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What's really stupid about this entire thing with robo taxes is they're trying to solve the hardest problem where there's the most competition with humans In m

What's really stupid about this entire thing with robo taxes is they're trying to solve the hardest problem where there's the most competition with humans In my opinion, the most underserved part of taxi type transport is rural and semi rural areas where the distances are large. The costs are high. The human salary cost is extremely high. But the driving is actually the simplest cuz there's just a lot of highway driving and pretty simple downtowns

hengheng 3y ago
Similar to how pilots often ascend from freighters to passenger aircraft, self-driving systems should have started driving freight through the desert. (Or mining pits, for that matter.) Passenger operation as well as operation around people should have come much later, and step by step. Error rates must be determined step by step, and reliability ratings must be earned, similar to ETOPS. I can only see one reason why they would begin with taxi operations, the driving task with the most visible showing of servitude, and that reason has to do with US history.
- AlotOfReading 3y ago
  Urban taxis are also the most straightforwardly profitable part of the driving industry. Rural taxis can't be as profitable because they're spending more time in the driving phase (lower margin) and the distance between fares is much higher. Worse, almost all of your customers have alternative transportation that doesn't need to drive to their location that they'd rather use and the possibility of fare sharing doesn't exist to reduce prices. It's a difficult, low margin market to compete in, a terrible choice to demo your expensive and unproven technology.
Rebelgecko 3y ago
I wonder if there's a density benefit? eg it's more valuable to have 10 cars drive the same stretch of road every day than to have one car drive a lonely highway every 10 days
- carlmr 3y ago
  >have one car drive a lonely highway every 10 days This is obviously an availability issue. If it's available and cheap enough it will drive that stretch all day, since there are private cars driving there all day. The only reason it's barely used now is that it costs a days salary to drive to and from the next town.
foundart 3y ago
I can see that self-driving in rural areas might be less of a challenge, but what happens when such a vehicle hits a town? Does it drive anyway or does it stop in a pre-assigned parking area? That's a logistical and financial burden for both the company providing the vehicle and anyone using it. While figuring out how to get self-driving cars to work, there are problems beyond just the self-driving that involve a lot of staff. Examples: - Supervised training drives - Rescuing stuck cars - Maintaining & refueling the cars I imagine those efforts are easier to scale when concentrated in a large, dense urban environment.
aldebran 3y ago
But also like 5 people who need a ride once in a month. Cities have lots of people, many that don’t bother with car ownership.

hengheng 3y ago

Similar to how pilots often ascend from freighters to passenger aircraft, self-driving systems should have started driving freight through the desert. (Or mining pits, for that matter.) Passenger operation as well as operation around people should have come much later, and step by step. Error rates must be determined step by step, and reliability ratings must be earned, similar to ETOPS. I can only see one reason why they would begin with taxi operations, the driving task with the most visible showing of servitude, and that reason has to do with US history.

AlotOfReading 3y ago
Urban taxis are also the most straightforwardly profitable part of the driving industry. Rural taxis can't be as profitable because they're spending more time in the driving phase (lower margin) and the distance between fares is much higher. Worse, almost all of your customers have alternative transportation that doesn't need to drive to their location that they'd rather use and the possibility of fare sharing doesn't exist to reduce prices. It's a difficult, low margin market to compete in, a terrible choice to demo your expensive and unproven technology.

Rebelgecko 3y ago

I wonder if there's a density benefit? eg it's more valuable to have 10 cars drive the same stretch of road every day than to have one car drive a lonely highway every 10 days

carlmr 3y ago
>have one car drive a lonely highway every 10 days This is obviously an availability issue. If it's available and cheap enough it will drive that stretch all day, since there are private cars driving there all day. The only reason it's barely used now is that it costs a days salary to drive to and from the next town.

foundart 3y ago

I can see that self-driving in rural areas might be less of a challenge, but what happens when such a vehicle hits a town? Does it drive anyway or does it stop in a pre-assigned parking area? That's a logistical and financial burden for both the company providing the vehicle and anyone using it. While figuring out how to get self-driving cars to work, there are problems beyond just the self-driving that involve a lot of staff. Examples: - Supervised training drives - Rescuing stuck cars - Maintaining & refueling the cars I imagine those efforts are easier to scale when concentrated in a large, dense urban environment.

aldebran 3y ago

But also like 5 people who need a ride once in a month. Cities have lots of people, many that don’t bother with car ownership.