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You total up all the R&D budgets burned trying to crack this problem and I have to wonder just how profitable would it really be to put (at first) taxi and (now
by forgetfreeman 3y ago
You total up all the R&D budgets burned trying to crack this problem and I have to wonder just how profitable would it really be to put (at first) taxi and (now) rideshare drivers out of a job? Did any of this actually make sense?
- tuatoru 3y agoMaybe, in the long run...? Take a look at working-age population projections in NA and Europe [1]. I have for a long time had a gut feeling that practical broadscale self-driving is a $ trillion- or 2 trillion-dollar R&D project. It's still under a trillion so far, I think. 1. https://population.un.org/wpp/Graphs/Probabilistic/POP/20-69/1829 https://population.un.org/wpp/Graphs/Probabilistic/POP/20-69...
- forgetfreeman 3y agoMy gut tells me even that figure is low but taking that at face value either industry players think they can recover the GDP of Saudi Arabia on a timescale that doesn't lead to a tidal wave of investor lawsuits OR a whole bunch of people are full of shit.
- thehappypm 3y agoIt’s got a lot of long term benefits. For one, a self driving car can be designed radically differently — like easily accommodate more passengers.
- forgetfreeman 3y agoYou mean like mass transit?
- thehappypm 3y agoYep! Point to point, decentralized mass transit using the same infrastructure as everyone else.
- forgetfreeman 3y agoBurning the GDP of the 2nd largest oil producing nation on the planet to recreate the bus from first principles while replacing the driver with an engineering and liability nightmare doesn't sound like good decision-making. Why do investors hate the idea of low wage workers this much?