Quote:
Originally Posted by Outlaw M3
For certain industries, it's a game changer. It's my opinion self-driving cars are the real reason behind Uber's enormous valuation. Think about it, their greatest "cost" or in their case, their greatest outflow of revenue is the drivers. If they can eliminate the drivers, think of what their margins will be!
Another area is trucking (big game for Volvo and MB), eliminate truckers and the cost savings that trickles through the economy will be great. UPS, DHL, FedEx will see huge profit gains too. Just think how much of the cost of goods we purchase have transportation fees baked in... it has to trickle down no?
People won't feel comfortable with self-driving taxis and trucks unless it's baked into passenger cars as well. It's a mental thing -- oh, my car has it and I sometimes use it so it's not bad.
Personally, I love driving yet there is ONE scenario I wouldn't mind engaging auto-pilot for and that's rush hour traffic. In that instance, I wouldn't mind letting the car do the bumper-to-bumper stuff and I could relax.
Now one thing to consider -- what if autopilot eliminated the pesky, irrational behaviors of other drivers? You know, the left-lane hugging, change lanes without signaling, right-on-red w/out full stop moves that have us all banging our heads on steering wheels?
That list could go on and on... but you get the idea  |
Agree. If you got rid of the driver in Uber, price would drop like a rock and the reason to own multiple cars, maybe any car, would be small (maybe just because you want to own one). You summon a car, it shows up and drops you off at the front door of the place you are going and leaves. I drive a lot for work over multiple states and instead of working late at night I get the work done as the car drives.
Then as you said, get rid of most of the people that don't want to drive and really aren't very good at it and it might make things better for the rest that are still driving. Would be awesome to have virtually everyone on the highway passing and moving to the right.
Quote:
Originally Posted by PINeely
I have a big problem with it, and that problem is this: when self-driving technology becomes reliable, widespread and proven, it will eventually be illegal to drive your own vehicle. You'll need a special license to drive without autopilot, assuming that it could even be switched off in everyday vehicles. Oh, I can hear it now. "You don't need to drive. Why would you need to drive? The car does it for you. The car is a better driver than you are. By driving your own car you put your life and everyone else's lives at risk."
Now, the main reason for me not wanting this is admittedly selfish; I like driving my own car. But what about police cars? Ambulances? What if your kid gets hurt and you need to break every traffic law to get them to the emergency room? Extreme examples, but examples nonetheless.
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Only way this works is when really close 100% of the cars have it, considering not one has it now, the average car is about 10 years old, this is way in the future. Then the question of it really being a benefit to ban the 3% becomes questionable when virtually no one wants to drive. Then we have never banned a car as long as it met the requirements when it was built.
My father in law and I still take out his Model A's (roughly late 1920's), we are welcome to drive them up to the speed limit (reality is to their top speed), they have no seat belts, horrible brakes, horrible tires, no air bags, no crash protection, no traction control, etc. If someone pulls in front of us we will hit them and the odds of being killed are massively greater than with a current car, and the modern car would go around the car or stop. The safest thing for us and the people around us would be to ban these cars but it has never even been considered. If we run into someone because we can't get around them or stop but we weren't drunk, driving too fast, etc. we might get a ticket but can probably take out a different Model T tomorrow.