4 ms·

Thoughts on Buying a Car

chiefalchemist 4y ago
For all the reasons - negative and positive - I'm looking forward to semi-autonomous vehicles. I don't want to own my car, I want to hail the type of vehicle I need when I need it. Going to Home Depot? Truck. Going to the supermarket? The most minimal thing available. Going to dinner after work? Something nicer. I don't want to worry about changing the oil, etc. > I will also make sure to use it with others as much as possible. There are 5 seats in this bad-boy and I don’t like unused resources. Well, and he fails to mention this, a vehicle parked is an underutilized resource. Yes, it's convenient to grab your keys and go. But when you're not going the (parked) resource is providing excess capacity. Vehicle as a service should in theory mitigate that*. * I do have a concern about the effect on the broader economy. That is, if we're manufacturing say 25% less vehicles because on-demand is able to meet capacity with less vehicles, how will the economy react to that?
- kevincox 4y ago
  Personally other than "Going to Home Depot" I would rather have good public transit for all of these. In fact my city has decent (and rapidly improving) transit and I find the experience better than sitting in traffic, even if I'm not driving (and don't need to focus on the road). Taxis (autonomous or otherwise) mitigate a lot of problems with cars but traffic is still a huge issue. Cars just aren't an efficient way to move people. In rural areas where space is cheap and everything is spread out anyways than it makes sense. But in the city where space is valuable high-capacity transit makes the most sense. The space taken up by cars (even if no parking is needed) is just not worth it. Especially when you tack on noise, pollution and the danger to pedestrians.
  - chiefalchemist 4y ago
    I should have said I live in the burbs of NJ (and sometimes VT). I agree. Vehicle as a service isn't an urban-friendly product. Perhaps that's why we haven't really seen it yet? That aside, I have friends in London and aside from rush hour, I find the public trans - mostly by tube, sometimes bus - amazing. Generally on time, clean, safe, etetc. I would imagine Londoners feel otherwise. Too bad for them.
  - MiddleEndian 4y ago
    On the other hand, I've used public transit to move many planks of wood from Home Depot back to my condo that would not have fit in a normal car.

For all the reasons - negative and positive - I'm looking forward to semi-autonomous vehicles. I don't want to own my car, I want to hail the type of vehicle I need when I need it. Going to Home Depot? Truck. Going to the supermarket? The most minimal thing available. Going to dinner after work? Something nicer. I don't want to worry about changing the oil, etc. > I will also make sure to use it with others as much as possible. There are 5 seats in this bad-boy and I don’t like unused resources. Well, and he fails to mention this, a vehicle parked is an underutilized resource. Yes, it's convenient to grab your keys and go. But when you're not going the (parked) resource is providing excess capacity. Vehicle as a service should in theory mitigate that*. * I do have a concern about the effect on the broader economy. That is, if we're manufacturing say 25% less vehicles because on-demand is able to meet capacity with less vehicles, how will the economy react to that?

kevincox 4y ago
Personally other than "Going to Home Depot" I would rather have good public transit for all of these. In fact my city has decent (and rapidly improving) transit and I find the experience better than sitting in traffic, even if I'm not driving (and don't need to focus on the road). Taxis (autonomous or otherwise) mitigate a lot of problems with cars but traffic is still a huge issue. Cars just aren't an efficient way to move people. In rural areas where space is cheap and everything is spread out anyways than it makes sense. But in the city where space is valuable high-capacity transit makes the most sense. The space taken up by cars (even if no parking is needed) is just not worth it. Especially when you tack on noise, pollution and the danger to pedestrians.
- chiefalchemist 4y ago
  I should have said I live in the burbs of NJ (and sometimes VT). I agree. Vehicle as a service isn't an urban-friendly product. Perhaps that's why we haven't really seen it yet? That aside, I have friends in London and aside from rush hour, I find the public trans - mostly by tube, sometimes bus - amazing. Generally on time, clean, safe, etetc. I would imagine Londoners feel otherwise. Too bad for them.
- MiddleEndian 4y ago
  On the other hand, I've used public transit to move many planks of wood from Home Depot back to my condo that would not have fit in a normal car.