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Uber is not even profitable. It's not sustainable w/o autonomous vehicles. That's why they were willing to steal so much tech from Google, it's worth that much to them.
Will consumers be willing to pay the full costs for all these manually-driven trips plus profit? Doubtful.
GM is betting on autonomous vehicles. Good luck with that timeline.
Quote:
Originally Posted by somebodyfromnc
GM is hardly the only one, most automakers are dumping big money into autonomous vehicle programs.
Not just GM or auto manufacturers. Here is a short list, I'm sure there are more. And yet I still don't get it...why the big push for something that isn't even in demand..as of yet.
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 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.
Gm is still making sedans and SUVs and pickups they are just trimming the ones that are not selling. The volt is not selling because gas is cheap and people are buying SUVs CUV’s and full size pickups.
Gm is still making sedans and SUVs and pickups they are just trimming the ones that are not selling. The volt is not selling because gas is cheap and people are buying SUVs CUV’s and full size pickups.
Yep, I know. I was not arguing GM wasn't still making those things... Just commenting on the idea of a ride sharing future.
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.
Like most things these days, it's all ideal speculation but obviously not practical. A miniscule amount of people commute by Uber now.
I'm not saying I'm buying into this fairy tale but the writing is on the wall.
Spain, claims they will be petro and natural gas free by 2040
France, claims they will be petro and natural gas free by 2040 (check the latest news on how that is going)
British Columbia claims they will be ICE free by 2040
Yes , 2040 seems like a long ways away, in reality it is only 6 product cycles away. Not really that far off , especially when the technology for half those cycles isn't here yet.
And at the moment we still have a choice to buy and drive what we want. Politically though, I see the pendulum on it's way to swinging left... once that happens , if we get a dolt like Macron in France and they decide to force people away from ICE vehicles.. then what ?
Even on this forum, the past week , I've seen some threads started about people hating driving, or how to keep people from breaking laws while driving... the thought of ride share/ autonomous is creeping in.
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.
So no more muscle cars. No more classic cars on the road. No more sound of a V8 with headers with decent mufflers, or a screaming ricer turbo. At the drag races, all will be electric. And motorcycles are they next. Wow! what a boring time to be coming. I dont see it as a smooth transformation.
agreed.
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