Will driverless cars result in less interest in mass transit? (Atlanta: insurance, how much)

[arjay57]

An interesting post on this by Atlanta Urbanist:

There’s a quote in an AJC article from last week that clearly reveals a sad symptom of driverless-car fever – one that I’ve seen popping up in comments around the internet for a while. The symptom: a debilitating reluctance to fund expansion in public transit because “robot cars are on their way soon, so why bother?” -

See more at: One symptom*of driverless-car fever: disinterest...

[flamadiddle]

Good point. Yes, the future will be automated/robotic. Truck Drivers also need to start working on new careers because they will become a thing of the past, although it's still a ways off.

Makes sense though, traffic will be minimized once you remove the knee jerk reactions from stupid humans.

[Gulch]

Charlotte Nash is an idiot.

[ATLTJL]

This might not happen in our lifetimes.

Technology is progressing, but there are tons of legal hurdles before something like this could ever be considered road safe...at least I hope.

This woman is a fool. I hope we can vote her out next November. Businesses are flocking out of Gwinnett county and Gwinnett Place is deteriorating, the county can't wait on The Jetsons to save it.

[CCATL]

Originally Posted by ATLTJL

This might not happen in our lifetimes.

Technology is progressing, but there are tons of legal hurdles before something like this could ever be considered road safe...at least I hope.

This woman is a fool. I hope we can vote her out next November. Businesses are flocking out of Gwinnett county and Gwinnett Place is deteriorating, the county can't wait on The Jetsons to save it.

Not only that, but can you imagine how much a driver-less car will cost when first introduced to the market, after all of those hurdles you already brought up? I imagine that for a very, very long time, they will be something that only the most financially elite of our society will be to afford. It takes a very long time for a whole population to be able to upgrade to today's newest vehicles, and traffic will remain a problem for years to come without public transit. With statements like that, she is REALLY grasping at straws to make people think of reasons for why Gwinnett shouldn't invest in public transit. Even if they were affordable, I don't think their advent takes away from the need for public transit - we are still putting too many cars on the road.

[jsvh]

No. It will result in more transit usage.

You will no longer be tied to your car if you want to make one segment of your trip in your car. If today you were going three places and two of them were next to transit stations you would probably take your car to all three so you could go directly to the third. However with automated taxis you can take transit to the first two and just do the auto-taxi on the last segment.

If you want to go from Gwinnett to the airport during rush hour it will be cheaper and faster to have the auto-taxi take you to the Doraville station than all the way to the airport.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by flamadiddle

Good point. Yes, the future will be automated/robotic. Truck Drivers also need to start working on new careers because they will become a thing of the past, although it's still a ways off.

Makes sense though, traffic will be minimized once you remove the knee jerk reactions from stupid humans.

Wait till the fatalities start adding up and people try and sue the car makers. Also, how will driverless cars deal with peds and cyclists? I do not see it catching on until the technology is 110% proven.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by jsvh

No. It will result in more transit usage.

You will no longer be tied to your car if you want to make one segment of your trip in your car. If today you were going three places and two of them were next to transit stations you would probably take your car to all three so you could go directly to the third. However with automated taxis you can take transit to the first two and just do the auto-taxi on the last segment.

If you want to go from Gwinnett to the airport during rush hour it will be cheaper and faster to have the auto-taxi take you to the Doraville station than all the way to the airport.

On top of that, on-demand driverless cars, more or less taxis, where you schedule a pick up at your house and it takes you to the transit station. The car then goes on another call. That way people do not have to pay all that money for a car (insurance, taxes, maintenance, gas, etc.) for something they only use 2 hours a day.

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by cqholt

Wait till the fatalities start adding up and people try and sue the car makers. Also, how will driverless cars deal with peds and cyclists? I do not see it catching on until the technology is 110% proven.

These are the same thoughts I have. How will these driverless cars deal with any number of the oddities that happen on a normal day of Atlanta driving?

It's the same opinion I have on Amazon's drone delivery. Good luck Amazon, but I just don't foresee that being a success after the first person gets whacked in the head by one or the first neighborhood loses power because it hits a power line.

[arjay57]

I believe driverless cars will be fine. Look at all the massive screwups that human drivers make -- getting on freeways going the wrong way, driving a bus off a bridge, texting while wiping out entire families, getting drunk, road rage, you name it.