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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

#191

Post by rogerbinns »

moconnor wrote: post #56
rogerbinns wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You haven't taken into account car pooling. Driverless cars can do adhoc car pooling. I can even see things like local 4 seater driverless cars picking you up, and taking you to another 10 (or more) seater vehicle for the rest of your journey. (By definition the congestion is because a lot of people have overlapping routes.) Additionally you are no longer to blame for your commute since the driverless system would be…

Many people don't like sharing a car with strangers; I doubt this will change as quickly as the technology.

Current cars are personalized which makes sense given who uses it and how much they cost. Sharing is annoying for logistical reasons and because you don't want people messing with your stuff.

Driverless cars have many possible solutions. A simple one is pricing - it costs $5 more if you refuse to share. (And another $5 more if you want massage seats.) It is possible to completely partition the seats from each other so each one is effectively its own cocoon where you can play your own music as loud as you want and are completely isolated from the other passengers.

Heck it is even possible like many current electrics to have a base chassis that includes the motors and batteries in the floor, and have pods that mount on top. You could have your own personalized pod you keep at home.

Re: Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions

#192

Post by SideburnsOfDoom »

danielweber wrote: post #167
SideburnsOfDoom wrote: post #113

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Just because it doesn't have a driver doesn't mean it doesn't need to be manufactured. Car companies will do fine. From TFA: "We can reduce the number of cars by 90%." So, you read that and disagree with it?

I'll disagree with it. A lot of cars are needed all at once. There's definitely over-capacity, but a lot more than 10% of people still need to get to work at around 9am and leave sometime around 5pm.

Yeah. "We can reduce the number of cars by 90%" seems optimistic. But so does "Car companies will do fine".

I haven't done the math though.

Re: Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions

#193

Post by GIFtheory »

onedev wrote: post #51
GIFtheory wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The solution is much farther off than Google would like you to believe. As in, we'll be lucky if driverless cars become feasible before fusion becomes commercially viable.

Please don't make statements like that without providing your reasoning (whether right or wrong).

I've worked on autonomous cars, and no, I am not a crank. I could go into technical reasons why this is nowhere near ready, but there is no need. The onus is on Google to prove that they have the technology (or that it will arrive soon), and proof has not been forthcoming. I'm not even claiming that Google is claiming that autonomous cars are almost here--I am saying that people should take their carefully controlled demos with a grain of salt.

Re: Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions

#194

Post by r0s »

thoughtcriminal wrote: post #190
r0s wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, allocation of resources depends entirely on scarcity, because no working system of fair distribution will ever happen in the real world. Unless you rely on charity to take care of everyone, which I guess is your solution. More likely you haven't thought about it. Cars don't have to be internal-combustion. You have no moral authority, just shrill accusations. Your lack of driving is a lame dodge for your destructi…

You don't know what you're talking about. I don't live in the US.

I sure wherever you live you're shitting on the third world just as much as the US.

Re: Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions

#195

Post by elchief »

visarga wrote: post #64
Cushman wrote: post #50

I've been saying this to anyone who will listen for years. I really believe this technology will touch everything . Real estate markets will shift dramatically as the average commute time halves or quarters. Transport costs will plummet, making every single physical object cheaper. Public transit will be dirt cheap, always punctual, and take you absolutely anywhere. Tens of thousands of people each year will escape d…

How about terrorism? A terrorist could load a bomb on one of these cars and send it to its destination. It will be a poor man's guided missile. That would have implications on security procedures.

I am actually working on software right now for managing the interiors of driverless cars. Forgot your purse? Get a text. Puked in the car? We'll bill you to clean it. Put in a bomb? Call da police.

Re: Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions

#196

Post by jpatokal »

Cushman wrote: post #179
jpatokal wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

...except if said family has kids of the age that they need car seats, which are a pain in the ass to install correctly; ripping them out and putting them back in twice a day is both ridiculous and unsafe. And you can't realistically even have shared cars with pre-installed car seats, because they need to be adjusted all the frigging time as the kid grows. FWIW, neither my wife or I had ever owned a car, we managed j…

Yes, you too will benefit from robotic cars! You may have to pay your service some premium for a toddler-safe vehicle, but only when you need to take the kid; and what you'll get is a way more expensive vehicle than you could otherwise afford, with a back seat completely designed around toddler safety. There won't be straps to adjust, because there will be no requirement that this car can be converted for the transpo…

Have you ever seen a toddler outside a movie? All the automation in the world isn't sufficient to contain the hijinks of a determined two-year-old.

That said, I'm totally in favor of self-driving vehicles and wish they'd hurry up so I can get one. Containing that two-year-old is way easier when you don't have to concentrate on traffic at the same time!

Re: Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions

#197

Post by fudged71 »

Cushman wrote: post #50

I've been saying this to anyone who will listen for years. I really believe this technology will touch everything . Real estate markets will shift dramatically as the average commute time halves or quarters. Transport costs will plummet, making every single physical object cheaper. Public transit will be dirt cheap, always punctual, and take you absolutely anywhere. Tens of thousands of people each year will escape d…

The road network is society's circulatory system. Everything we do is touched by roads.

They have essentially created remote realtime monitoring systems for society. Human traffic, weather, parking, etc. As well as solving the biggest optimization problem that exists today.

Truck shipments can now be done overnight without worrying about driver fatigue. Emergency vehicles can take the most efficient route, as well as efficient avoidance of other vehicles. And traffic lights can be optimized as well.

Re: Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions

#198

Post by warfangle »

overgard wrote: post #46
warfangle wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not the parent, but I do think there is something inherently wrong about it. I grew up around cars, driving cars (heck, my college job was the stereotypical pizza delivery guy). I live in a metropolitan area where I can go just about anywhere I need to with the swipe of a card and waiting a few minutes on a train platform. The feeling of independence that I didn't need to worry about the CV boots on my axles screwing…

You're lucky. It's a luxury to live in an area with effective mass transportation. A lot of people aren't so lucky. The freedom a vehicle provides those people is quite real.

Oh, I completely agree -- the feeling of mobility freedom when I got my first (and only; now sold) car was unparalleled, and a prerequisite for me being able to live on my own outside the family home.

But that freedom would not be infringed by a driverless car, would it?

Re: Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions

#199

Post by Cushman »

jpatokal wrote: post #196
Cushman wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you too will benefit from robotic cars! You may have to pay your service some premium for a toddler-safe vehicle, but only when you need to take the kid; and what you'll get is a way more expensive vehicle than you could otherwise afford, with a back seat completely designed around toddler safety. There won't be straps to adjust, because there will be no requirement that this car can be converted for the transpo…

Have you ever seen a toddler outside a movie? All the automation in the world isn't sufficient to contain the hijinks of a determined two-year-old. That said, I'm totally in favor of self-driving vehicles and wish they'd hurry up so I can get one. Containing that two-year-old is way easier when you don't have to concentrate on traffic at the same time!

My experience -- admittedly not parental, and certainly skewed towards highly functional families -- has been that young children tend to be about as responsible as they need to be to get what they want. Not to say that we're going to obsolete parents any time soon, but I do think we can make our world safe enough that we won't need to watch them as much.

Re: Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions

#200

Post by [deleted] »

jpatokal wrote: post #196
Cushman wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you too will benefit from robotic cars! You may have to pay your service some premium for a toddler-safe vehicle, but only when you need to take the kid; and what you'll get is a way more expensive vehicle than you could otherwise afford, with a back seat completely designed around toddler safety. There won't be straps to adjust, because there will be no requirement that this car can be converted for the transpo…

Have you ever seen a toddler outside a movie? All the automation in the world isn't sufficient to contain the hijinks of a determined two-year-old. That said, I'm totally in favor of self-driving vehicles and wish they'd hurry up so I can get one. Containing that two-year-old is way easier when you don't have to concentrate on traffic at the same time!

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