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Yep, I think this is how it’s going to work out, too. The dawdling driverless vehicles (paralyzed by opportunistic jaywalkers) will actually make the traffic wo

by gen220 5y ago

Yep, I think this is how it’s going to work out, too. The dawdling driverless vehicles (paralyzed by opportunistic jaywalkers) will actually make the traffic worse. The worst possible future is if entrenched interests (waymo, etc) begin lobbying for more active measures of jaywalking enforcement (first policing, but also fences to keep those pesky humans on the sidewalk), as a way to get around the technical problem of becoming a more aggressive/communicative driver. The only natural conclusion of that possible future would be streets that are utterly hostile to humans, which would be throwing away one of NYC’s best assets. I hope it doesn’t come to fruition! And I hope driverless car tech can solve this problem. The idea is developed more / better articulated here: https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2021/8/12/automated-vehicles https://www.strongtowns.org/journal/2021/8/12/automated-vehi...

asdff 5y ago
I really don't know why driverless car companies aren't going all in on busses. You can sell your tech to bus manufacturers, and if you lobby for BRT you have your own grade separated right of way which makes a lot of these monumental engineering challenges with self driving cars poof into thin air instantly. The biggest cost for a bus for a transit agency is the benefits package and salary for the driver.
- danielmarkbruce 5y ago
  Because cars are more general purpose and thus significantly bigger market. Google is a $2 trillion market cap business. Building a $100 bill business, for example, isn't going to move the needle. It sounds crazy, but they sort of have to go after things this large.
  - asdff 5y ago
    Seems like you could bring busses to market a lot sooner given that automatic BRT is so much easier and use what you learn there for your private car stack. Plus you'd be sitting pretty in terms of getting public contracts and dictating regulation, since lawmakers will be turning to you, the domestic automatic bus software company, to weigh in on what to do for self driving car policy.
    - danielmarkbruce 5y ago
      Yep, there are many businesses which you could get to market a lot faster than self driving cars.

by gen220 5y ago

asdff 5y ago

I really don't know why driverless car companies aren't going all in on busses. You can sell your tech to bus manufacturers, and if you lobby for BRT you have your own grade separated right of way which makes a lot of these monumental engineering challenges with self driving cars poof into thin air instantly. The biggest cost for a bus for a transit agency is the benefits package and salary for the driver.

danielmarkbruce 5y ago
Because cars are more general purpose and thus significantly bigger market. Google is a $2 trillion market cap business. Building a $100 bill business, for example, isn't going to move the needle. It sounds crazy, but they sort of have to go after things this large.
- asdff 5y ago
  Seems like you could bring busses to market a lot sooner given that automatic BRT is so much easier and use what you learn there for your private car stack. Plus you'd be sitting pretty in terms of getting public contracts and dictating regulation, since lawmakers will be turning to you, the domestic automatic bus software company, to weigh in on what to do for self driving car policy.
  - danielmarkbruce 5y ago
    Yep, there are many businesses which you could get to market a lot faster than self driving cars.