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I can't wait till the day I can have my self driving car drive me to work while I read a book and when it drops me off it goes to recharge it's battery, pick up

I can't wait till the day I can have my self driving car drive me to work while I read a book and when it drops me off it goes to recharge it's battery, pick up my family from work or school and maybe when it's not in use I can rent it out as a cab.

kimagure 14y ago
My first thought was "man, I could go to all the pubs without a driver"
- swalsh 14y ago
  Yeah, i was thinking this too. While self driving cars will probably be a killer for some industries... its a huge boost to others, such as bars.
- jellicle 14y ago
  So are you the driver of the vehicle or not? Under current law, you're the driver whether your hands are on the steering wheel or not. Indeed, people have been convicted of DUI while sleeping in the back seat of a parked car. This is sort of the whole point: everyone thinks they can eat their cake and have it too. DUI? I'm not the driver, the car is! Hic! Run over a kindergartener? I'm not the driver, blame Google! Auto insurance rates go through the ceiling because of untested technology? Wait, I'm the same driver I ever was, this is unfair! Can't get insurance at all? Help, the Man is a luddite! I'm being repressed!
  - deleted 14y ago
    [deleted]
  - blhack 14y ago
    The computer is a better driver than humans are. So, "The Man" in this case is a luddite, and making laws that require humans to be in control of the vehicle actually decrease public safety.
    - cbr 14y ago
      I don't think the car is a better driver than people are, but I think it will be soon. And once it is we should let people sleep, be drunk, or do whatever while their car drives them.
MichaelApproved 14y ago
Why bother with all that trouble of renting it out as a cab? Instead, be the person who rents the cab.
- moistgorilla 14y ago
  If I had kids I would like to know where they are. Maybe be able to do voice chat with the while they are in the car. Also, I imagine that cars will become media and productivity hubs like our smart phones or tablets. Cleanliness is also a factor.
- apendleton 14y ago
  This is the right answer. Requiring most American adults to own cars that spend 90% of their time parked is enormously wasteful, both directly (expenditures on cars, maintenance, etc.) and indirectly (that we, societally, have to provide three times as much street space as each car will occupy at any one time: home parking space, rush-hour road space, and workplace parking space). The era of everyone having their own car should end.
anonymfus 14y ago
Move to city with public transit and live your dream.
- MichaelApproved 14y ago
  There's a big difference between being driven around in a cab and walking to a bus/subway station, waiting for the service and sharing a commute with strangers. I don't mind public transit but I'd much rather be driven around by a cab.
  - king_jester 14y ago
    I agree it would be nicer than mass transit, but its not sustainable at all to go without public transit and having people be physically closer to their needs.
    - masklinn 14y ago
      I'm not completely sure, the costs structure would likely be very different but imagine fleets of small (1-seater and 2-seater) automatic electric cars, call one on your smartphone specifying the route (for your job it'd probably be a recurring route), it arrives in front of your door, climb in, it leaves you at your job and goes back to hibernation mode (or picks up somebody else in the area)
      - ollysb 14y ago
        One of the great things about a fleet like this would be that you could change your car depending on where you were going and what you were doing. For example you take a 1-seater to get around a city but if you go a longer drive you take a larger, more powerful car. This is one of the things I enjoy about using zipcar, you get to drive fancy cars some days but only pay for the cheaper ones most of the time. The great thing about an automated fleet is that you could actually switch cars during the journey. Take a small car to leave the busy urban areas and than switch to a larger car when you get to the motorway.
Shivetya 14y ago
I can't wait until the day I don't have to drive into work because they woke up and realized I could telework/teleconference/telelive. Then the miles I put on my car are from my use for my pleasure.
libria 14y ago
> maybe when it's not in use I can rent it out as a cab Hey, there's a start-up idea: Buy a fleet of these and deploy them around the Bay as the Robot Cab Company. Have them queue at designated points or hailed via smartphone. I expect to see this at Y-combinator in 3-5 years. Now, if we could only wedge a social networking component into it...
- philsnow 14y ago
  "Speed"-dating ?
JulianMorrison 14y ago
The economics won't support it being your car for long, at that point. When you can just ask for a car to pick you up and one will arrive, corporate robo-taxi fleets will have economies of scale over family cars sent off to earn their keep. With ordinary people not needing to buy a car, facilities for maintaining and supplying them will dry up too, as the manufacturing effort shifts to taxi-ready cars for fleets. And the price will shift up out of your range to reflect the earning potential. The robo-car will end the private car as anything but a hobby comparable to the classic car.
- steverb 14y ago
  Except no company is going to want to buy enough cars to handle the demand during rush hour.
  - JulianMorrison 14y ago
    Given those cars make two reliable paying journeys per day, minimum, why wouldn't they?
    - saosebastiao 14y ago
      Because two is not enough.
  - masklinn 14y ago
    3D printers, build and reclaim fleetcars on the fly?
- h0w412d 14y ago
  Definitely this. The average car sits in the drive way 22 hours a day. It may not seem like it at first, but an all-taxi economy will be much cheaper for the riders (think about paying for 1 millionth the cost of maintaining 1 million cars at once, as opposed to 100% of the cost of maintaining one car).
- jeffreyrusso 14y ago
  Agree with your point. It raises another question for me - if we are talking about shared or non-owned vehicles that people interchangably call and use when they need to go somewhere, aren't we inching closer to the same experience that other means of public transportation provide? And shouldn't we give those equal consideration to a world that is still built for and dominated by cars? For all the benefits we are all citing here, there are still a lot of problems with a world dominated by cars (pollution, the space they take up, the roads they require that cut up communities and are inhospitable to pedestrians / other modes of transportation, etc.)

kimagure 14y ago

My first thought was "man, I could go to all the pubs without a driver"

swalsh 14y ago
Yeah, i was thinking this too. While self driving cars will probably be a killer for some industries... its a huge boost to others, such as bars.
jellicle 14y ago
So are you the driver of the vehicle or not? Under current law, you're the driver whether your hands are on the steering wheel or not. Indeed, people have been convicted of DUI while sleeping in the back seat of a parked car. This is sort of the whole point: everyone thinks they can eat their cake and have it too. DUI? I'm not the driver, the car is! Hic! Run over a kindergartener? I'm not the driver, blame Google! Auto insurance rates go through the ceiling because of untested technology? Wait, I'm the same driver I ever was, this is unfair! Can't get insurance at all? Help, the Man is a luddite! I'm being repressed!
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- blhack 14y ago
  The computer is a better driver than humans are. So, "The Man" in this case is a luddite, and making laws that require humans to be in control of the vehicle actually decrease public safety.
  - cbr 14y ago
    I don't think the car is a better driver than people are, but I think it will be soon. And once it is we should let people sleep, be drunk, or do whatever while their car drives them.

MichaelApproved 14y ago

Why bother with all that trouble of renting it out as a cab? Instead, be the person who rents the cab.

moistgorilla 14y ago
If I had kids I would like to know where they are. Maybe be able to do voice chat with the while they are in the car. Also, I imagine that cars will become media and productivity hubs like our smart phones or tablets. Cleanliness is also a factor.
apendleton 14y ago
This is the right answer. Requiring most American adults to own cars that spend 90% of their time parked is enormously wasteful, both directly (expenditures on cars, maintenance, etc.) and indirectly (that we, societally, have to provide three times as much street space as each car will occupy at any one time: home parking space, rush-hour road space, and workplace parking space). The era of everyone having their own car should end.

anonymfus 14y ago

Move to city with public transit and live your dream.

MichaelApproved 14y ago
There's a big difference between being driven around in a cab and walking to a bus/subway station, waiting for the service and sharing a commute with strangers. I don't mind public transit but I'd much rather be driven around by a cab.
- king_jester 14y ago
  I agree it would be nicer than mass transit, but its not sustainable at all to go without public transit and having people be physically closer to their needs.
  - masklinn 14y ago
    I'm not completely sure, the costs structure would likely be very different but imagine fleets of small (1-seater and 2-seater) automatic electric cars, call one on your smartphone specifying the route (for your job it'd probably be a recurring route), it arrives in front of your door, climb in, it leaves you at your job and goes back to hibernation mode (or picks up somebody else in the area)
    - ollysb 14y ago
      One of the great things about a fleet like this would be that you could change your car depending on where you were going and what you were doing. For example you take a 1-seater to get around a city but if you go a longer drive you take a larger, more powerful car. This is one of the things I enjoy about using zipcar, you get to drive fancy cars some days but only pay for the cheaper ones most of the time. The great thing about an automated fleet is that you could actually switch cars during the journey. Take a small car to leave the busy urban areas and than switch to a larger car when you get to the motorway.

Shivetya 14y ago

I can't wait until the day I don't have to drive into work because they woke up and realized I could telework/teleconference/telelive. Then the miles I put on my car are from my use for my pleasure.

libria 14y ago

> maybe when it's not in use I can rent it out as a cab Hey, there's a start-up idea: Buy a fleet of these and deploy them around the Bay as the Robot Cab Company. Have them queue at designated points or hailed via smartphone. I expect to see this at Y-combinator in 3-5 years. Now, if we could only wedge a social networking component into it...

philsnow 14y ago
"Speed"-dating ?

JulianMorrison 14y ago

The economics won't support it being your car for long, at that point. When you can just ask for a car to pick you up and one will arrive, corporate robo-taxi fleets will have economies of scale over family cars sent off to earn their keep. With ordinary people not needing to buy a car, facilities for maintaining and supplying them will dry up too, as the manufacturing effort shifts to taxi-ready cars for fleets. And the price will shift up out of your range to reflect the earning potential. The robo-car will end the private car as anything but a hobby comparable to the classic car.

steverb 14y ago
Except no company is going to want to buy enough cars to handle the demand during rush hour.
- JulianMorrison 14y ago
  Given those cars make two reliable paying journeys per day, minimum, why wouldn't they?
  - saosebastiao 14y ago
    Because two is not enough.
- masklinn 14y ago
  3D printers, build and reclaim fleetcars on the fly?
h0w412d 14y ago
Definitely this. The average car sits in the drive way 22 hours a day. It may not seem like it at first, but an all-taxi economy will be much cheaper for the riders (think about paying for 1 millionth the cost of maintaining 1 million cars at once, as opposed to 100% of the cost of maintaining one car).
jeffreyrusso 14y ago
Agree with your point. It raises another question for me - if we are talking about shared or non-owned vehicles that people interchangably call and use when they need to go somewhere, aren't we inching closer to the same experience that other means of public transportation provide? And shouldn't we give those equal consideration to a world that is still built for and dominated by cars? For all the benefits we are all citing here, there are still a lot of problems with a world dominated by cars (pollution, the space they take up, the roads they require that cut up communities and are inhospitable to pedestrians / other modes of transportation, etc.)