, for example. It may not be a hardship for able people to walk to their car in today’s malls, but perhaps in the future your car could be parked a few kilometers away. That could be a big win for liveability: Imagine malls that didn’t need to be surrounded by acres and acres of asphalt. Shuttles could carry people driving “legacy” vehicles between the parking and the mall, but those with autonomous vehicles wouldn’t need to wait for and share a shuttle.
- homonculus1 7y ago
  That system isn't getting rid of any asphalt. It's just wasting more time and energy unnecessarily.
  - braythwayt 7y ago
    Not true! Acres of asphalt exists because we need to physically park our cars and then walk safely to and from the mall. If we don’t need parking in close proximity, or parking that a human must drive into and walk out of, we can build much more efficient storage for cars than acres of asphalt. They do it in Japan, we just don’t do it in North America.
- mrpopo 7y ago
  > Parking could be deliberately placed far away: Cars could drop you at the front doors, then drive off and park themselves, returning to pick you up when you are done. > This could revitalize downtown shopping districts, for example. Or we could have that today by limiting car access to downtown shopping districts, having large parking lots outside of town and investing in public transit. This is being enacted and it's working in many middle-sized European cities.
  - braythwayt 7y ago
    Well of course, but that’s a different conversation, one in which I’m in agreement with you. Public transit is a win. But as long as people have cars for whatever reason that is outside of my control, cars that can park themselves and then return to pick us up could create less unliveable cities than the ones we have today.
- delfinom 7y ago
  >This could revitalize downtown shopping districts, for example. Downtown shopping districts already solved this problem...by putting parking lots in the back or shared multi-level parking garages off to the side. Self driving cars aren't magically going to give them money to rebuild if they haven't already.
moduspol 7y ago
Reminds me of Bill Gates trying to explain the value of the Internet to David Letterman. "Does 'radio' ring a bell? 'Tape recorders' ring a bell?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lskpNmUl8yQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lskpNmUl8yQ
sschueller 7y ago
I'm waiting for the Tesla with the mobility scooter built in like the batcycle in the batmobile. /s

I won't use this feature personally much beyond playing around a bit with it, and in any case it has not arrived in my country yet. However I can see it will be beneficial to people with disabilities and the like. It's not all about laziness. It is also a (small) step towards the fully self driving features they aim for.

melling 7y ago

Yes it sounds unreasonable to me too. https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/536961-the-reasonable-man-adapts-himself-to-the-world-the-unreasonable https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/536961-the-reasonable-man-a... It’s this constant battle between those who can’t imagine and the unreasonable man.

mrpopo 7y ago
In today's world, is such a marginal progress worth the ecological sacrifices being made in its name?

eternalny1 7y ago

Think of this as another step towards full automation. This isn't necessarily just a "nice to have" to have your car come to you in the parking lot. This is also potentially to have a semi-truck get itself out of the parking lot one day, or your taxi to show up from a remote stand.

braythwayt 7y ago

One way in which this could (I am being very speculative) be useful is that when we pass a tipping point and most cars are autonomous enough for summoning, this could change the architecture of public buildings like malls, condos, and offices: Parking could be deliberately placed far away: Cars could drop you at the front doors, then drive off and park themselves, returning to pick you up when you are done. This could revitalize downtown shopping districts, for example. It may not be a hardship for able people to walk to their car in today’s malls, but perhaps in the future your car could be parked a few kilometers away. That could be a big win for liveability: Imagine malls that didn’t need to be surrounded by acres and acres of asphalt. Shuttles could carry people driving “legacy” vehicles between the parking and the mall, but those with autonomous vehicles wouldn’t need to wait for and share a shuttle.

homonculus1 7y ago
That system isn't getting rid of any asphalt. It's just wasting more time and energy unnecessarily.
- braythwayt 7y ago
  Not true! Acres of asphalt exists because we need to physically park our cars and then walk safely to and from the mall. If we don’t need parking in close proximity, or parking that a human must drive into and walk out of, we can build much more efficient storage for cars than acres of asphalt. They do it in Japan, we just don’t do it in North America.
mrpopo 7y ago
> Parking could be deliberately placed far away: Cars could drop you at the front doors, then drive off and park themselves, returning to pick you up when you are done. > This could revitalize downtown shopping districts, for example. Or we could have that today by limiting car access to downtown shopping districts, having large parking lots outside of town and investing in public transit. This is being enacted and it's working in many middle-sized European cities.
- braythwayt 7y ago
  Well of course, but that’s a different conversation, one in which I’m in agreement with you. Public transit is a win. But as long as people have cars for whatever reason that is outside of my control, cars that can park themselves and then return to pick us up could create less unliveable cities than the ones we have today.
delfinom 7y ago
>This could revitalize downtown shopping districts, for example. Downtown shopping districts already solved this problem...by putting parking lots in the back or shared multi-level parking garages off to the side. Self driving cars aren't magically going to give them money to rebuild if they haven't already.

moduspol 7y ago

Reminds me of Bill Gates trying to explain the value of the Internet to David Letterman. "Does 'radio' ring a bell? 'Tape recorders' ring a bell?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lskpNmUl8yQ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lskpNmUl8yQ

sschueller 7y ago

I'm waiting for the Tesla with the mobility scooter built in like the batcycle in the batmobile. /s