agree, but not the conventional way, you will share route with others but you will enter and leave door to door
bmw advert on selfdriving cars and the infamous road girl
- Thread starter deQuincey
- Start date
agree, but not the conventional way, you will share route with others but you will enter and leave door to door
In short, just like happens now. Everyone leaves at roughly the same time, so there will be a wait for your car to get to you for your pick-up during rush hour or other high traffic times. But, all of this will be easily tracked via communication through your phone or watch which will show when your car is expected to meet you, just like with Uber now.
I think the larger implication is that less and less people will want the ‘hassle’ of owning their own car when the proliferation of self-driving cars makes owning a car in most urban areas expensive and unnecessary. This is progress ultimately. It will lead to less pollution, less crowding, and more money and time saved. As long as the robot overlords allow me to drive my coupe I’m ok with self-driving cars.
Footnote to this fascinating discussion. If I was condemned to "drive" a self driving car and had to go to the center of a city like LA everyday, here's what I would do to save the prohibitive cost of a parking lot/garage. Fill the tank or charge the car the night before. When I arrive at work, tell the car to drive to a free parking space somewhere(surely WAZE will know of one} turn off. Pick me up at the office at the appointed time. "Drive" me home. Done!
jmackro
Well-Known Member
No, no, no. I'm sure that if you like your car, you'll be able to keep your car.
Yes, you can keep your car. But once self driving cars hit a critical mass on the roads, nobody will be driving. We will all be following in conga lines behind the self driving cars. In congested urban areas (say, in and around DC), I estimate that once 15% of the cars are driving themselves, we will all be following them.
I do a lot of driving in rural Ontario winter and summer, often late at night. The 07 Subaru Forester that is my daily is the best car I have ever had for knowing I will reach my destination as it seems to not care if the roads are plowed. I know a self driving system would tell me it is unsafe to drive when I like to drive. I think after a few years the self driving car would probably question why I like to go some place so often, or that it is forbidden to stop in this spot to urinate. I don't want to be one of those self driving guys who just throws the Depends out the window.
Okay, I just showed my wife the video at the beginning of this thread. My intent was to share the entertainment value of the commercial, not really the content of the message. But when we got to the end of the clip (which is further than I had watched earlier) and the message "Sheer Driving Pleasure" came up, she yelled out. And I quote: "Sheer driving pleasure? How can a f'ing self driving car be sheer driving pleasure?". I love my wife!!!
Sorry to keep polluting this thread... My lovely wife and I were out for dinner tonight, and there was a news story on the TV about autonomous/self driving semi-trucks. She started off with a comment about how real, human truck drivers must have a concern over this. Then I reminded her that I shared her comment about the "Sheer Driving Pleasure" message. She looked at me and said "it's like that Rush song, Red Barchetta - real cars will be a forbidden pleasure". As I said, I love my wife!!!
Wow a female that likes Rush, you found the unicorn!
I wouldn't say she likes Rush.
She is aware of Rush and has put up with it because of me. If that is a unicorn, then yes!
“The ultimate passenger machine”
There is a time and place for this. Think of it as a return to the days when the well heeled had chauffeurs. If I lived in Manhattan this would be great because I wouldn’t have to search for parking. When shopping/dinning out I’d just stick it in the circle the block till i recall it.
At the track I could send it out to fetch lunch from a restaurant or a spare part from the local NAPA store.
Fwiw, I recently spent several hours in a car with self driving capability for well marked highways (no not a Tesla, but. European car with roughly similar capabilities).
It was really nice because we spent the time discussing other important things (work stuff). We got a lot of stuff done yet arrived less tired than if we had driven (most of the time it was raining and traffic congestion was moderate). Yes we could have used public transport but that would’ve been much slower with multiple transfers. We could have used a hired car, but the one I used several days later was noisy (a tire had a bad belt), not super clean, and the driver was a bit of a maniac in the road.
I’ll always have old cars and pride myself on driving skills, but for everyday stuff I’m ready for this new technology.
It was really nice because we spent the time discussing other important things (work stuff). We got a lot of stuff done yet arrived less tired than if we had driven (most of the time it was raining and traffic congestion was moderate). Yes we could have used public transport but that would’ve been much slower with multiple transfers. We could have used a hired car, but the one I used several days later was noisy (a tire had a bad belt), not super clean, and the driver was a bit of a maniac in the road.
I’ll always have old cars and pride myself on driving skills, but for everyday stuff I’m ready for this new technology.