Nevada passes law authorizing driverless cars • Hacker News Board

Re: Nevada passes law authorizing driverless cars

#61

Post by presidentender » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 5:45 PM UTC

DanielStraight wrote: post #17

mkr-hn wrote: post #6

I think driverless cars could be the future of public transportation. Instead of big trains and buses with limited reach, we would have thousands of public vehicles that take you where you need to go when you need to be there. It eliminates the big barriers to public transport--the lack of personal space, timing, and reach. No car? Just hop on the municipal/county dispatch website, request a car, pay your fee, and wa…

How do you deal with the inherent inefficiency of having a separate vehicle for every passenger (or small group of passengers)? Publicness is not the only benefit of public transportation. Trains and buses are incredibly efficient per passenger mile. They also take up a lot less space than cars, and last longer and cost less per passenger to manufacture. Making a car driverless doesn't solve these problems.

More accurately, trains and buses can be incredibly efficient per passenger mile.

Anecdotes are not data, but our local buses (city of ~50k) rarely have more than one rider, and a plurality of those I see have zero riders. In our case, these autonomous cars would be a much more efficient solution.

Re: Nevada passes law authorizing driverless cars

#62

Post by JCB_K » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 5:47 PM UTC

mkr-hn wrote: post #6

I think driverless cars could be the future of public transportation. Instead of big trains and buses with limited reach, we would have thousands of public vehicles that take you where you need to go when you need to be there. It eliminates the big barriers to public transport--the lack of personal space, timing, and reach. No car? Just hop on the municipal/county dispatch website, request a car, pay your fee, and wa…

And instead of 50-100 people on 1 vehicle, it's 1. Not really eco-friendly, and not cheap either.

Re: Nevada passes law authorizing driverless cars

#63

Post by xcallemjudasx » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 5:48 PM UTC

pavel_lishin wrote: post #19

mkr-hn wrote: post #6

I think driverless cars could be the future of public transportation. Instead of big trains and buses with limited reach, we would have thousands of public vehicles that take you where you need to go when you need to be there. It eliminates the big barriers to public transport--the lack of personal space, timing, and reach. No car? Just hop on the municipal/county dispatch website, request a car, pay your fee, and wa…

Do a lot of people avoid public transport just because of the lack of personal space?

Personally I avoid it because it's not very reliable(in Houston at least. It was pretty reliable in Germany) and it's not that effective at getting me where I want to go. There's still huge sprawls of land that are actively used but not connected to the public transport routes.

Re: Nevada passes law authorizing driverless cars

#64

Post by rgoddard » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 5:48 PM UTC

joezydeco wrote: post #47

Hawramani wrote: post #45

[Survey question] What are Google's options for monetizing driverless cars?

Non-stop advertising for the entire duration of the trip!

With location aware advertising that pays attention to the current conversation topics and that is capable of dropping you off at a businesses physical location which also gets charged on a CPD (cost per drop-off).

Re: Nevada passes law authorizing driverless cars

#65

Post by knieveltech » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 5:49 PM UTC

chacha102 wrote: post #37

I'm guessing that it will be really important to allow cops to disable autonomous cars, or at least force them to pull over and stop. I'm really interested in how they will handle that issue.

However they do it it better be secure, otherwise definitely expect a market for illicit little devices that allow you to plow traffic out of your lane on the interstate.

Re: Nevada passes law authorizing driverless cars

#66

Post by patio11 » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 5:49 PM UTC

Hawramani wrote: post #45

[Survey question] What are Google's options for monetizing driverless cars?

Lease the technology to, without loss of generality, Toyota, for annual license payments higher than the GDP of some nations.

Re: Nevada passes law authorizing driverless cars

#67

Post by InnocentB » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 5:50 PM UTC

presidentender wrote: post #61

DanielStraight wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you deal with the inherent inefficiency of having a separate vehicle for every passenger (or small group of passengers)? Publicness is not the only benefit of public transportation. Trains and buses are incredibly efficient per passenger mile. They also take up a lot less space than cars, and last longer and cost less per passenger to manufacture. Making a car driverless doesn't solve these problems.

More accurately, trains and buses can be incredibly efficient per passenger mile. Anecdotes are not data, but our local buses (city of ~50k) rarely have more than one rider, and a plurality of those I see have zero riders. In our case, these autonomous cars would be a much more efficient solution.

"More efficient than a bus system nobody uses" is a pretty low bar. In your city's case, shutting down the bus system and having everyone currently riding the bus take (potentially subsidized) taxis would be way more efficient, both environmentally and financially.

Re: Nevada passes law authorizing driverless cars

#68

Post by rmc » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 5:51 PM UTC

DanielStraight wrote: post #17

mkr-hn wrote: post #6

I think driverless cars could be the future of public transportation. Instead of big trains and buses with limited reach, we would have thousands of public vehicles that take you where you need to go when you need to be there. It eliminates the big barriers to public transport--the lack of personal space, timing, and reach. No car? Just hop on the municipal/county dispatch website, request a car, pay your fee, and wa…

How do you deal with the inherent inefficiency of having a separate vehicle for every passenger (or small group of passengers)? Publicness is not the only benefit of public transportation. Trains and buses are incredibly efficient per passenger mile. They also take up a lot less space than cars, and last longer and cost less per passenger to manufacture. Making a car driverless doesn't solve these problems.

But people don't use them that much! In theory trains and buses are more effecient, but since they aren't used that much, that means people don't care about that.

Re: Nevada passes law authorizing driverless cars

#69

Post by rmc » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 5:52 PM UTC

Hawramani wrote: post #45

[Survey question] What are Google's options for monetizing driverless cars?

If Google own a lot of the patents on it, and it takes off then Google get a cut of every car sold for decades.

What was Henry Ford's options for monetizing horseless carriages in 1900?

Re: Nevada passes law authorizing driverless cars

#70

Post by DrewG » Thu, Jun 23, 2011, 5:58 PM UTC

initself wrote: post #23

mkr-hn wrote: post #6

I think driverless cars could be the future of public transportation. Instead of big trains and buses with limited reach, we would have thousands of public vehicles that take you where you need to go when you need to be there. It eliminates the big barriers to public transport--the lack of personal space, timing, and reach. No car? Just hop on the municipal/county dispatch website, request a car, pay your fee, and wa…

It's the future of "transportation", period. People will look back to the time when humans drove transportation and laugh.

And in the even farther future, people will look back on the time when it was legal to have a human driven car the same way we look back on safety standards in the early 1900's