Are driverless cars the death knell of the motor biz?

[FarCenter]

If you're a believer, then the autonomous car is a gateway to a brave new world in which you'll never have to waste an hour looking for a parking spot, ever again.

An obvious challenge to this vision is whether it encourages traffic-choked, polluting and wasteful behaviour: instead of parking while you visit the supermarket, just set your car to circle while you choose between brands of cola.

But here's a different outcome of a world in which driverless cars exist, and operate: a sales crisis for the motor industry.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2013/07/11/driverless_cars_death_knell_of_the_motor_biz/

When you are not using it, your automated car can go off and be an automated taxi for someone else.

Looking out the company window, there were at least $10 million worth of investment in cars doing nothing productive for 8 hours.

So it makes a lot of sense to maximize the utility of a far smaller number of automated cars.

[markiv]

1. they had something like that around 1900 in NY, NY

they called it 'public transit'

[FarCenter]

3. The problem with public transit is the cost, especially labor cost, and its availability

Automated taxis would give you door-to-door service, but they are more expensive than buses because of the cost of the driver. To spread the cost of the driver, you can go to light rail, but that is even less convenient. And you wind up moving a lot of metal to carry relatively few people much of the time if it is on a fixed schedule.

So automated taxies with smartphone call-up and computer optimized dispatching and routing is the way to go.

[markiv]

5. medical, legal and actuarial labor are expensive too

and you're going to need a LOT of it with driverless cars

you have a massive infrastructure, with over 100 years of live use that was built for the judgement of HUMAN MINDS. it MIGHT be something if you were building a sytem from scratch, but you aren't

i'd rather take a 30 mile round trip with the ditsiest 16 year old person, than a driverless car designed by the smartest person in the room at MIT

this is technophile mania

also, who goes to jail, when an error kills 5 people in a 10 care pileup? (Computer programs do have bugs, you know). The corporation? Corporate entities are notorious for never going to jail when they f up. A taxi or bus driver does most of the time. There's something to be said for having a driver that dies, is maimed or goes to jail when their negligence hurts others

(I have years of professional computer programming experience, systems integration as a specialty)

[el_bryanto]

2. Don't you have to keep your car clean in that case?

That might be a problem.

Bryant

[HardTimes99]

6. As that wit Zach Galifianakis has quipped, "My

car smells like my foot farted!"

[malthaussen]

4. The "driverless car" has been a dream for years...

... but few people really want them, at least historically. Times having changed a bit, some of the pleasures of driving -- particularly that of being isolated and able to have quiet time to oneself, now that everyone has a mobile device -- I could see a change in preferences, but I rather think still that most drivers would prefer to have control. This is, after all, why we still have manual transmissions.

-- Mal

[REP]

7. I'd rather my vehicle not be filled with crumbs or smell like vomit

I leave things in my car - sunglasses, reusable shopping bags, things like that - and I like them to be there when I come back to my car. I also like that my car smells like whatever perfume I'm wearing, and not like dirty diaper or fast food - so no, I don't think I'm a fan of that idea.

[galileoreloaded]

8. total non-starter. nt

[Gidney N Cloyd]

9. Great for aging boomers who want to maintain their independence but should no longer be driving.

[longship]

10. Interesting tech. Useless here.

Many of the roads here are unpaved, and even the paved roads are snow and/or ice covered during months of the year. And then there are the deer running out onto the roads.

Autonomous cars wouldn't work very well here.

But for urban areas in warm climates, why not?

[winter is coming]

11. I think many will still want to have their own personal vehicle.

I'd be just as well pleased to tell my car, "go to X," and be able to do something more productive than driving. And for people who cannot drive for whatever reason, it would be a huge plus.

[cherokeeprogressive]

12. Nnnnnnope.

[olddots]

13. I believe humans want to control how out of control they are .

n.t.