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The real question is, how long do we have to wait until Google's driver-less cars become a mainstream reality? Will they become available for everyday use withi

by pshin45 13y ago

The real question is, how long do we have to wait until Google's driver-less cars become a mainstream reality? Will they become available for everyday use within our lifetime? Today's ride-sharing startups (Uber, Lyft, Sidecar, etc.), while very disruptive in their own right, seem to be more of a bridge technology in the big picture, like Netflix physically mailing DVDs to your house before streaming got big, or maybe native apps vs. HTML5 (that's still TBD). While Airbnb is disrupting the hotel/motel industry in a huge way, I question whether ridesharing will ever get as big. I use Airbnb when I'm traveling or on vacation, which is a few times a year. But rides are something people need ALL THE TIME every day, and I'd rather own a (driver-less) car than have to ask a random stranger for a ride every time I need one.

dublinben 13y ago
In my mind, the benefit of a driverless car is that you don't need to own one. You can just pay for the right to use one at any given time, then never worry about it otherwise.
- pshin45 13y ago
  Yeah I agree it's like the subway in that sense. I just have trouble wrapping my mind around how a shared driver-less car economy would work, especially when it comes to the role of government vs. companies. For example, who would maintain and repair all the cars? Who makes sure that the interior of cars are kept clean and in working order? Would car design become totally commoditized? Cars are a form of self-expression for many, what will people do if all cars are shared and driver-less? I'm not saying this to be cynical, I'm just genuinely curious how all this might play out. When you think about how much time people would save and how many industries would be changed or created, I think it's possible that shared/public driver-less cars might be just as revolutionary as mobile devices and the internet, or at least in the same ballpark.
  - pjbrunet 13y ago
    I think the only way it'll work is if you build a new city from scratch where driving is prohibited. Like Hotel California, you can drive in but you can never drive out ;-)
- pjbrunet 13y ago
  But how clean is a "shared" car? I'm not one of those hand sanitizer people but the thought of sharing a car with 100s of people makes me a little queasy. Would you check the headrest for lice? The other thing is reliability. Read the Car2Go reviews, people get stranded in the heat or you follow the app's map and find out the car is behind a gate. Transportation needs to be reliable. But besides that, it'll be a long time before we have driverless cars because governments, insurance companies, oil companies, road construction, they would all lose money, lots of resistance. If cars never crash, how do you sell auto insurance? If nobody speeds, how do you write tickets? LOL.

by pshin45 13y ago

dublinben 13y ago

In my mind, the benefit of a driverless car is that you don't need to own one. You can just pay for the right to use one at any given time, then never worry about it otherwise.

pshin45 13y ago
Yeah I agree it's like the subway in that sense. I just have trouble wrapping my mind around how a shared driver-less car economy would work, especially when it comes to the role of government vs. companies. For example, who would maintain and repair all the cars? Who makes sure that the interior of cars are kept clean and in working order? Would car design become totally commoditized? Cars are a form of self-expression for many, what will people do if all cars are shared and driver-less? I'm not saying this to be cynical, I'm just genuinely curious how all this might play out. When you think about how much time people would save and how many industries would be changed or created, I think it's possible that shared/public driver-less cars might be just as revolutionary as mobile devices and the internet, or at least in the same ballpark.
- pjbrunet 13y ago
  I think the only way it'll work is if you build a new city from scratch where driving is prohibited. Like Hotel California, you can drive in but you can never drive out ;-)
pjbrunet 13y ago
But how clean is a "shared" car? I'm not one of those hand sanitizer people but the thought of sharing a car with 100s of people makes me a little queasy. Would you check the headrest for lice? The other thing is reliability. Read the Car2Go reviews, people get stranded in the heat or you follow the app's map and find out the car is behind a gate. Transportation needs to be reliable. But besides that, it'll be a long time before we have driverless cars because governments, insurance companies, oil companies, road construction, they would all lose money, lots of resistance. If cars never crash, how do you sell auto insurance? If nobody speeds, how do you write tickets? LOL.