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Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions

forbes.com

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Re: Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions

#121

Post by r0s »

thoughtcriminal wrote: post #78
jaggederest wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> We will need more roads, more cars and that will produce more pollution. Nope. Less. Cars-per-person will nosedive from almost 1:1 in the US right now to maybe 1:5 - that means the embodied energy wasted on cars will go down. Per-mile energy costs will go down too, if cars are driven efficiently. It also enables the large-scale conversion of the US car fleet to electric propulsion. Cars can recharge themselves and…

That's a lot of ifs, and making a lot of assumptions. We don't have this kind of time. For God sakes, please snap out of your delusion.

You're deluded if you think car culture in the US can change significantly anytime soon. Call me a cynic, and I'll call you a fool.

If you want to throw around platitudes, why not address the real problem: uncontrolled population. Or does that make you uncomfortable?

Re: Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions

#122

Post by ekianjo »

Gmo wrote: post #103
bambax wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't wait to see driverless cars available everywhere, but I'm afraid of the pushback, especially from governments who will inevitably come up with stupid regulations that will make it as cumbersome to use as possible. Also, given that I live in France, I'm sure there won't be any Google car allowed anywhere before the French automakers are able to make one -- which is to say, probably never.

Right, because, for instance, they prevented Toyota to sell their Prius because none of the French automaker had a plugin hybrid ? You know, it's easy to always blame the government when the real problem is that you start your thought process as if it was hopeless from the beginning ... PS: Yes, I'm French.

The french gvrnt will let them reach the market and tax their asses once they are on it. Classic!

Re: Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions

#123

Post by greggman »

thoughtcriminal wrote: post #106
gfodor wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have got to be kidding me, spoken like a true luddite. You realize if autonomous cars were suddenly a real thing, the entire world economy would shift and become wildly more efficient, right? One of the pillars of our transportation infrastructure is that vehicles have an operator . This dictates their form, this dictates the manner in which we build roads, bridges, etc. This dictates the manner in which we desig…

You don't seem to understand the resources required to build a car, and the punishing toll it exacts on the planet. And how roads disrupt migratory paths of animals. Technology isn't the answer to problems of air quality and the preservation of wildlife. Making significant changes to our lifestyle is, but we need to snap out of this delusional wishful thinking and make changes based on reality.

Actually technology is the only realistic solution.

You can keep trying to get 7 billion people to behave the way you want. Good luck with that. Or, instead you can give them something they want that also solves the problems you want solved. Renewable Energy, Recyclable products, less polluting products that are also more desirable (think Tesla Model s)

Making new tech that solves those issues and at the same time provides something more desirable than current products is the only realistic way forward.

Re: Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions

#125

Post by geden »

lukifer wrote: post #114
MichaelApproved wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take the next leap and see that you don't need to actually own the car at all. No need to send a car back home. No need to negotiate with your neighbor. We all share a fleet of cars like a taxi service. Need a car? Pull out your smartphone app and push the "call" button that sends a nearby car to your location. You could also schedule a pickup for the exact time you get off work. No need to send an empty car back hom…

This will definitely exist, but not everybody will want to give up personalized cars. Too many people see their car as part of their identity. We have the tech right now for every workplace to have open seating and non-personalized computer workstations, and while some companies do this, most people still want their own desk space and personalized computer.

I think only freaks / hobbyists / throwbacks will end up owning cars. You don't have a personalised power station do you? Transport is just a means to an end. They'll be new and cheaper ways of signalling status with driverless cars, equivalent to 1st class travel on trains.

Note that in Europe car ownership amongst the younger demographics is plunging. The novelty has worn off, no one can be arsed with them anymore.

Re: Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions

#126

Post by Kliment »

lukifer wrote: post #114
MichaelApproved wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Take the next leap and see that you don't need to actually own the car at all. No need to send a car back home. No need to negotiate with your neighbor. We all share a fleet of cars like a taxi service. Need a car? Pull out your smartphone app and push the "call" button that sends a nearby car to your location. You could also schedule a pickup for the exact time you get off work. No need to send an empty car back hom…

This will definitely exist, but not everybody will want to give up personalized cars. Too many people see their car as part of their identity. We have the tech right now for every workplace to have open seating and non-personalized computer workstations, and while some companies do this, most people still want their own desk space and personalized computer.

I think a major point is using a car as storage. Many professionals I know keep a lot of stuff in their cars, particularly if they are not sure what kit they'll need when they go out to a client. In the trades this is even more extreme, some people run entire businesses out of their cars/vans.

Re: Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions

#127

Post by [deleted] »

cynwoody wrote: post #90
coopdog wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Still, I can't help but feel that maybe Google have the final piece of the puzzle. We've had computers and sensors powerful enough for decades, only Google have all of that maps data, polished again and again by android users using maps (and now Ingress) to make it more reliable. Google almost specialise at crunching massive data into useful products, and building reliable supersystems from millions of unreliable sub…

> We've had computers and sensors powerful enough for decades, only Google have all of that maps data, polished again and again by android users using maps (and now Ingress) to make it more reliable. Of what relevance is Google's map data (which they buy from vendors)? Google's map data doesn't tell the car if a pedestrian or another car or a fire hydrant is where it is about to go. The car has to figure that out all…

[deleted]

Re: Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions

#128

Post by Geee »

moocow01 wrote: post #4

The market is worth trillions... not Google's solution. One thing tech reporters seem to have failed at recognizing is that this research has been taking place at every major car company out there - many many others are legitimately in the race. Ultimately its the manufacturers that get to pull the trigger on how driverless cars will become driverless.

You forget that Google has driven almost every road on the planet for exactly this reason. They have collected much more data than just those images you see on the street view app, and it's not just "mapping data". The street view images are merely a by-product.

Basically Google has recorded all the driver's reactions to whatever is happening on the road, and this allows them to teach the bot to drive. Using this data the bot can virtually drive the roads again and again, until it doesn't make mistakes. There's no way car companies can compete with them.

Re: Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions

#129

Post by pekk »

justincormack wrote: post #94
surrealize wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> only a small part of public transport budgets are for drivers (it looks like around 10% for LA) Well, you also have to consider that bus systems are built around driver scarcity. What if buses were half as large, and run twice as often? They can't now, because that would double driver labor costs. If buses were the size of vans, capital costs might even decrease due to having access to van-market economies of scale…

Many countries with lower labour costs this eg the Dolmus in Turkey https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dolmu%C5%9F

Also all over Africa and India. It's a very common pattern outside the weird US

Re: Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions

#130

Post by thoughtcriminal »

r0s wrote: post #121
thoughtcriminal wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's a lot of ifs, and making a lot of assumptions. We don't have this kind of time. For God sakes, please snap out of your delusion.

You're deluded if you think car culture in the US can change significantly anytime soon. Call me a cynic, and I'll call you a fool. If you want to throw around platitudes, why not address the real problem: uncontrolled population. Or does that make you uncomfortable?

No Mr.Pot, overpopulation isn't the problem. Greed and misallocation of land and resources is the problem. Too many cars is a problem. And you calling the kettle black is a problem.

I don't drive, you do, therefore you are uncomfortable with the reality that you are destroying the environment and the air and shifting the responsibility elsewhere.

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