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How is autonomous driving an increasingly scarce resource? The tech industry, with zero marginal cost, took to the subscription model with great success. Hugel
by xivzgrev 5y ago
How is autonomous driving an increasingly scarce resource?
The tech industry, with zero marginal cost, took to the subscription model with great success. Hugely profitable. Now every business looks to work in subscriptions.
I think what we will end up having is that initial players to offer autonomous driving will be able to charge, because it’s scarce and to recoup investment. Eventually the tech will get commoditized as computers grow ever more powerful, and someone will offer a car with free autonomous driving in order to sell more cars.
Subscriptions make the most sense for stuff you buy regularly, and stuff that can’t be monetized other ways (like Netflix). Car manufacturers are neither. Plus they have to compete with likes of Waymo and Uber - are they going to want to charge $8.50 an hr, plus the cost of gas, car, insurance etc, when I could take a self driving Uber for $20/hr?
- CorrectHorseBat 5y ago>How is autonomous driving an increasingly scarce resource? Space is the scarce resource. In a city that's full of 90% of the time parked cars it doesn't really make sense for everyone to have their own car. Autonomous driving just combines the best of Uber and car sharing.
- GekkePrutser 5y agoIn a city having excellent public transport makes even more sense than cars :) And outside the city space isn't an issue.
- jbjbjbjb 5y agoThats difficult if like in North America you’ve spent the last hundred years building your cities from scratch to suit cars and feel nice and spacious.
- CorrectHorseBat 5y agoPublic transport is not the answer to everything. What if you want to visit your relatives outside the city/move some heavy things/...
- gspr 5y agoFor visiting outside the city, you temporarily rent a vehicle outside the city, where space isn't a problem. For moving heavy things: come on, how big of an impact on city traffic is this really?
- CorrectHorseBat 5y agoOr, you accept there is nothing wrong with a few cars in the city and have taxis/car sharing/autonomous cars inside the city for when you need them.
- gspr 5y agoSure.
- relativ575 5y agoLook around a residential area in Zurich. Not very far from a train station. Yet there are still a lot or cars, and many empty parking space. If a place with such a fantastic public transportation still requires that many cars, what does it tell you about people's habit? https://www.google.com/maps/@47.4049509,8.5855091,3a,75y,292.08h,78.63t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sSUYD3fQdD__yfbTlSRoFuQ!2e0!6shttps:%2F%2Fstreetviewpixels-pa.googleapis.com%2Fv1%2Fthumbnail%3Fpanoid%3DSUYD3fQdD__yfbTlSRoFuQ%26cb_client%3Dsearch.revgeo_and_fetch.gps%26w%3D96%26h%3D64%26yaw%3D171.90012%26pitch%3D0%26thumbfov%3D100!7i13312!8i6656 https://www.google.com/maps/@47.4049509,8.5855091,3a,75y,292...