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> Car ownership is absurdly expensive I mean, it's absurdly expensive except for all of the other types of car usage right? Companies have been pushing car su

> Car ownership is absurdly expensive I mean, it's absurdly expensive except for all of the other types of car usage right? Companies have been pushing car subscriptions for years because they sound nice: "Don't worry about maintenance, just pick a new car every so often!". Except that it turns out to be even more expensive than just owning a car. Leasing (unless you have some tax advantage) is typically more expensive than owning. Ride hailing apps are great, but I don't know anyone who has run the numbers and decided it makes more sense for a daily commute than owning a car (maybe someone with no or extremely expensive parking options?). I'm skeptical that using a self-driving car service from a profit-seeking company would end up being less expensive than owning your own self-driving car, but maybe we'll see.

Anonbrit 2y ago
Decent public transport + ride hailing is a common situation in many parts of Europe, especially for people who cycle too
matthewdgreen 2y ago
Leasing and car rentals have the same problem, which is that you're a single driver hogging an expensive capital asset that you'll use maybe 5-10% of the time. This low capacity factor makes car ownership very expensive. The presumed advantage of self-driving cars is that self-driving vehicles can operate at a higher capacity, factor without incurring the extra costs of needing a human driver to operate them (like taxis) which will make them more useful. NB: I did not used to think about this much until I recently went to price an extended warranty for my low-mileage car: all of the plans were denominated in years _or_ miles, which meant manufacturers price maintenance in terms of years owned, regardless of usage. The same is true with insurance, which is a huge cost for most drivers: some insurance plans offer a modest discount for extremely low mileage drivers, but to a first approximation the fixed costs of simply owning a parked car are huge. Basically the only saving for owning a parked car is fuel (which can often by offset by the cost of parking, whether that's born by the owner or subsidized by the city.)

Anonbrit 2y ago

Decent public transport + ride hailing is a common situation in many parts of Europe, especially for people who cycle too

matthewdgreen 2y ago

Leasing and car rentals have the same problem, which is that you're a single driver hogging an expensive capital asset that you'll use maybe 5-10% of the time. This low capacity factor makes car ownership very expensive. The presumed advantage of self-driving cars is that self-driving vehicles can operate at a higher capacity, factor without incurring the extra costs of needing a human driver to operate them (like taxis) which will make them more useful. NB: I did not used to think about this much until I recently went to price an extended warranty for my low-mileage car: all of the plans were denominated in years _or_ miles, which meant manufacturers price maintenance in terms of years owned, regardless of usage. The same is true with insurance, which is a huge cost for most drivers: some insurance plans offer a modest discount for extremely low mileage drivers, but to a first approximation the fixed costs of simply owning a parked car are huge. Basically the only saving for owning a parked car is fuel (which can often by offset by the cost of parking, whether that's born by the owner or subsidized by the city.)