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> The concept of self driving cars isn't mutually incompatible with public transportation. It is. Just like Uber with $25B in funding is mutually incompatible
by screye 3y ago
> The concept of self driving cars isn't mutually incompatible with public transportation.
It is.
Just like Uber with $25B in funding is mutually incompatible with small time taxi services around the world. The only way Uber ever pays its investors back is by establishing a global monopoly over taxi-transportation and making narrow margins over economies of scale.
The self-driving industry has received upwards of $200billion in funding. If cities start moving towards public transit, that signals an existential threat to the ability of these VCs to make their money back.
Note: Some industries are zero sum games. The total number of places people want to go to is limited. Better taxi technology will not mean a larger addressable market. The only way self-driving companies win, is by defeating other means of transport.
- theappsecguy 3y agoStart moving toward public transit? Public transit is not some new discovery that’s been put on hold because of self-driving attempts. You say this as if it’s cheap or easy to make any kind of significant public transit improvement in an already established city.
- screye 3y agoIt is incredibly cheap and easy. Public transit is hard is in the same way that going to Harvard as a black person in 1900 was hard. It was hard because malicious forces (whether they accepted the accusation or not) made it impossible. Painting a BRT line and some traffic cones is all you need to set up public transit. Hell, almost all pre-established cities had entire street car networks that we disassembled due to car-centric post-1950s development. Here's SF, Seattle and LA pre-1950. https://i0.wp.com/transitmap.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/tumblr_mk7dri0zYe1r54c4oo1_1280.jpg https://i0.wp.com/transitmap.net/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/... http://www.tundria.com/trams/USA/SanFrancisco-1944.shtml http://www.tundria.com/trams/USA/SanFrancisco-1944.shtml https://la.curbed.com/2015/11/9/9902244/red-car-map-los-angeles https://la.curbed.com/2015/11/9/9902244/red-car-map-los-ange...
- buzzert 3y agoThe quality of public transportation has been getting steadily worse and worse the time I've lived in SF, and it's not because of self-driving cars. Perhaps, maybe, we fund things based on consent rather than force?