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The missing part, not that we have a way to estimate, is cost of labor to drive the car. People don't usually factor it in but self-driving offers the ability t

The missing part, not that we have a way to estimate, is cost of labor to drive the car. People don't usually factor it in but self-driving offers the ability to sleep, listen to music, work, have conversation or whatever during the driving time. People seem to value their time at wildly different rates but it's not $0/hour.

PaulHoule 5y ago
I am always shocked that a craft store has 100+ kinds of acrylic yarn and maybe one or two wool yarns if that. It seems a grandmother will spend 20 hours knitting a scarf and not care that they can make a much better product for a few $ more in materials. In other case synthetic materials be might really better, but for knitted scarfs, sweaters, and such it no contest. One material will protect you from fire by forming a char (wool) and the other will melt and transport heat right to your skin and make sure you get burned.
Syonyk 5y ago
Except I can do most of those things already. Listen to music, yes, for most of the vehicles I've owned, though the most recent purchase has no radio (it predates radios in cars being a thing). Have a conversation, I mean... yes? This is where my wife and I get a lot of discussions in, rolling down the road. If I want to talk to someone remotely, I can just pair my phone and have a conversation that way. Work? Not directly, but I'm certainly free to have a complex problem rolling around in my head, pondering it from various angles, as I navigate down the road. At least for the stuff I do, this is the hard part, not the actual typing of code. Sleep? No, but I work with technology for a living. There's no way in hell I would trust self driving nearly enough to close my eyes, much less actually sleep. Maybe in a few decades, but... if I drove in some areas like the current self driving tech, I'd be pulled over for driving while plastered. I've no problem with driver assist technologies, but with where self driving is, we may as well be discussing antimater powered starships. "What would you pay for a ride on the Enterprise?"
- ktpsns 5y ago
  Apparently you don't live in a country with a good long-distance public transport or long distance highspeed train network. Before covid, I regularly spent a few hours a week in a 300km/h ICE train in Germany. Nowadays, I spend similar time in my car (hint: it doesn't make 300km/h but traveling times are similar). The major difference is of course not listening to music or having a phone call. The major difference is work and sleep. I can do both in the train, I cannot do it in a car at the driving seat :)
  - Syonyk 5y ago
    Nope. I live in the US. I would sleep on a train, if any came within a few hundred miles of me, but I've seen nothing so far that would make me trust a self driving car enough to sleep in it.
- savanaly 5y ago
  To each their own, but personally I much prefer to be driven somewhere in e.g. Lyft than to have to drive myself. I would bet that's worth at least a few dollars per hour to most people and thus would be relevant in the calculations I was originally responding to.
- bradtemp 5y ago
  You say there is no way in hell you would trust self driving enough to close your eyes. My experience is most people come to trust it far too soon, not too late. It's not a problem. People trust something when they see it work a couple of times. Of course the car won't be sold unless it's been shown to do a better job than you do. You still might not trust it -- but most people will, even long before then.

PaulHoule 5y ago

I am always shocked that a craft store has 100+ kinds of acrylic yarn and maybe one or two wool yarns if that. It seems a grandmother will spend 20 hours knitting a scarf and not care that they can make a much better product for a few $ more in materials. In other case synthetic materials be might really better, but for knitted scarfs, sweaters, and such it no contest. One material will protect you from fire by forming a char (wool) and the other will melt and transport heat right to your skin and make sure you get burned.

Syonyk 5y ago

Except I can do most of those things already. Listen to music, yes, for most of the vehicles I've owned, though the most recent purchase has no radio (it predates radios in cars being a thing). Have a conversation, I mean... yes? This is where my wife and I get a lot of discussions in, rolling down the road. If I want to talk to someone remotely, I can just pair my phone and have a conversation that way. Work? Not directly, but I'm certainly free to have a complex problem rolling around in my head, pondering it from various angles, as I navigate down the road. At least for the stuff I do, this is the hard part, not the actual typing of code. Sleep? No, but I work with technology for a living. There's no way in hell I would trust self driving nearly enough to close my eyes, much less actually sleep. Maybe in a few decades, but... if I drove in some areas like the current self driving tech, I'd be pulled over for driving while plastered. I've no problem with driver assist technologies, but with where self driving is, we may as well be discussing antimater powered starships. "What would you pay for a ride on the Enterprise?"

ktpsns 5y ago
Apparently you don't live in a country with a good long-distance public transport or long distance highspeed train network. Before covid, I regularly spent a few hours a week in a 300km/h ICE train in Germany. Nowadays, I spend similar time in my car (hint: it doesn't make 300km/h but traveling times are similar). The major difference is of course not listening to music or having a phone call. The major difference is work and sleep. I can do both in the train, I cannot do it in a car at the driving seat :)
- Syonyk 5y ago
  Nope. I live in the US. I would sleep on a train, if any came within a few hundred miles of me, but I've seen nothing so far that would make me trust a self driving car enough to sleep in it.
savanaly 5y ago
To each their own, but personally I much prefer to be driven somewhere in e.g. Lyft than to have to drive myself. I would bet that's worth at least a few dollars per hour to most people and thus would be relevant in the calculations I was originally responding to.
bradtemp 5y ago
You say there is no way in hell you would trust self driving enough to close your eyes. My experience is most people come to trust it far too soon, not too late. It's not a problem. People trust something when they see it work a couple of times. Of course the car won't be sold unless it's been shown to do a better job than you do. You still might not trust it -- but most people will, even long before then.