Master Plan, Part Deux

Post by squeaky-clean » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 2:31 PM UTC

kybernetikos wrote: post #415

> The most important reason is that, when used correctly, it is already significantly safer than a person driving by themselves and it would therefore be morally reprehensible to delay release simply for fear of bad press or some mercantile calculation of legal liability. I don't think this is the correct comparison. A car used correctly is safe. We have huge numbers of road accidents because most people are unable t…

Post by gkya » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 2:33 PM UTC

jamornh wrote: post #518

gkya wrote: post #514

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in one of the most crowded and traffic-ridden of the world, non-US. We have a growing rail complex and a good and frequent bus system. I perceive car ownership as masochism, as public transport is always faster, and you don't have to care about parking, gas, taxes and all the other burdens associated with cars. Electric cars won't solve these, e.g. many cars can self park, but you can't save the time spent search…

Self driving cars and public transportation are not mutually exclusive though. Think of how convenient it would be when buses and taxi operate just as easily at night as during the day. One of the reason why cabs are more expensive at night in some cities is because you have to pay the driver more to provide the service at night. Same with buses.

Post by robodale » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 2:43 PM UTC

Animats wrote: post #64

"A first principles physics analysis of automotive production suggests that somewhere between a 5 to 10 fold improvement is achievable by version 3 on a roughly 2 year iteration cycle. The first Model 3 factory machine should be thought of as version 0.5, with version 1.0 probably in 2018." What that really means: Tesla is going to lose a ton of money per car on the Model 3, or raise the price, until at least 2022. T…

Post by kartD » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 2:46 PM UTC

dexterdog wrote: post #496

creshal wrote: post #388

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If Tesla wants to be better than a Maserati or Jaguar, they need to observe how much nicer the interiors of those cars are. Indeed. I was shocked when I first hitched a ride in a Model S – the interior is more spartan and cramped than that of a 90s Japanese keicar (an impressive feat, in a sense) apart from the entertainment system, which had an uglier, clunkier UI than what any web developer could have drawn you u…

That's his sales market. Tesla wants fanboy buyers who will be upgrading within five years and that's not a bad thing. They are such a small player that they can do this. I used to lease SUVs on 2-year lease. They had massive incentives and very high residuals because the manufacturers realize they can sell you 5 cars every decade if you are loyal. I did it because the savings were awesome, but I eventually stopped b…

Post by zamalek » Thu, Jul 21, 2016, 2:49 PM UTC

aidenn0 wrote: post #532

zamalek wrote: post #443

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A shift to technologies safer than human-driven cars would dramatically reduce human suffering and should be welcomed. Car-for-car I'd easily wager that manually-driven cars have been involved in far more accidents than the one or two Tesla accidents that have occurred over the same time period (not to dilute the terrible result of the most recent accident). The problem is that a typical person doesn't care. Car ac…

There's also a significant tort issue. Consider the case where a drunk driver kills himself and someone else. Now consider the case where an autonomous vehicle kills its passenger and the passenger in another car. A jury needs to award damages against A) the grieving widow of the drunk driver or B) A large corporation. I suspect the latter will be at least an order of magnitude higher. This means that until autonomou…