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The way Google seems to be approaching self-driving cars is the right one in my opinion. Self-driving cars will be on-demand, booked through something like Uber

The way Google seems to be approaching self-driving cars is the right one in my opinion. Self-driving cars will be on-demand, booked through something like Uber and will not be owned by the end-user. I feel that the other car companies working on self-driving car technology for consumers are wasting their time. The main reason I enjoy owning a nice car is that I like driving it. If I wasn't in control of driving my car, what would be the point? Vanity of course has to be considered but in the future, I see self-driving cars which we don't own will the the status quo in cities, and owning a manual operating a car will be either a novelty or something for people outside of major city hubs.

cmdli 12y ago
There could be a market for owning self-driving cars outside of major cities. Not everyone has access to a cab-like service now so unless that changes adding some sort of autopilot to regular cars would be useful.
kayoone 12y ago
I like being a passenger in a nice car more than in a crap car, so owning a nice self driving car would be a bit like having your own chauffeur and time to do other things while enjoying your car.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
hotgoldminer 12y ago
The vision should be to replace as many drivered cars as possible with driverless and network the vehicles. I see a future without a need for stop lights.
bostonpete 12y ago
I want a self-driving car to free me up to do other things on my hour commute twice a day. Even if it were more cost-effective to rent (which I suspect it would not be given how much I would need to rent), I can think of 2 reasons I'd rather own: - Don't have to worry about availability. Turns out there are a lot of people in my region who go to work in the morning and go home in the evening. - When you spend that much time in your vehicle, it becomes and extension of your personal/living space. I don't want to spend 10 hours a week in a public box that may have a mess or an odor from the person before me.
dlubarov 12y ago
High-end sports cars are fun to drive, but wouldn't it be nice to turn on autopilot from time to time? Like if you're stuck in traffic, or you need to do a bit of work, or you get tired during a long trip. Some might also prefer ownership so that their car is always available with no delay, or so that they know their car will be perfectly clean and odorless. I think you're right that on-demand will eventually make sense for a majority of people, though.
millstone 12y ago
My family doesn't own our cars because we like driving them. We own them for convenience! The prospect of ordering a car, waiting for it to arrive, futzing with car seats, transferring car toys, dealing with scarcity and surge pricing, etc. for every trip is very unappealing. And renting is usually more expensive than owning anyways! In the near term, I'm looking forwards to hybrid assistive technologies. We took a vacation that required seven hours of highway driving. Toyota's freeway mode ("Automated Highway Driving Assist"), which controls speed and steering, would have made a big difference.
- aetherson 12y ago
  I think that virtually nobody who is certain that self-driving cars will be short-term rentals (ie, the Uber model) has children. It's a HUGE blind spot that the of course mostly very young, mostly childless tech commentariat has. The value of car ownership as a way to have large amounts of your property available at whatever location you are presently at without you constantly engaging in a bunch of loading and unloading work is not to be underestimated. (There are plenty of other ways that long-term rental or ownership of driverless cars makes sense, too. How prevalent a ride-for-hire model will be is going to depend on lots of details about the technology; it's not a given.)
  - xur17 12y ago
    They'll likely start expensive, and mainly be viable for short-term rental services, which are mainly used by people living in cities, etc. Then, as prices drop, some people will start to own them for convenience, but I expect car ownership to drop. Maybe people will only own one car to cover the situations you described, and rent when they need more than one. As a young person living in a city, I'm looking forward to getting rid of my car, and not having to worry about maintenance, etc. I expect it to be competitive with the cost of owning your own car.
    - aetherson 12y ago
      I think I more or less expect car ownership to drop at least a little as well. That said, let me present the other case: Car ownership is very prevalent right now. A driverless car that you can own is higher value than a traditional car you can own. Particularly, the owned driverless car: 1. Can be operated by a passenger who is not legal or safe to drive a traditional car, for reasons including but not limited to: sleepy, under the influence of alcohol, disabled, or (importantly) TOO YOUNG. 2. Can be used as a mobile depot for goods even in situations where a traditional car is impractical for such purposes (such as when parking is too much of a pain in the ass). 3. Can be more efficiently shared among a family, doing things like dropping a working family-member off at their job and then coming back home to serve the non-working family-member. So while there may be young urban people who choose not to buy a car and instead rent it per-ride, they will be more than counterbalanced by the following rises in car ownership: * Wealthy families who had one or two traditional cars and choose to buy two or three driverless cars, with the extra car devoted to driving the kids around when the parents don't want to. * Cost-constrained couples who have the need for effectively two cars but only the money for one who previously chose to apply that money to public transit, but now buy a driverless car and share it. * Wealthy urban dwellers who previously don't really like public transit/don't find it that convenient but previously coped with it because cars were so inconvenient now buy a driverless car that has increased utility in their city (because they don't need to park it/can use it when going out drinking/don't need to pay attention while in-transit). They don't go with the Uber option because they aren't cost-constrained and they like the privacy, reliability, and prestige of owning.
threeseed 12y ago
> Self-driving cars will be on-demand Nonsense. That's just like saying taxis/cabs will negate the need for your own car. Sometimes you need a car now to goto the shops, drop your kids at doctor etc. without having to wait 10-30 minutes for a car to arrive from the other side of town.
- olalonde 12y ago
  Waiting time for a cab where I live takes less than a minute on average (in fact, I'd say the median is around 20s). In a driverless world, it's possible that the cab market where you live will be a lot more efficient/cheaper and the assumption that waiting for a cab takes 10-30 min won't hold anymore.
- eru 12y ago
  > Nonsense. That's just like saying taxis/cabs will negate the need for your own car. Cheap enough cabs with a minimum of latency, do.
- ericd 12y ago
  That's just an availability problem. One of the likely effects of self driving cars is that taxi density will increase by quite a lot, which should decrease pickup latency.
brc 12y ago
But the truth is that assisted driving is already a much larger market that self-driving cars. Many manufacturers already have lane assist, braking assist, self parking and other features. This type of creeping automation is much more likely to take over than coming at it from the other end. I would say both markets will get going and converge over a decade or more.

cmdli 12y ago

There could be a market for owning self-driving cars outside of major cities. Not everyone has access to a cab-like service now so unless that changes adding some sort of autopilot to regular cars would be useful.

kayoone 12y ago

I like being a passenger in a nice car more than in a crap car, so owning a nice self driving car would be a bit like having your own chauffeur and time to do other things while enjoying your car.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

hotgoldminer 12y ago

The vision should be to replace as many drivered cars as possible with driverless and network the vehicles. I see a future without a need for stop lights.

bostonpete 12y ago

I want a self-driving car to free me up to do other things on my hour commute twice a day. Even if it were more cost-effective to rent (which I suspect it would not be given how much I would need to rent), I can think of 2 reasons I'd rather own: - Don't have to worry about availability. Turns out there are a lot of people in my region who go to work in the morning and go home in the evening. - When you spend that much time in your vehicle, it becomes and extension of your personal/living space. I don't want to spend 10 hours a week in a public box that may have a mess or an odor from the person before me.

dlubarov 12y ago

High-end sports cars are fun to drive, but wouldn't it be nice to turn on autopilot from time to time? Like if you're stuck in traffic, or you need to do a bit of work, or you get tired during a long trip. Some might also prefer ownership so that their car is always available with no delay, or so that they know their car will be perfectly clean and odorless. I think you're right that on-demand will eventually make sense for a majority of people, though.

millstone 12y ago

My family doesn't own our cars because we like driving them. We own them for convenience! The prospect of ordering a car, waiting for it to arrive, futzing with car seats, transferring car toys, dealing with scarcity and surge pricing, etc. for every trip is very unappealing. And renting is usually more expensive than owning anyways! In the near term, I'm looking forwards to hybrid assistive technologies. We took a vacation that required seven hours of highway driving. Toyota's freeway mode ("Automated Highway Driving Assist"), which controls speed and steering, would have made a big difference.

aetherson 12y ago
I think that virtually nobody who is certain that self-driving cars will be short-term rentals (ie, the Uber model) has children. It's a HUGE blind spot that the of course mostly very young, mostly childless tech commentariat has. The value of car ownership as a way to have large amounts of your property available at whatever location you are presently at without you constantly engaging in a bunch of loading and unloading work is not to be underestimated. (There are plenty of other ways that long-term rental or ownership of driverless cars makes sense, too. How prevalent a ride-for-hire model will be is going to depend on lots of details about the technology; it's not a given.)
- xur17 12y ago
  They'll likely start expensive, and mainly be viable for short-term rental services, which are mainly used by people living in cities, etc. Then, as prices drop, some people will start to own them for convenience, but I expect car ownership to drop. Maybe people will only own one car to cover the situations you described, and rent when they need more than one. As a young person living in a city, I'm looking forward to getting rid of my car, and not having to worry about maintenance, etc. I expect it to be competitive with the cost of owning your own car.
  - aetherson 12y ago
    I think I more or less expect car ownership to drop at least a little as well. That said, let me present the other case: Car ownership is very prevalent right now. A driverless car that you can own is higher value than a traditional car you can own. Particularly, the owned driverless car: 1. Can be operated by a passenger who is not legal or safe to drive a traditional car, for reasons including but not limited to: sleepy, under the influence of alcohol, disabled, or (importantly) TOO YOUNG. 2. Can be used as a mobile depot for goods even in situations where a traditional car is impractical for such purposes (such as when parking is too much of a pain in the ass). 3. Can be more efficiently shared among a family, doing things like dropping a working family-member off at their job and then coming back home to serve the non-working family-member. So while there may be young urban people who choose not to buy a car and instead rent it per-ride, they will be more than counterbalanced by the following rises in car ownership: * Wealthy families who had one or two traditional cars and choose to buy two or three driverless cars, with the extra car devoted to driving the kids around when the parents don't want to. * Cost-constrained couples who have the need for effectively two cars but only the money for one who previously chose to apply that money to public transit, but now buy a driverless car and share it. * Wealthy urban dwellers who previously don't really like public transit/don't find it that convenient but previously coped with it because cars were so inconvenient now buy a driverless car that has increased utility in their city (because they don't need to park it/can use it when going out drinking/don't need to pay attention while in-transit). They don't go with the Uber option because they aren't cost-constrained and they like the privacy, reliability, and prestige of owning.

threeseed 12y ago

> Self-driving cars will be on-demand Nonsense. That's just like saying taxis/cabs will negate the need for your own car. Sometimes you need a car now to goto the shops, drop your kids at doctor etc. without having to wait 10-30 minutes for a car to arrive from the other side of town.

olalonde 12y ago
Waiting time for a cab where I live takes less than a minute on average (in fact, I'd say the median is around 20s). In a driverless world, it's possible that the cab market where you live will be a lot more efficient/cheaper and the assumption that waiting for a cab takes 10-30 min won't hold anymore.
eru 12y ago
> Nonsense. That's just like saying taxis/cabs will negate the need for your own car. Cheap enough cabs with a minimum of latency, do.
ericd 12y ago
That's just an availability problem. One of the likely effects of self driving cars is that taxi density will increase by quite a lot, which should decrease pickup latency.

brc 12y ago

But the truth is that assisted driving is already a much larger market that self-driving cars. Many manufacturers already have lane assist, braking assist, self parking and other features. This type of creeping automation is much more likely to take over than coming at it from the other end. I would say both markets will get going and converge over a decade or more.