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The billionaire class will own all the self-driving EVs and sell rides to the diminishing remnants of the middle class. The growing masses of 'the poor' (forme

The billionaire class will own all the self-driving EVs and sell rides to the diminishing remnants of the middle class. The growing masses of 'the poor' (formerly 'the working class') will have no transport, no jobs, and no hope. What wasn't taken from them by automation and AI will be taken by mostly-futile attempts to fix the climate.

Waterluvian 3y ago
I’m quite excited for a potential de-emphasis of the automobile combined with sharing so that we don’t have this ridiculous waste of prime space everywhere. The parking lot, as a concept, is grotesque.
CalRobert 3y ago
I dunno I like riding my bike around the Netherlands. Haven't driven in months.
- jimnotgym 3y ago
  I might be the same, if I lived in the Netherlands. British cities are not so nice to cycle in, and a lot of that infrastructure is hard to retro fit
  - CalRobert 3y ago
    Yeah they're pretty crap in general. I hope they manage to fix them.
- bluescrn 3y ago
  How long does a bike last in the Netherlands before it gets stolen? These days (in the UK) the thieves have battery-powered angle grinders to defeat locks. A fancy new bike, especially a costly e-bike, won't last long in many places. And nobody is going to confront a thief armed with an angle grinder. A battered old bike may last longer, but you still often see the carcasses of bike frames locked to railings where wheels and other parts have been stolen, and the rest of the bike was then abandoned. It certainly doesn't encourage the adoption of cycling, even by those who can cope with the hills, weather, and traffic.
  - CalRobert 3y ago
    Not sure, but bikes remain a popular item here so apparently it's not stopping people. I haven't had a bike stolen, though most of my bikes are not especially fancy (I have a Brompton which is a bit pricier but, being a folding bike, I just take it with me instead of locking it outside). I could buy a new electric cargo bike every year for the amount I spent on my car when I had one.
dangus 3y ago
This sounds like an advertisement for public transportation, separated bicycle infrastructure, and walkable urban design.
- bluescrn 3y ago
  Who can afford to live in a city (the only place you can really have most of that)? And of those who can afford to, do they want to, given rising crime and unrest. Cities just to have an obvious purpose, but can successful cities be sustained in an era where so much retail has moved online, and jobs are being automated or done remotely, and the extreme costs of living or doing business in a city centre are getting harder to justify.
  - CalRobert 3y ago
    People like living near other people. For friends, dating, leisure activities, etc. I work from home but I love that last night my wife and I took a pleasant 15 minute walk through pretty streets to get to a wine bar and hang out.
  - dangus 3y ago
    I’m glad you asked. Tokyo keeps housing costs well below its peers by managing zoning at the national level and allowing all zones to include housing. Tokyo has had a housing surplus since 1968 despite a continually increasing urban population. Housing affordability isn’t really an issue of city versus suburbs, it’s an issue of zoning and urban planning. https://youtu.be/geex7KY3S7c https://youtu.be/geex7KY3S7c
ThrowAway1922A 3y ago
We can already see this starting to happen today. It's not going to be the amazing future techies on here imagine, in reality it looks quite bleak.
surgical_fire 3y ago
We can always hope that humans will extinguish themselves in the near future, before that ever comes to pass. While it may be tragic to everyone involved, it does warm the heart to think that a cataclysm will be fair in that it will exterminate poor and billionaire alike.

Waterluvian 3y ago

I’m quite excited for a potential de-emphasis of the automobile combined with sharing so that we don’t have this ridiculous waste of prime space everywhere. The parking lot, as a concept, is grotesque.

CalRobert 3y ago

I dunno I like riding my bike around the Netherlands. Haven't driven in months.

jimnotgym 3y ago
I might be the same, if I lived in the Netherlands. British cities are not so nice to cycle in, and a lot of that infrastructure is hard to retro fit
- CalRobert 3y ago
  Yeah they're pretty crap in general. I hope they manage to fix them.
bluescrn 3y ago
How long does a bike last in the Netherlands before it gets stolen? These days (in the UK) the thieves have battery-powered angle grinders to defeat locks. A fancy new bike, especially a costly e-bike, won't last long in many places. And nobody is going to confront a thief armed with an angle grinder. A battered old bike may last longer, but you still often see the carcasses of bike frames locked to railings where wheels and other parts have been stolen, and the rest of the bike was then abandoned. It certainly doesn't encourage the adoption of cycling, even by those who can cope with the hills, weather, and traffic.
- CalRobert 3y ago
  Not sure, but bikes remain a popular item here so apparently it's not stopping people. I haven't had a bike stolen, though most of my bikes are not especially fancy (I have a Brompton which is a bit pricier but, being a folding bike, I just take it with me instead of locking it outside). I could buy a new electric cargo bike every year for the amount I spent on my car when I had one.

dangus 3y ago

This sounds like an advertisement for public transportation, separated bicycle infrastructure, and walkable urban design.

bluescrn 3y ago
Who can afford to live in a city (the only place you can really have most of that)? And of those who can afford to, do they want to, given rising crime and unrest. Cities just to have an obvious purpose, but can successful cities be sustained in an era where so much retail has moved online, and jobs are being automated or done remotely, and the extreme costs of living or doing business in a city centre are getting harder to justify.
- CalRobert 3y ago
  People like living near other people. For friends, dating, leisure activities, etc. I work from home but I love that last night my wife and I took a pleasant 15 minute walk through pretty streets to get to a wine bar and hang out.
- dangus 3y ago
  I’m glad you asked. Tokyo keeps housing costs well below its peers by managing zoning at the national level and allowing all zones to include housing. Tokyo has had a housing surplus since 1968 despite a continually increasing urban population. Housing affordability isn’t really an issue of city versus suburbs, it’s an issue of zoning and urban planning. https://youtu.be/geex7KY3S7c https://youtu.be/geex7KY3S7c

ThrowAway1922A 3y ago

We can already see this starting to happen today. It's not going to be the amazing future techies on here imagine, in reality it looks quite bleak.

surgical_fire 3y ago

We can always hope that humans will extinguish themselves in the near future, before that ever comes to pass. While it may be tragic to everyone involved, it does warm the heart to think that a cataclysm will be fair in that it will exterminate poor and billionaire alike.