Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What would you pay for autonomous driving? Volkswagen hopes $8.50 per hour

arstechnica.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 709 posts

Re: What would you pay for autonomous driving? Volkswagen hopes $8.50 per hour

#181

Post by john_minsk »

murukesh_s wrote: post #144
HWR_14 wrote: post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consider Tesla's $10,000 surcharge (that may reset when you sell the used car) to be quite scammy as well. I doubt I'll ever own a self-driving car, because I will never pay that kind of premium for full self driving. Either on an hourly basis or up front. Frankly, it seems cheaper just not have a car and to hail a cab/uber/lyft whenever I need one.

how about when you see everyone else is enjoying a beer while driving, or in more advanced versions don't even have driving seat.. ? its starting a trend and the price that Tesla and VW put will become the base pricing

That's totally different scenario in my view. This is like comparing robot-vacuum and fully fledged android housekeeper. If it can do 100 and 1 thing - sure you can pay 10k for extra value.

TBH it is hard to believe that it is required to have 8 $/h to have autonomous vehicle. Once we have the technology Google will build efficient data center with custom chips and the price will go down to X $/month. On top of it - I think the model will have to run locally, so it would make sense to pay upfront for extra hardware they put in your car and not that much for maintenance.

We are just not there yet, we don't have autonomous driving - we have better driver assistants.

Re: What would you pay for autonomous driving? Volkswagen hopes $8.50 per hour

#182

Post by squarefoot »

What I would pay for autonomous driving? Zero. Actually I would even pay not to have it. People shouldn't be given incentives to waste more time into their cars other than the strict necessary, and autonomous driving would make things easier, so that a 5 hours trip becomes two movies and a nap. And workers will accept more and more telecommuting at outrageous distances. No thanks, I'll rather keep hating driving.

Disclaimer: after last year accident I had to say adios to motorcycles probably forever, so driving for me would suck no matter the vehicle; it just has too many wheels. When one enjoys driving, the better Tesla/whatever model just can't be on par even with the crappiest motorcycle. Car lovers can't understand.

Re: What would you pay for autonomous driving? Volkswagen hopes $8.50 per hour

#183

Post by erhk »

gambiting wrote: post #124
JumpCrisscross wrote: post #110

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This is 100% a way to extract more money from consumers, especially non financially stable consumers, while lying to all of our faces Isn't this hyperbolic? I split time between at least two cities. Being able to pay as I go represents a real saving in cost, time and attention. Sometimes buying is better than renting. But sometimes there are economies of centralization. AWS isn't a scam on companies too poor to buy…

It's the same argument that BMW made, and it's just as faulty here. They said that instead of paying $500 upfront for heated seats, they will be available as an annual unlock for say $100/year. Since they know an average owner keeps a new BMW for only 3 years, this is a saving for new buyers - isn't that great??? I hate this argument with a burning passion though, it's turning ownership into subscription only to extr…

This is already happening with property ownership being coagulated in cities. How is this a surprise

Re: What would you pay for autonomous driving? Volkswagen hopes $8.50 per hour

#184

Post by csunbird »

rejectedandsad wrote: post #21

Sounds like a steal for perfect Level 5 autonomy. That’s about the price of hiring someone to drive you for close to minimum wage. But for advanced cruise control? Pass.

You also have to buy the car as well.

Re: What would you pay for autonomous driving? Volkswagen hopes $8.50 per hour

#185

Post by jbjbjbjb »

hyperhopper wrote: post #62

> In a swipe at Tesla, he said that by charging hourly fees, VW would make autonomous driving more accessible than “a car with a five-digit surcharge.” This is completely disingenuous at best, and malicious at worst. This is a perfect example of the boots theory of socioeconomic unfairness [1]. This is just taking advantage of the poor-middle class' inability to pay a larger upfront cost, to extort them for more over…

Well maybe the daily commute isn’t light usage and therefore isn’t the best case for pay as you go.

There are plenty of other use cases that fit really nicely, replacing a taxi for a night out, occasional long journeys, times when you’re feeling too tired to drive.

But having said that, I don’t see why we wouldn’t just expect to go autonomous all the time. Free or included in the price autonomous driving would be an obvious opportunity for any competitors.

Re: What would you pay for autonomous driving? Volkswagen hopes $8.50 per hour

#186

Post by dncornholio »

With the current roads, I don't want to drive autonomous. I have not enough trust in computers identifying the surroundings. I think roads and signs need some sort of sensors and all vehicles should be able to communicate. This is when I would consider autonomous driving safe enough atm.

Re: What would you pay for autonomous driving? Volkswagen hopes $8.50 per hour

#187

Post by globular-toast »

speedgoose wrote: post #10

I would rather pay someone to hack my car so I don't have to pay per hour.

At that price I don't think it will be your car. That initial payment is more like a deposit to stop people claiming one and never using it.

Re: What would you pay for autonomous driving? Volkswagen hopes $8.50 per hour

#188

Post by jbjbjbjb »

GekkePrutser wrote: post #168
CorrectHorseBat wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>How is autonomous driving an increasingly scarce resource? Space is the scarce resource. In a city that's full of 90% of the time parked cars it doesn't really make sense for everyone to have their own car. Autonomous driving just combines the best of Uber and car sharing.

In a city having excellent public transport makes even more sense than cars :) And outside the city space isn't an issue.

Thats difficult if like in North America you’ve spent the last hundred years building your cities from scratch to suit cars and feel nice and spacious.

Re: What would you pay for autonomous driving? Volkswagen hopes $8.50 per hour

#189

Post by bsder »

ako wrote: post #26

With that pricepoint, maybe you don't need to implement actual autonomous driving, but instead it could be implemented by employing millions of dronepilots in some far away country that drive your car for you.

I still don't understand why the "autonomous driving" people aren't concentrating on freeway driving--possibly with special roadway markings--over local driving.

I don't really mind driving the 10 minutes to the store.

I mind driving 90 minutes between San Diego and LA. I mind driving 90 minutes between San Jose and San Francisco. I mind driving 7 hours between LA and SF. I mind driving driving 24 hours (two 12 hour shifts) between San Diego and Austin.

And for those of you suggesting car rentals, have you seen the price of car rentals even before Covid? It was getting to the point that car rental was often more expensive than airfare.

Re: What would you pay for autonomous driving? Volkswagen hopes $8.50 per hour

#190

Post by flemhans »

squarefoot wrote: post #182

What I would pay for autonomous driving? Zero. Actually I would even pay not to have it. People shouldn't be given incentives to waste more time into their cars other than the strict necessary, and autonomous driving would make things easier, so that a 5 hours trip becomes two movies and a nap. And workers will accept more and more telecommuting at outrageous distances. No thanks, I'll rather keep hating driving. Dis…

I'm looking forward to a self-driving RV, and waking up in a new city every morning.
Post reply on HN