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

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

#281
To me the most meaningful way to use self-driving is to be able to summon a car, avoiding inner city parking, making car-pooling super convenient etc. In that case it's worth much more than 8.50.

And if you plan to work while driving, it will also be worth much more.

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

#282

Having finally had a chance to test-"drive" an advanced autopilot Tesla last weekend, I can confidently say at the current level of that tech I would pay less than nothing. At best (cruising down a well-marked highway) it was only slightly worse than useless, taking a different line in the lane than I considered optimal, leaving me feeling a background level of apprehension. From there it ranged through frustrating,…

Don't worry Musk said it'll be delivered in two years tops, in 2012 or something.

Anyone still believing in fully autonomous cars as they are presented by Musk &co today (the real thing, not a cruise control that only works on California's highways on a sunny day) is 101% delusional.

We'll talk about it in 15 years as the "previous AI hype cycle".

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

#283

> 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…

Who is responsible for maintenance of the car and the AI software?

If the passenger should be doing the updates to the AI, then they should own the car outright and have the right to repair it.

If it is VW, then VW should align incentives well towards software maintenance by charging either an hourly or a monthly rate.

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

#284

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…

Indeed. I sold my car, but I am still paying for one of the subscriptions I had on it. Can't cancel, but can settle early (4 months left on it). It's a clever way to add to the cashflow for those companies.

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

#285

Interesting move. But what if you like driving? Being in control and all is just part of it - at least if you're not commuting every day...

If you like driving you save $8.5/h.

If you just use the car for the daily commute, there should be better ways to commute (I know there often aren't, it's just a hypothetical).

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

#286
post #60

Having finally had a chance to test-"drive" an advanced autopilot Tesla last weekend, I can confidently say at the current level of that tech I would pay less than nothing. At best (cruising down a well-marked highway) it was only slightly worse than useless, taking a different line in the lane than I considered optimal, leaving me feeling a background level of apprehension. From there it ranged through frustrating,…

Tesla's status on this is really controversial. Some people think that Tesla's sheer data advantage will put them way ahead soon and that it's imminent. On the other hand, Waymo is doing pretty well on most trips (admittedly within a small geofenced zone that has friendly weather -- you can watch oodles of video from jjricks on real trips here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=61AfxOMu3wY )

> Waymo

Even they admitted fully autonomous vehicles most likely won't be a thing any time soon (maybe ever if we keep our current infrastructure)

https://www.cnet.com/news/alphabet-google-waymo-ceo-john-kra...

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

#287
post #121

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…

> I split time between at least two cities Please don't bring up minority use cases when discussing the average or modal use case.

To call something a "scam" says there is no honest use-case. Pointing out competing use-cases is directly refuting that.

> 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.”

Especially if VW isn't actually "taking a swipe at" Tesla but instead going after a different market.

It is like saying calling a bagel a counterfeit bowl of cereal.

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

#288

That's cheaper than parking in Amsterdam. They're on to something here but the side-effects will likely not be what you expect. Suddenly the roads are going to be parking space as well. It also - funny - is higher than the minimum wage in many places.

They'd probably make it illegal for cars to drive without passenger in cities like Amsterdam without a taxi license to prevent traffic jams of cars driving around to avoid parking costs.

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

#289
post #85

> 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…

I agree with you. But this system is called capitalism for a reason. If you do not have capital you loose...

Don't forget to make your payment for having commented today.

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

#290
post #40
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.

latency might be an issue though

The average reaction speed of a human to unanticipated situations can be ~3 seconds. Any connection within 1000KMs is generally going to be under 0.1s - an order of magnitude less than a human's.
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