[ExI] self driving cars again

[Joshua Job]

It seems to me that the initial killer-app will be taxi companies. In big
cities like New York where relatively few people own cars and taxis are
prevalent, the psychological problem of "but it's not MY car" simply isn't
an issue.

Cab companies will eliminate cab drivers, who apparently get about 50% of
the fare money, and pony up the increased costs for the initial automated
vehicles. Reduced rates for car insurance will probably help this whole
process along. Heck, in a reasonably short time after their introduction,
automated cars may pay for themselves through that alone.

Similarly for truck drivers, bus drivers, chauffeurs, etc. Basically anyone
whose job it is to drive someone else around is going to quickly disappear.
Once people get used to that, I think we'll see large scale adoption.
Suburbanites who don't commute downtown might not be willing to go in for
carshare services for a while though--there's little to no incentive for
them, and the psychological blocks Charlie mentioned are pretty big.
On Aug 12, 2012 5:16 AM, "Charlie Stross" <charlie.stross at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> On 11 Aug 2012, at 23:29, spike <spike66 at att.net> wrote:
>
> >
> > Woohoo!  Way to go, Thrun!
> >
> > Work quickly lads, please.  I have six parents who need this technology
> riiiight nooooow.  Between all six, they own 11 cars, and will gladly give
> you all of them for three self-drivers, one for each couple.
> >
>
> Assuming they live in reasonable proximity, they don't even need one
> car/couple. I ran across a news report a year or two ago from a trade body
> -- something like the British Association of Car-Park Operators -- who'd
> established that, during peak rush-hour periods, 96% of the UK's private
> vehicle fleet was parked up at any given time.
>
> If you discount the psychological issues associated with ownership and
> territorial exclusivity -- attributes of the automobile that have been
> inculcated by decades of high-budget advertising by the auto industry --
> there shouldn't be any problem with being part of a ZipCar-like scheme
> where, when you whistle, a pool car comes for you. (Charge by the hour for
> use; charge extra for valet service if a use leaves a mess for the next
> user.)
>
> Think of it as doing for automobiles what time-sharing operating systems
> did for computers. One side-effect: if we only need a tenth as many cars,
> we can make the individual cars much nicer than the average tin box on
> wheels.
>
>
> -- Charlie
>
>
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