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Can someone remind me why we need autonomous cars? What's wrong with paying someone to drive? Autonomous cars is an inefficient solution anyway, I don't see ho

Can someone remind me why we need autonomous cars? What's wrong with paying someone to drive? Autonomous cars is an inefficient solution anyway, I don't see how it benefits the rider.

IshKebab 16d ago
Yeah sure! In theory they should be cheaper one day because you don't need to pay someone to drive. This means you can use them in situations where for cost reasons you would have driven yourself - e.g. for long journeys, in the countryside, for commuting etc. Getting people out of their own cars and into autonomous cars is better for several reasons: 1. We need to own fewer cars collectively, which is better for the environment. 2. Don't need to waste a ton of space on car parks. 3. It's safer (at least for Waymo). Not just for occupants but also for pedestrians and cyclists. Having a cheap option for last mile travel also makes trains more attractive. All of this of course rests on them actually ending up cheap, which hasn't been the case so far but we'll see.
- solatic 16d ago
  They won't be cheap until there's competition to drive down the price, which will otherwise be as high as possible to justify the initial investments. It's only a matter of time, but likely on the scale of decades. But I wanted to add on the future benefits front - as more vehicles on the road become autonomous, they could communicate with each other and reduce the buffer distances between them, allowing for faster travel and improved saturation while still being safe.
- worldsavior 16d ago
  It won't be cheaper. 1. If auto cars will be cheap, every one will use them, and none will use public transportation. 2. Oh yeah, we would just waste space outside the city. 3. Right now it's not safer. It will probably drive at the speed of 25% less than the limit, sure than it might be safer.
  - IshKebab 16d ago
    1. People already don't use public transport in 99% of the world. In any case I don't see why that is relevant to the price. 2. Which is vastly better than wasting it in cities. And also no we wouldn't. Autonomous cars would be in use way more of the time than normal cars so we'll need fewer of them and therefore less parking space. 3. RTFA.

Can someone remind me why we need autonomous cars? What's wrong with paying someone to drive? Autonomous cars is an inefficient solution anyway, I don't see how it benefits the rider.

IshKebab 16d ago

Yeah sure! In theory they should be cheaper one day because you don't need to pay someone to drive. This means you can use them in situations where for cost reasons you would have driven yourself - e.g. for long journeys, in the countryside, for commuting etc. Getting people out of their own cars and into autonomous cars is better for several reasons: 1. We need to own fewer cars collectively, which is better for the environment. 2. Don't need to waste a ton of space on car parks. 3. It's safer (at least for Waymo). Not just for occupants but also for pedestrians and cyclists. Having a cheap option for last mile travel also makes trains more attractive. All of this of course rests on them actually ending up cheap, which hasn't been the case so far but we'll see.

solatic 16d ago
They won't be cheap until there's competition to drive down the price, which will otherwise be as high as possible to justify the initial investments. It's only a matter of time, but likely on the scale of decades. But I wanted to add on the future benefits front - as more vehicles on the road become autonomous, they could communicate with each other and reduce the buffer distances between them, allowing for faster travel and improved saturation while still being safe.
worldsavior 16d ago
It won't be cheaper. 1. If auto cars will be cheap, every one will use them, and none will use public transportation. 2. Oh yeah, we would just waste space outside the city. 3. Right now it's not safer. It will probably drive at the speed of 25% less than the limit, sure than it might be safer.
- IshKebab 16d ago
  1. People already don't use public transport in 99% of the world. In any case I don't see why that is relevant to the price. 2. Which is vastly better than wasting it in cities. And also no we wouldn't. Autonomous cars would be in use way more of the time than normal cars so we'll need fewer of them and therefore less parking space. 3. RTFA.