Autonomous cars: Atlanta's transportation future? (credit, live in, bills)

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by cqholt

A house is an investment, not a car. They are not even comparable, owning a car is a luxury.

Few people actually make a true profit off their house unless value rises quickly. One you've paid the mortgage with the taxes, the interest, etc etc, it often overrides the amount you make on the resale. I've had my house only 11.5 years, and have already paid just mortgage costs of almost 80% of the sale price. I'm just over 1/3 of the way in but 80% of cost in. In a few years I will bypass it. . Once you count maintenance and other stuff, I'm likely in the hole overall. My value has risen, but in the end, I'm probably not walking away any richer than I would have been without it. More people than not are in this position.

But, I know fully well that a car is a luxury. And one I intend to keep until I am forced to give it up.

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

Few people actually make a true profit off their house unless value rises quickly. One you've paid the mortgage with the taxes, the interest, etc etc, it often overrides the amount you make on the resale. I've had my house only 11.5 years, and have already paid just mortgage costs of almost 80% of the sale price. I'm just over 1/3 of the way in but 80% of cost in. In a few years I will bypass it. . Once you count maintenance and other stuff, I'm likely in the hole overall. My value has risen, but in the end, I'm probably not walking away any richer than I would have been without it. More people than not are in this position.

But, I know fully well that a car is a luxury. And one I intend to keep until I am forced to give it up.

11.5 years, was that the pre-recession peak?

[brown_dog_us]

samiwas1, don't forget the cost of renting shelter in your computation.

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by cqholt

11.5 years, was that the pre-recession peak?

Nope. It went up about 20% 2-3 years after we bought, then dropped to about 55% of original price, and has now risen again. If we had sold at the peak, we could have walked away with about $30k after fees. We can now walk away with about $60k or so, even though the sale price is the same as 9 years ago. But, I wild need to subtract what I've put in, which Ian a lot more than that. If you put in $175k and get $60k when you walk out, you didn't profit. It feels like profit, because I will have $60k more in my bank account than I did the previous day, but overall, it's a loss.

Yes, it's a price for shelter. Same as a price for transportation. But, I am fully aware that few cars make any return.

[jsvh]

Autonomous bus makes inaugural Atlanta run—without catastrophe

[fourthwarden]

Originally Posted by jsvh

Autonomous bus makes inaugural Atlanta run—without catastrophe

So... it performed well in just about as perfect an environment as we could give it? Great.

Still, autonomous bus =/= autonomous cars. Buses at least have the capacity to be useful in handling large-quantities of people effectively. Not as effectively as rail, but still, better than cars.

[JPD]

Originally Posted by fourthwarden

So... it performed well in just about as perfect an environment as we could give it? Great.

I have to agree. This test is not impressive. A straight line, on a computerized street, nothing resembling real world driving conditions. And even considering how low the bar was set, human intervention was required.

[tikigod311]

Looking forward to more of this. We all know AVs can do way more than a mile just fine, this was just testing out the recently installed infrastructure in the road.

[Gulch]

Originally Posted by JPD

I have to agree. This test is not impressive. A straight line, on a computerized street, nothing resembling real world driving conditions. And even considering how low the bar was set, human intervention was required.

Gotta start somewhere.

[arjay57]

Originally Posted by Gulch

Gotta start somewhere.

Yes, a very good beginning.

We start human drivers ought cautiously and with supervision, too.

This will probably help us cement the Amazon deal as well.