5 ms·

I think it goes both ways and we won’t know for sure until it comes to fruition. Personally, I hate owning vehicles and desperately want a self-driving taxi se

by tnel77 4y ago

I think it goes both ways and we won’t know for sure until it comes to fruition. Personally, I hate owning vehicles and desperately want a self-driving taxi service that I can order via an app to get me and my family around.

shawnz 4y ago
If you're just a passenger then why does it matter to you whether the taxi service is self-driving or not? Surely the benefits of self-driving would be significantly more relevant for those who do want to own the vehicle?
- tnel77 4y ago
  I’m hoping that by excluding the human labor costs I will save some money, but we will see. It would also be nice to not have to have that awkward taxi conversation every time I go to the store.
  - cwalv 4y ago
    > It would also be nice to not have to have that awkward taxi conversation every time I go to the store. This is the real reason ppl will own cars for the foreseeable future. Same reason I prefer a detatched home with a private/fenced yard. I'd probably get used to high-density living, but I doubt if I'd ever really prefer it.
- tintor 4y ago
  Expectation is that self-driving taxi would be cheaper than manual taxi.
- fshbbdssbbgdd 4y ago
  Average earnings (after expenses) of a ride share driver is very roughly $10/hour. If you assume a self-driving car can get 2000 hours of use a year (which seems reasonably conservative), then the self-driving car saves $20k in labor costs per year. Although self-driving tech will be expensive in the beginning, the price will likely at some point decline to be far below $20k/year. Labor is about half of the cost of a hired ride. We know this is true for Uber because there is a lot of public discussion about the budget of a rideshare driver. Not sure about taxis. Given those premises and assumptions, a person who doesn’t want to drive would care about self-driving tech because it could eventually lower the cost of hiring a ride, potentially by 50%.
  - cycomanic 4y ago
    But price is said due to supply and demand not the cost of providing the service. So why do you think taxi fares will go down?
    - fshbbdssbbgdd 4y ago
      Because labor is half of supply, in this case.
  - freejazz 4y ago
    Still has no bearing on why they would or wouldn't take taxis now.
Waterluvian 4y ago
Same. The only reason I own is because no service guarantees a car will be in my garage when I need it. If they could offer that, I’d love to pay a service fee rather than own, maintain, buy, sell. And I think it would be cheaper. The optimal use for a product that is depreciating in value whether you use it or not, is to use it as much as possible. We are paying for our cars for sit in place all day and night.
mLuby 4y ago
Better hope your rating never takes a "nosedive" where you lose access to your means of transportation. See the Black Mirror episode of that name.
samtho 4y ago
> Personally, I hate owning vehicles and desperately want a self-driving taxi service that I can order via an app to get me and my family around. This future sounds great until you consider what it really means to let “someone else” become the arbiter of you being able to get around. If I have a car in my driveway, I can make sure it is charged/fueled for whenever I need it and I can just turn it on and go. Compare that to a system who’s goal is not specifically moving you, but keeping cars/assets always on paid trips. Sure, you may in luck if you live in a well-off areas where many trips are taken, but I fear peak hours will become something of a bidding war where nobody wins. If you do not control your means of transport, someone else does and they can take it away from you at any time. This “rent seeking” is one of the biggest cancers on our society and I will be no part of it given the choice.
- simondotau 4y ago
  > This future sounds great until you consider what it really means to let “someone else” become the arbiter of you being able to get around. Assuming we're discounting things like bicycles, family member's vehicles and company-owned vehicles, this is present day reality for the overwhelming majority of people on this planet. (It's also debatable whether a car truly eliminates other people from being an arbiter of "being able to get around" if you are still reliant on a fossil fuel supply chain. By comparison an EV charged with a domestic solar array would probably more liberating.)
  - cwalv 4y ago
    > By comparison an EV charged with a domestic solar array would probably more liberating By comparison, yes. But where are you going to go, or what are you going to do, that isn't dependent on other ppl in some way? I like the idea of being self-supporting as much as anyone, but that doesn't change the fact that we're all interdependent in modern society.
    - simondotau 4y ago
      Precisely my point, though I didn’t say it precisely. The notion that we’re ever not dependant on the actions of other people is utterly fictitious.
freejazz 4y ago
You wont take taxis now because they are driven by people?

by tnel77 4y ago

shawnz 4y ago

If you're just a passenger then why does it matter to you whether the taxi service is self-driving or not? Surely the benefits of self-driving would be significantly more relevant for those who do want to own the vehicle?

tnel77 4y ago
I’m hoping that by excluding the human labor costs I will save some money, but we will see. It would also be nice to not have to have that awkward taxi conversation every time I go to the store.
- cwalv 4y ago
  > It would also be nice to not have to have that awkward taxi conversation every time I go to the store. This is the real reason ppl will own cars for the foreseeable future. Same reason I prefer a detatched home with a private/fenced yard. I'd probably get used to high-density living, but I doubt if I'd ever really prefer it.
tintor 4y ago
Expectation is that self-driving taxi would be cheaper than manual taxi.
fshbbdssbbgdd 4y ago
Average earnings (after expenses) of a ride share driver is very roughly $10/hour. If you assume a self-driving car can get 2000 hours of use a year (which seems reasonably conservative), then the self-driving car saves $20k in labor costs per year. Although self-driving tech will be expensive in the beginning, the price will likely at some point decline to be far below $20k/year. Labor is about half of the cost of a hired ride. We know this is true for Uber because there is a lot of public discussion about the budget of a rideshare driver. Not sure about taxis. Given those premises and assumptions, a person who doesn’t want to drive would care about self-driving tech because it could eventually lower the cost of hiring a ride, potentially by 50%.
- cycomanic 4y ago
  But price is said due to supply and demand not the cost of providing the service. So why do you think taxi fares will go down?
  - fshbbdssbbgdd 4y ago
    Because labor is half of supply, in this case.
- freejazz 4y ago
  Still has no bearing on why they would or wouldn't take taxis now.

Waterluvian 4y ago

Same. The only reason I own is because no service guarantees a car will be in my garage when I need it. If they could offer that, I’d love to pay a service fee rather than own, maintain, buy, sell. And I think it would be cheaper. The optimal use for a product that is depreciating in value whether you use it or not, is to use it as much as possible. We are paying for our cars for sit in place all day and night.

mLuby 4y ago

Better hope your rating never takes a "nosedive" where you lose access to your means of transportation. See the Black Mirror episode of that name.

samtho 4y ago

> Personally, I hate owning vehicles and desperately want a self-driving taxi service that I can order via an app to get me and my family around. This future sounds great until you consider what it really means to let “someone else” become the arbiter of you being able to get around. If I have a car in my driveway, I can make sure it is charged/fueled for whenever I need it and I can just turn it on and go. Compare that to a system who’s goal is not specifically moving you, but keeping cars/assets always on paid trips. Sure, you may in luck if you live in a well-off areas where many trips are taken, but I fear peak hours will become something of a bidding war where nobody wins. If you do not control your means of transport, someone else does and they can take it away from you at any time. This “rent seeking” is one of the biggest cancers on our society and I will be no part of it given the choice.

simondotau 4y ago
> This future sounds great until you consider what it really means to let “someone else” become the arbiter of you being able to get around. Assuming we're discounting things like bicycles, family member's vehicles and company-owned vehicles, this is present day reality for the overwhelming majority of people on this planet. (It's also debatable whether a car truly eliminates other people from being an arbiter of "being able to get around" if you are still reliant on a fossil fuel supply chain. By comparison an EV charged with a domestic solar array would probably more liberating.)
- cwalv 4y ago
  > By comparison an EV charged with a domestic solar array would probably more liberating By comparison, yes. But where are you going to go, or what are you going to do, that isn't dependent on other ppl in some way? I like the idea of being self-supporting as much as anyone, but that doesn't change the fact that we're all interdependent in modern society.
  - simondotau 4y ago
    Precisely my point, though I didn’t say it precisely. The notion that we’re ever not dependant on the actions of other people is utterly fictitious.

freejazz 4y ago

You wont take taxis now because they are driven by people?