They offer the chance to push the average number of occupants per vehicle below one.
PlexSheep@feddit.de 10 months ago
Autonomous cars would complete the hellish dependency on cars in many cities.
notapantsday@feddit.de 10 months ago
Diplomjodler@feddit.de 10 months ago
They also offer the chance to push it above one. Ride-sharing will be a lot more attractive with autonomous cars.
Pogogunner@kbin.social 10 months ago
Why?
I see the more realistic probability of the car picking up and then dropping off a passenger, and then picking up another. I don't think customers would be happy if the car they were riding made their trip longer in order to force them to share the car.
oce@jlai.lu 10 months ago
You just need price incentive, make it cheaper if it is shared, it’s economically sound.
Diplomjodler@feddit.de 10 months ago
There will be taxis that work pretty much like they do today. But there will also be mini buses that carry secret passengers and are cheaper. It’s not an either/or situation.
oce@jlai.lu 10 months ago
It could reduce the need for individual cars by increasing car sharing.
PlexSheep@feddit.de 10 months ago
That’s Car Sharing, not autonomous vehicles, no? Car Sharing is a good thing, definitely, but we really need to get rid of cars. Not completely, but to a point where it’s not the default.
oce@jlai.lu 10 months ago
With autonomous cars, you don’t need a driver to bring it to the next person who needs it. That’s a big limitation of current car sharing. Indeed, we need less and smaller cars, and I think autonomous car would help with that by increasing sharing and usage time.
Pechente@feddit.de 10 months ago
But how would I flex my wealth to those peasants then? /s
lemmyvore@feddit.nl 10 months ago
But you can do car sharing with any kind of car. In Germany there are cities that run a rent service for their citizens who only need a car occasionally.
Obviously this only works in the context of a robust public transport infrastructure and in cities built for humans rather than cars, so that the need for a car becomes a rare occurrence.
American cities don’t generally fit that description and until they do the type of car they use won’t change a thing, because it’s not addressing the core problem.
oce@jlai.lu 10 months ago
Same answer as the other similar comment: jlai.lu/comment/3237143
Diplomjodler@feddit.de 10 months ago
No they wouldn’t. Once most cats are robotaxis, there will be drastically less space needed for car parks which will free up huge amounts of space. That can be used for bike lanes, so cycling becomes safer and more convenient. And I don’t expect most rides to be single occupancy. People will opt for shared rides if they are substantially cheaper, which would cut the number of vehicles on the road. Autonomous cars are actually the best chance we have right now to escape the car centric hellscapes of our current cities.
kartonrealista@lemmy.world 10 months ago
And I don’t expect most rides to be single occupancy. People will opt for shared rides if they are substantially cheaper,
Bus. That’s called a bus. It can also fit more than five people and doesn’t use as much energy to transport each person. You just reinvented a shittier bus
Diplomjodler@feddit.de 10 months ago
Wrong. I invented a better bus. Well, i didn’t, none of this is new. A bus that goes straight to your destination with few or no stops. A bus that always tells you exactly when it’s going to arrive. A bus that can go to a lot of places a large bus can’t. And of course one that’s a lot quiet and cleaner. What exactly is your problem with that concept?
kartonrealista@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Traffic jams.
atrielienz@lemmy.world 10 months ago
Have you ever gotten on a bus? My car is in the shop and I’ve been riding the bus to and from work for about a month now. The bus smells of pee a fair few of the denizens who ride with me smell of pee, and last week a guy got pepper sprayed or maced by the police for being high (near as I could tell) at the bus stop. I’ve ridden transit all my life (quite literally grew up riding public transit to school and so on), and I gotta tell ya, I’ll ride share before I’ll actively ride a bus. Especially considering the ride share would get me to work in half an hour and the bus takes about an hour and 45 minutes.
dylanmorgan@slrpnk.net 10 months ago
Those are reasons to fund better public transit, not double down on smaller cars.
Jrockwar@feddit.uk 10 months ago
I firmly believe the solution is autonomous shuttles, not cars. Imagine having bus routes that can dynamically change and adapt to demand. Say we replace every bus with 2 smaller shuttles: during normal service the route could have the same capacity, but if there is an extraordinary event (sports event for example) you could divert them from the low-demand areas to the extraordinary-demand zone.
During lower demand times, you can also have more routes at no extra cost. If you’re clever and make an app to call the shuttle (think Uber but through pre-established routes) the demand can be determined in real time to ensure you don’t have empty shuttles.
And because they’re bigger than passenger cars you’re still increasing the ratio of passengers per vehicle, unlike robotaxis which merely replace private cars, with mostly 1- or 2-passenger trips.
Franzia@lemmy.blahaj.zone 10 months ago
Cities that have studied it believe on-demand car service is necessary (but often much more expensive) to reaching 100% transit coverage. But they also said you could reach like 95% with just busses.
Kushan@lemmy.world 10 months ago
As a partially sighted person that’s unable to legally drive, an autonomous car is an absolute dream to me and would give me a personal freedom many currently take for granted.
chunkystyles@sopuli.xyz 10 months ago
In our car dependent society, I understand that. But a lot of us would rather have better public transit so you wouldn’t have to have a car to have your freedom.
Kushan@lemmy.world 10 months ago
I definitely understand that perspective and I would never say no to better public transport. However, as someone that has spent their entire life entirely reliant on public transport, I can assure you that even good public transport isn’t a solution to all problems.
For example I can’t just nip out to a hardware store to pick up some supplies because I fancy doing a bit of DIY, I am reliant on friends or Taxis to carry bulky items. I can’t even do a large shop because it’s too much to carry, I have to either have it delivered in which case I’m not able to easily see what I am getting - an issue be it fresh produce or just not realising how big a jar of something is, or I am forced to turn one shopping trip into several smaller trips. I certainly can’t buy in bulk to save money.
I can’t just go somewhere on a whim, I have to plan ahead and make sure I’m able to get any connections or be aware of any disruption.even when public transport is good, it still has issues.
chunkystyles@sopuli.xyz 10 months ago
You make great points that sighted people like myself might not ever consider.
IMO there should exist public options to take care of these gaps that you have. Right now I don’t think there are really any groups of people who have both the means and the motivation to solve any of these issues. It sucks. I believe these issues are solvable.
PlexSheep@feddit.de 10 months ago
Isn’t delivery an option in this case?
HeartyBeast@kbin.social 10 months ago
I'm hoping they are sorted by the time I'm 80 and can no longer safely drive myself.