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G.M. Invests $500M in Lyft

nytimes.com

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Re: G.M. Invests $500M in Lyft

#391

Post by IanCal »

astrange wrote: post #358
MajorLOL wrote: post #258

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>Many, many people already do this on public transport Total fantasy. Virtually nobody uses public transport. 5% of commuters use public transport. Relative to the car-pooling, who sees double the volume of users as public transport, 10%. http://traveltrends.transportation.org/Documents/CA10-4.pdf

How many people use public transit in Europe, or Japan and Korea?

For commuting, roughly 20% in the UK or about 4 million people (26M working residents, ~80% commuters). About 50% within London.

http://www.ons.gov.uk/ons/rel/census/2011-census-analysis/di...

Re: G.M. Invests $500M in Lyft

#392

Post by beau26 »

MajorLOL wrote: post #344
beau26 wrote: post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Great point, however if these autonomous vehicles are electric (and I'm not saying they would be), they'd require much, much less maintenance than a fossil-fuel based autonomous fleet.

If you look online you will see that most batteries have a estimated mileage of 100k-150k before total replacement is needed. Most Lexus hybrids warrantees end at 100k. If you are running a fleet of cars or ride sharing yours all day when you are at work, its going to get 100k miles put on it a year. Expect a new battery ($5k-$10k) annual replacement, in addition to the other 80% of the car that isn't hybrid like sus…

No argument about the batteries themselves, but self-driving cars require substantially less overall maintenance -- oil changes, timing belts, fuel pumps, transmissions, and even things like brakes all either are unnecessary in all-electric vehicles or maintenance is substantially reduced.

Re: G.M. Invests $500M in Lyft

#393

Post by jmspring »

Ntrails wrote: post #389
jmspring wrote: post #383

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Current uber and Lyft fleets" -- they made a conscious economic decision. Maybe think about reality of life, a commute, family, etc. A friend with an incredibly smart 7 year old still has a messy car. Her daughter, despite the ability to read and understand things well above her age, is a 7 year old. The car is a mess. When it comes to these pie in the sky utopian scenarios, I wish people on HN would step outside an…

>Her daughter, despite the ability to read and understand things well above her age, is a 7 year old. The car is a mess. Right, and that's a choice. It has nothing to do with "she's a 7 year old" and everything to do with "she's allowed to make a mess in the car". I was never allowed to eat in the car beyond the odd sweet, and I wouldn't have thrown wrappers or anything else on the floor on pain of death... I find it…

The point being here, there is "it would be nice", "some fit the model where this would work", and "there are a lot of cases where this won't work". Or even more fundamental things when talking about little ones like things like car seats.

Maybe it is "choice", but there are a lot of people out there where the "choice" around their vehicle is closer to that of it is lived in, may have books and papers, clothing, toys, etc. (maybe food as well) that will not conform to this scenario.

Walk through a grocery store parking lot sometime and observe the state of vehicles as people get in/out, etc. my bet is on a sufficiently large pool would be in the condition where utopian sharing doesn't make sense.

That said, if there was a mind shift because of an overall benefit, it could happen. But, that is a long way off.

Re: G.M. Invests $500M in Lyft

#395

Post by ghshephard »

vonklaus wrote: post #386
ghshephard wrote: post #345

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Re: Buses - if you get a chance, come over to Singapore. The buses come by every 3-5 minutes, have world-class air-conditioning, and on the half-dozen or so routes that I ride regularly, I don't think I've ever had to stand. I rarely bother to even use their (world class) MRT I love the buses so much. An advanced city is not a place where the poor move about in cars, rather it’s where even the rich use public transpo…

Singapore is ~1/4 of the size of Rhode Island and ~200 square miles larger than lichtenstein, the smallest country in Europe. It's like 50k USD to own the ability to own a car which expires in 10 years at which point you will have to scrap it or rebuy this cert. A passat is somewhere north of 150k. Also, I would add that subways are probably a better way forward than busses for a modern city, or at least some sort of…

I agree - that there are a number of factors that benefit it's bus system over cars - the reasonable size of the country, and the enlightened attitude towards car owners paying for their externiality costs (the Certificate of Entitlement, or COE).

I also agree that Subways are awesome - and Singapore has an awesome system for such a young country, and they are going to be adding a new one each year through 2024 - That's a new line, not just a new station. [1]

The nice thing about bus stops - is they are everywhere, and the buses come by very frequently, and they all have GPS locators on them - so you can time your arrival to the stop to be when the bus arrives (which you can look up on your smart phone). I've never been a fan of buses before Singapore - but it's great to see what can be done in a country where cars are not the default option.

[1] http://www.lta.gov.sg/apps/news/page.aspx?c=2&id=80d3169f-dc...

Re: G.M. Invests $500M in Lyft

#397

Post by bewatson »

yggydrasily wrote: post #357
toomuchtodo wrote: post #315

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don't buy a 747 to fly across the country do you? No, you buy a ticket from Southwest or another carrier. Kids will one day laugh at how we used to buy vehicles instead of rent them by the miles. "Auto loans?!?" The horror!

If I had a self-driving car and some time on my hands, I'd get rid of my home and be in that thing practically 24/7, seeing the land and enjoying having it drive me around. No way I would rent in that situation. I'd definitely buy. There will be a whole class of similar nomads who will spring up once it becomes truly viable. The future is not one-size-fits-all. Just because Uber execs and investors are blathering abo…

This is something I never thought about. What an interesting shift it would be if remote workers became much more nomadic than most are now.

Re: G.M. Invests $500M in Lyft

#398

Post by Aloha »

logfromblammo wrote: post #286
hyperliner wrote: post #214

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Edison invented the lightbulb? I thought it was Humphrey Davy or maybe Warren de la Rue.

Also, Joseph Swan and Charles Stearn were the first to bring a practical commercial application to the market. Edison, if I recall correctly, invented the screw-in electrical connector, the permanently sealed bulb, and a certain type of carbon filament. That's why when Edison refused to license his patents to Westinghouse for the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago, the lights were stoppered instead of permanently sealed, w…

I'd actually argue that Edison made the first /practical electric light bulb for use in a lighting system/ Swans lamp was a low resistance lamp, meaning higher current demand and a need for larger copper supply lines to supply the lamp.

Re: G.M. Invests $500M in Lyft

#399

Post by mattlutze »

bduerst wrote: post #324
skorecky wrote: post #319

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's kinda the point. We all work too much right now as it is. http://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/you-really-dont-...

CEO Anne-Marie Slaughter was just in the On-Point podcast saying the same thing (in context to work-life balance and family), that we have a bias for thinking the person who comes in at 6am and leaves at 6pm is a good worker. This bleeds over into decisions that affects other aspects such as telecommuting, paternity leave, etc.

Bertrand Russell wrote a rather famous [0] essay on it in the 1930's.

0: http://www.zpub.com/notes/idle.html

Re: G.M. Invests $500M in Lyft

#400

Post by ssmoot »

prawn wrote: post #353
toomuchtodo wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because there is no self-driving option. If there is, and the price of rides plummets (no driver = cheap, all electric = even cheaper), it no longer behooves you to tie up so much capital in a vehicle you own. Think how much consumer excess would occur from 300 million people not having to buy a vehicle outright.

And anyone driving their own car needs to pay for parking, plus for full insurance, registration and so on. Free street parking will gradually disappear and off-street parking is not going to get any cheaper.

> And anyone driving their own car needs to pay for parking, plus for full insurance, registration and so on.

Those costs don't go away just because you're renting. In the same way property taxes don't disappear just because you aren't paying them directly in a leased apartment.

> Free street parking will gradually disappear and off-street parking is not going to get any cheaper.

This applies to maybe 10% of the population. And I feel like that's pretty generous. You probably haven't seen much of the US outside of the North East if you think that's even remotely plausible.

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