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I live in SF and saw at least twenty driverless Cruise vehicles today while walking around the Mission. It's really quite sudden to see so many, really I've jus
by robbrown451 3y ago
I live in SF and saw at least twenty driverless Cruise vehicles today while walking around the Mission. It's really quite sudden to see so many, really I've just noticed in the last week or so. My daughter asked me yesterday "are we in the future?!" Previously they all had someone behind the wheel.
Personally I don't understand the hate. There are a lot of frustrations in this city, but they really aren't one of them. They all seem to drive perfectly and predictably, by my observation. I understand that there will be issues like this, but none of them are realistically safety issues.
I look forward to a day where driverless taxis become cheap enough (due to lack of having to pay someone, and supply and demand) that more people can choose to be carless. I still need a car because I need to get my kid to school outside the city. But now that she doesn't need a booster seat, and now that Cruise vehicles seem ok with having a medium sized dog in them (kind of a problem previously if I want to take my dog across town to a park), I'm almost at the point I could get rid of my car and use public transportation as well as robotaxis when needed. So much space in the city is taken up by parked cars, and this should free up a lot.
At the very least I think having robotaxis will allow a lot of two car families to only have one car.
I understand the concerns about lost jobs but what do you want to do, bring back switchboard operators and elevator operators? If a machine can do the job, I just don't think that's a good use of a human.
- politelemon 3y ago> I look forward to a day where driverless taxis become cheap enough (due to lack of having to pay someone, and supply and demand) Going by previous history, this is unlikely to happen. The companies seek profit and will simply pocket the margins instead of passing them on.
- dventimi 3y agoThen customers will choose their cheaper competitors.
- tjoff 3y agoYou assume there will be competitors.
- robbrown451 3y agoWhy wouldn't there be?
- freitzkriesler2 3y agoBecause there won't be and it's naive to think otherwise. The tech isn't open source, the hardware is expensive, and then there's the massive regulatory over head to get these into the road. You'd be better off hoping for your personal car to be autonomous so it can come pick you up and that's assuming personal cars remain affordable enough.
- dventimi 3y ago> the tech isn't open source Neither was automobile tech a hundred years ago yet somehow GM and Chrysler managed to put up a fight against Ford > the hardware is expensive...and then there's the massive regulatory over head Sure. It's expensive and not easy, and yet already a few companies are trying. Evidently they view the potential upside as worth it. Turns out, they don't have a monopoly on that view.
- freitzkriesler2 3y agoThat's a really bad false equivalence. It doesn't take a lot of effort to reverse engineer mechanical parts and by that time the early automobile patents long expired. It doesn't take a mechanical engineer much effort to recreate parts from patent documents. Also Ford didn't invent the automobile, Karl Benz did. Now try and reverse engineer the black box algorithms necessary to make a self driving car. See the same efforts involved in reverse engineering other proprietary closed source products. Now good luck getting the NHTSA to approve those to drive those on the road.
- 3y ago
- robbrown451 3y agoSo.... supply and demand doesn't work? Why is this field immune to normal market economics?
- JumpCrisscross 3y agoWaymo is already $5/ride, no tip, in Phoenix. That’s cheaper than an Uber and competitive with public transport.
- rideontime 3y ago"Already" betrays a misunderstanding of how this process works. Fares are likely to increase, not decrease.
- dventimi 3y agoNobody can predict the future, not even you.
- throwaway5959 3y agoSome people like driving taxis/Lyfts.