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What is the benefit of a taxi being driverless, for the passenger? Is it cheaper?
by 37ef_ced3 5y ago
What is the benefit of a taxi being driverless, for the passenger? Is it cheaper?
- AuthError 5y agoyea, you take the biggest cost of taxi out of equation.
- boredumb 5y agoThe $250,000 SF taxi medallions?
- lotsofpulp 5y agoAssuming it is $250k one time purchase, it seems cheaper than annual pay for a person to drive around SF, and the overhead to manage the person.
- asdff 5y agoYou still have overhead to manage your fleet of self driving cars. They aren't self repairing, self fueling, and self cleaning yet.
- colinmhayes 5y agoCheaper than having individuals manage their own cars.
- astrange 5y agoThe Uber trick is that people don't understand how much it costs to own a car, so riders get to extract money from overinvested drivers.
- adrr 5y agoLet’s assume you get a loan for 30 years on it for 6%. That is $18k a year. What is labor? $50k a year?
- darkwizard42 5y agoIt will likely be cheaper (maybe not initially), but more restrictive in pickup/drop-off and availability (ETA).
- toolz 5y agoDon't you mean less restrictive? A human might have preferences against areas that a computer might not. Further if it's cheaper and less complex to operate (not dealing with employees is a significant decrease in complexity) I would expect more car owners to enter the market and provide services.
- kelnos 5y agoThe restrictions on pickup/dropoff locations (if any) might have more to do with road conditions. Cruise might not be comfortable with their cars stopping in certain places.
- avrionov 5y agoIt will more restrictive because they haven't mapped all streets.
- darkwizard42 5y agoMore restrictive because without a human driver it has to have absolute certainty it will stop in a safe place (unlike a human driver who may make the right or wrong call to just double park and let you hop out). Think of self-driving cars as likely to use their own version of "bus stops" but the route and flexibility would be greater than that of a standard bus
- soperj 5y agoLikely be able to get a taxi anywhere. No discrimination. No 20/25/30% tip suggested. No taking advantage of passengers, no weird routes to tack on extra fees.
- Drdrdrq 5y ago> ...no weird routes to tack on extra fees. At first. They will optimize that later.
- e4e78a06 5y agoThere's no need for that. Rideshare drivers' pay overwhelmingly goes to cost of labor rather than fuel or maintenance, especially in big cities. Uber/Lyft take another 25-40% from the gross fare the passenger pays. Cruise will be capturing all of that and only needs to pass a fraction on to the consumer to get an unassailable price advantage.
- Drdrdrq 5y agoThis is only true now, until such rides become the norm. Then the margins will shrink and companies will optimize every way they can.
- asdff 5y agoMaybe you haven't ridden a cab in the last 10 years, but like any other major industry these days, they do have an app you can use. You can call one up immediately like an uber or schedule it in advance like a traditional cab, it gives you a fixed price up front and a set route, tip can be included in the app how you like. In my experience taking a cab like this is better than ubering to the airport since its the same price any time of day rather than in flux between $50-infinity.
- soperj 5y agoYou clearly haven't taken a cab lately in a place without Uber or the like.
- pcwalton 5y agoThe Omicron variant of COVID-19 is the most infectious disease known to mankind. In mid-December, with caseloads similar to now, the asymptomatic positivity rate was around 15%, so you can roughly put the chances of your driver being infected with COVID-19 at around 15%. So, right now, I'd feel safer in a driverless cab. (Of course, that calculus changes as the number of cases changes, which is right now happening rapidly.)
- s1artibartfast 5y ago>The Omicron variant of COVID-19 is the most infectious disease known to mankind. Based on what? Certainly not RO
- orangepurple 5y agoOmicron is the "live vaccine" variant of COVID-19. I've had it and it was no problem.
- mattlondon 5y agoAt least in the UK, one of the most prolific serial rapists was a licensed taxi driver (not even an Uber driver (who get a lot of stick about not being as safe as "real" taxis) - but a licensed and supposedly-vetted London black taxi driver). https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Worboys https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Worboys So I guess safety is a major plus based on that.
- olivermarks 5y agoTotally illogical supposition. I'll bet a lot more taxi drivers have rescued people in trouble than assaulted them, a young female relative of mine was rescued by a passing taxi driver from a dicey situation outside Sheperds Bush tube station. The chances of thugs standing in front of future driverless vehicles like highway robbers to stop them is very high, especially if the predators can see their prey has something of value to them
- ketzo 5y agoWe can do anecdotes back and forth, but many people would absolutely love “Uber but there’s not a stranger in the front seat.”
- asdff 5y agoThey will love it until they are leaving from the bar and the last bar attendee left them a big wet bile-smelling present all over the seat. At least when this sort of thing happens on a bus there are other seats you could use.
- seanmcdirmid 5y agoReject the ride due to cleanliness and request another one.
- asdff 5y agoAnd who knows how long that will take? In some places it takes long enough just to request a single uber trip much less two in a row. Imagine how livid you'd get when a half hour after you first intended to leave the bar, the second self driving car arrives, and it to is soiled.
- frakkingcylons 5y agoEventually I think it will reach a point where it’s safer too. The car doesn’t get tired, meanwhile I’ve had plenty of taxi/uber rides where the driver has been driving long, long hours.
- lancesells 5y agoI would much rather prefer my own private car than one being driven by someone else. It'll be interesting to see if the level of cleanliness though as most drivers tend to take care of their car because it's their car. If someone throws up in one of these cars does it know or does it just show up to the next pickup?
- DavidAdams 5y agoI'm sure that any of these services are going to depend on customers reporting when a car shows up in an unacceptable condition.
- asdff 5y agoThat sounds like a great way to burn reputation among your customers. "Why would I take a self driving car from the bar, the last one was full of puke?"
- kelnos 5y agoThat raises another question for me: I thought Uber and Lyft[0] had COVID-related cleaning protocols that require their drivers to disinfect some surfaces of the car after each ride. How can a driverless car do that? [0] https://www.lyft.com/driver/clean https://www.lyft.com/driver/clean
- richardw 5y agoNo forced chitchat, no chance I’ll be rated badly, (eventually) safer than many of the drivers I’ve had. I’d use it daily if it were an appliance rather than an interaction. Right now I have a car.
- asdff 5y agoThis is why I like cabs. Customers should not have a rating.
- itisit 5y agoThe benefit, one day, is if you're a criminal whose face is detected, the car doors will lock, and you'll be driven directly to law enforcement who will be ready and waiting to apprehend you.
- namrog84 5y agoAlthough possible. I suspect and hope there will be some push back. Imagine a counterpoint in either a bug or malicious attack where innocent person is locked in and then driven into a lake or something. I dont think autonomous cars should be able to lock people in. The car can report to police silently, that's fine.
- asdff 5y agoSeems like it would be a lot less dramatic to just trigger a head on collison on the highway which you could do today if you broke into the tesla fsd system.
- 988747 5y ago>> The car can report to police silently, that's fine. No, it should not do even that. You are making an assumption here that police/government always have good intentions. What society needs is kind of power balance: law enforcement being able to catch 98% of criminals is a noble goal, but pushing that number up to 100% is not possible in democratic society, it requires totalitarian control. That's why we need to make a choice here and oppose surveillance, event if it seems well intentioned.
- itisit 5y agoThis is basically the point I was trying to provoke. We forfeit a good bit of our privacy and autonomy with these technologies. Rather disgusting how convenience always wins.
- wubbert 5y agoThat won't ever happen. If it did, it would disproportionately affect people of color, be declared a racist "feature," and be banned.
- dragonwriter 5y ago> What is the benefit of a taxi being driverless, for the passenger? Not risking kidnapping, sexual assault, etc.—or even just “this person won't shut up”—from the driver. > Is it cheaper? Eventually, though perhaps not initially.
- mertd 5y agoIf you can reduce the cost of a car trip to fuel + maintenance + depreciation, you are providing a very compelling alternative to private car ownership. It will change everything.
- modzu 5y agonobody owns a car because its cheaper than other forms of transit. and if you want to be cheauferred around by an ai instead of taking a bus, you will pay for it.
- more_corn 5y agoPeople own cars for convenience. In the US public transit is impossible. A self driving service can be as convenient or even more convenient compared to owning a car. (No registration, oil change, insurance, fueling, parking, maintenance chores) I’m a car guy and I see the appeal.
- twoWhlsGud 5y agoIndeed. Exactly how this all will play out is unclear, but if it works the impact on land use will be substantial.
- gpas 5y ago> In the US public transit is impossible No sarcasm. Why it's impossible to have public transit like every other country in the world but it's possible to pour tons of money on driverless cars development?
- astrange 5y agoThe suburban land use pattern doesn't admit good transit because not enough people live close to the stations. Also, we have bad combinations of when to make things public/private - the US actually has much more public services than many other countries (other places do have privatized mail, transit, etc) but then doesn't fund them. If this was Japan all the good stores would be in the train station and would fund the operations.
- modzu 5y agono. a billion dollars wasnt invested to socialize transportation. ultimately it may be more, if there is value in not having to interact with the smell of a fleshbag
- adrr 5y agoLabor is the most expensive part of a taxi.
- dbbk 5y agoCheaper and greater availability at all hours I'd imagine, as the driver doesn't need to take shifts.
- nichochar 5y ago1) cost (majority of the uber ride cost is paying the human) 2) social anxiety / norms 3) experience tuning / consistency
- seanmcdirmid 5y agoCheaper, you don’t have to tip (in the USA where that is required), availability (driver doesn’t need to sleep), and safety (you don’t have to worry about your driver trying to cheat or rob you). People aren’t getting cheaper. Indeed, this pandemic is showing us just how fragile the labor market is and automation that was too expensive to consider before (like fry robots at caliburger) are now very reasonable upgrades. Uber was great when they cost $40 from the airport, but not $200 given the driver is now considered a full time employee with full benefits.
- NationalPark 5y agoWhere are Uber drivers considered full time employees?
- AussieWog93 5y agoThe UK, for a start.
- seanmcdirmid 5y agoDidn't that almost happen in California?
- mbesto 5y agoYes. Instead of the variable cost of a human, it's just the variable cost of maintenance + gas.
- paxys 5y agoFor the passenger – unless the cars drive significantly better there's really no difference. Rides may get cheaper but the overall market will decide that. The benefits to the company who runs the service is, of course, huge.