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> AVs, by virtue of being able to coordinate fleet-wide and ability to park anywhere rather than only one's home or destination, would be able to gain incredibl

> AVs, by virtue of being able to coordinate fleet-wide and ability to park anywhere rather than only one's home or destination, would be able to gain incredible efficiencies relative to status quo. > Atop those efficiencies, removing both the constraint of having a driver and the constraint of excessive safety systems to make up for human inattentiveness means AVs can get drastically smaller as vehicles, further improving road utilization (imagine lots of 1- and 2-seaters zipping by). And roads themselves can become narrower because there is less room for error with AVs instead of humans. The first part is mostly describing taxis, so the incredible efficiencies relative to the status quo can be loosely observed through them. Just subtract out wage and a slight "technological scale" bonus, and you can estimate what it would be. Then add in the expected investor returns for being a technology company and see the improvements disappear. The second part, I wonder. Cars already average under 2 occupants, with most just being the driver. If this is what is was needed for significantly smaller cars, we would already have them. Lack of smaller cars is mostly a cultural issue, not a technical one.

npunt 2y ago
¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'd like to think there's more efficiency to be gained when the scale is city-wide rather than a small subset of demand being attended to reactively. Ideally this would be a municipal fleet and transportation just another utility like water, electrical, and broadband. Admittedly this would require strong political power and vision, as anything that remakes physical infrastructure does. Agree small cars are a cultural/identity issue tho usually a rather rational one as well, given safety vis-a-vis 7000lb SUVs. However, I don't think people's aversions to spend $20k+ on a city-only vehicle has any bearing on whether they would be willing to be being taken places in one when its the most convenient/safest/fastest way to get places. A city-wide transportation utility obviates most of the need/desire for individual car ownership. To put it in tech biz terms, everything in tech is bundling or unbundling. Ownership of cars is the unbundled version of transport, and took over due to convenience and creature comforts. Now a new tech has come out that swings the pendulum toward bundled being more convenient & optimal.
- Mawr 2y ago
  > A city-wide transportation utility obviates most of the need/desire for individual car ownership. chuckles Yes, yes it does...
jcgl 2y ago
> Lack of smaller cars is mostly a cultural issue, not a technical one. And an economic/tax policy issue. Some increases in size are due to legally mandated safety features, while even more of the increased adoption of SUVs in the US is indirectly due to the CAFE standards.

npunt 2y ago

¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I'd like to think there's more efficiency to be gained when the scale is city-wide rather than a small subset of demand being attended to reactively. Ideally this would be a municipal fleet and transportation just another utility like water, electrical, and broadband. Admittedly this would require strong political power and vision, as anything that remakes physical infrastructure does. Agree small cars are a cultural/identity issue tho usually a rather rational one as well, given safety vis-a-vis 7000lb SUVs. However, I don't think people's aversions to spend $20k+ on a city-only vehicle has any bearing on whether they would be willing to be being taken places in one when its the most convenient/safest/fastest way to get places. A city-wide transportation utility obviates most of the need/desire for individual car ownership. To put it in tech biz terms, everything in tech is bundling or unbundling. Ownership of cars is the unbundled version of transport, and took over due to convenience and creature comforts. Now a new tech has come out that swings the pendulum toward bundled being more convenient & optimal.

Mawr 2y ago
> A city-wide transportation utility obviates most of the need/desire for individual car ownership. chuckles Yes, yes it does...

jcgl 2y ago

> Lack of smaller cars is mostly a cultural issue, not a technical one. And an economic/tax policy issue. Some increases in size are due to legally mandated safety features, while even more of the increased adoption of SUVs in the US is indirectly due to the CAFE standards.