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Always be skeptical when a democratically elected politician claims their country will be anything 20 election cycles into the future.
Also autonomous Ubers don't reduce pollution and traffic, they increase it because if the car isn't where you live it has to drive to you first. It's also not waiting conveniently where you left it when you want to be picked up. It's better for everybody if you take your car off the road as soon as you're done using it like we currently do today. Forcing everybody to take the bus is a sure fire way to never get elected again.
Your fresh engineers think they know the future until they have kids, then they'll move to the burbs, buy the largest 3 row seating SUV they can, and will look back and laugh when they think back when they thought everybody would start exclusively commuting via Uber and ebike.
Kinda like when we now reflect on what life was like before the Segway.
I get it and agree with you. Although it isn't just the fresh out of school engineers , it's also Mary Barra and her board that believe and are trying to sell this fairy tale.
I am skeptical of this all autonomous ride hail world. At least around Buffalo. In the summer when all is nice, then sure, I could see commuters using this IF it is efficient and cost effective (both are huge iffs, people do not exactly commute by taxi around here.
However, if your at work and a snow storm moves in, and you need to hail your ride home... how long will it take to even get picked up as the traffic snarls on the roads in the bad weather. Will autonomous even be able to effectively operate in such extreme conditions? Or will you be thinking "I should have just kept my 4wd pickup?"
Personal vehicle ownership is not going away anytime soon.
I think you make a really good point. Uber/Lyft drivers drive at will, they don't have to accept trips in poor weather...I've heard from a quite a few of their drivers that they try to avoid driving mid day when it's over 110 during the summer here. Never had an issue getting a driver but in seriously treacherous winter weather I could see this being an issue in some locations.
I am skeptical of this all autonomous ride hail world. At least around Buffalo. In the summer when all is nice, then sure, I could see commuters using this IF it is efficient and cost effective (both are huge iffs, people do not exactly commute by taxi around here.
However, if your at work and a snow storm moves in, and you need to hail your ride home... how long will it take to even get picked up as the traffic snarls on the roads in the bad weather. Will autonomous even be able to effectively operate in such extreme conditions? Or will you be thinking "I should have just kept my 4wd pickup?"
Personal vehicle ownership is not going away anytime soon.
Playing devil's advocate, I would argue that there would be less traffic snarls and accidents during bad weather because autonomous vehicles would be programmed so they wouldn't travel too fast or follow too close in bad weather conditions.....unlike human drivers who can't seem to master the concept.
Another point, autonomous doesn't necessarily equal ride sharing.
Playing devil's advocate, I would argue that there would be less traffic snarls and accidents during bad weather because autonomous vehicles would be programmed so they wouldn't travel too fast or follow too close in bad weather conditions.....unlike human drivers who can't seem to master the concept.
Assuming they can even see where they're going when they're covered with black snow, like my car which is completely filthy right now.
Playing devil's advocate, I would argue that there would be less traffic snarls and accidents during bad weather because autonomous vehicles would be programmed so they wouldn't travel too fast or follow too close in bad weather conditions.....unlike human drivers who can't seem to master the concept.
Another point, autonomous doesn't necessarily equal ride sharing.
I agree that autonomous may prevent traffic snarls caused by human error (weather related or not).
However, the weather I am referring to is weather where it is not a random accident that causes the snarl. We are apt to be hit by only moderately predictable lake affect storms that often do not end up where predicted. These storms at their worst can suddenly start dropping snow at a a rate of 3 inches plus an hour. Traffic can come to a literal standstill when this happens, without there being an accident, simply because conditions get so treacherous so fast and roads become nearly impassable at speeds above a crawl. Autonomous ride hailing will be no better capable to handle these conditions efficiently than human drivers. If your reliant on a ride hailing which is already occupied, you will never get to your destination (say, home from work) where as if you have your own vehicle on the premises you may make it albeit slowly.
I get it and agree with you. Although it isn't just the fresh out of school engineers , it's also Mary Barra and her board that believe and are trying to sell this fairy tale.
I don't think Mary Barra believes this at all. It's all a marketing gimmick. There is a huge amount of money to be made in autonomy. It can be applied to anything from the trucking industry to garbage trucks. I personally would love to commute home from work in my private car just watching Netflix or something. None of that means that everybody will be hailing autonomous Ubers and not owning cars. The two have nothing to do with each other.
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