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Nevada approves regulations for self-driving cars

physorg.com

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Re: Nevada approves regulations for self-driving cars

#61

Post by christkv »

The question of the self-driving car is much more complicated I think than the benefit it will bring. The consequences to the labor market will be interesting to say the least. Just imagine.

- No taxi drivers - No UPS delivery truck drivers (automated delivery anyone) - No truckers - Less cars produced, less people building cars. - Less doctors, hospitals etc due to less accidents.

I don't remember who said that we are entering a period of massive labor change. A second industrial age where there are less need for labor.

The first one brought marxism and communism what will this one bring?

Re: Nevada approves regulations for self-driving cars

#62

Post by christkv »

The question of the self-driving car is much more complicated I think than the benefit it will bring. The consequences to the labor market will be interesting to say the least. Just imagine.

No taxi drivers

No UPS delivery truck drivers (automated delivery anyone)

No truckers

Less cars produced, less people building cars.

Less doctors, hospitals etc due to less accidents.

I don't remember who said that we are entering a period of massive labor change. A second industrial age where there is less need for labor.

The first one brought marxism and communism what will this one bring?

Re: Nevada approves regulations for self-driving cars

#63

Post by showerst »

finnw wrote: post #52
JeffL wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or if everyone moves towards self-driving taxi's, then the car takes you to work, then takes someone from near there somewhere else, etc, so you're really talking not much more extra driving, but saving tons on building fewer cars, fewer parking lots, and economies of scales for buying gas and maintaining the cars.

That won't help. Everyone in the area will likely be travelling to work around the same time.

In some cities (including Washington DC) the public transit systems offer incentives for staggering your commute times. (Peak/Peak of the Peak/Off-peak fares).

I imagine something similar would crop up with self-driving cars to alleviate the rush hour capacity issues somewhat.

Re: Nevada approves regulations for self-driving cars

#64

Post by beedogs »

christkv wrote: post #62

The question of the self-driving car is much more complicated I think than the benefit it will bring. The consequences to the labor market will be interesting to say the least. Just imagine. No taxi drivers No UPS delivery truck drivers (automated delivery anyone) No truckers Less cars produced, less people building cars. Less doctors, hospitals etc due to less accidents. I don't remember who said that we are enterin…

True socialism is my guess.

Re: Nevada approves regulations for self-driving cars

#65

Post by maxerickson »

xp84 wrote: post #53
karamazov wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

one possibility is today's system - whoever owns the car (whether it's a private individual, a cab company, or the city) will pay for insurance, and that insurance will pay out to cover any damages. Now, what happens if there's a bug in the software, causing a lot of damage at once? Can the insurance sue the programmers to recover losses? Probably; but at the least, the victims should be paid promptly by the insuranc…

Yeah, but if insurers have to assume that liability until they can maybe recover damages (just think, the car manufacturer or software firm might not even exist anymore and the car still on the road), insurance is going to be very expensive for these things. Insurance companies aren't a charity, they're going to have to pass on those losses into the premiums.

I think the only way it works is if the state certifies the vehicle and requires a liability policy that will pay for any incident.

If the systems are good, I think such policies will be cheaper than liability insurance for a bad driver. If the systems are bad, I wonder such a policy will be available at all.

The manufacturer would still be on the hook for defects found after the certification, and I expect defective vehicles with no remaining manufacturer will simply not be licensed for operation.

Re: Nevada approves regulations for self-driving cars

#66

Post by swombat »

christkv wrote: post #62

The question of the self-driving car is much more complicated I think than the benefit it will bring. The consequences to the labor market will be interesting to say the least. Just imagine. No taxi drivers No UPS delivery truck drivers (automated delivery anyone) No truckers Less cars produced, less people building cars. Less doctors, hospitals etc due to less accidents. I don't remember who said that we are enterin…

Don't forget a huge amount of space reclaimed on the roads and in city centre parking lots. Most cars are sitting idle for 90+% of every day. With self-driving cars, you need 1/10 the number of cars to achieve the same result (maybe 2/10 to deal with rush hours).

Re: Nevada approves regulations for self-driving cars

#67

Post by oleganza »

christkv wrote: post #62

The question of the self-driving car is much more complicated I think than the benefit it will bring. The consequences to the labor market will be interesting to say the least. Just imagine. No taxi drivers No UPS delivery truck drivers (automated delivery anyone) No truckers Less cars produced, less people building cars. Less doctors, hospitals etc due to less accidents. I don't remember who said that we are enterin…

It's incorrect to say "less need for labor" because labor in general is the most scarce resource (it's easy to prove: we have unused natural resources and capital always requires labor to make them work and maintain them). This is exactly why everybody tries to build capital which makes labor more efficient.

It is clearly more efficient for a man to control 10 cars with a computer instead of the one with his bare hands.

What other 9 persons would do? Either control more cars (if there rises a demand for them) or shift to remaining, more important processes where the labor is still less efficient (and thus costs more), or any combination of these. Think of it like "we solved the problem with cars, lets now move on the next task".

And as you know, existing capital and technology lets people learn and adapt more and more efficiently. So it's not "progressing economy needs less labor", but rather "progressing economy makes labor more efficient by solving some productivity problems and shifting labor where unsolved, more urgent problems remain."

Re: Nevada approves regulations for self-driving cars

#69

Post by gcb »

draggnar wrote: post #7
vasco wrote: post #4

This opens lots of cool possibilities such as eliminating the need for two cars in the family for example. You go to work, the car then comes back and drives the wife and then later in the afternoon when both parents are working it goes to school and picks up the kids!

It could eliminate the need for having a car altogether. Hello zipcar

zip car here in LA is way more expensive than owing an old luxury car AND paying dealership prices on maintenance.

or renting a car every other day. I paid 1/8 of zip car's prices when i used enterprise rentals for two months

Re: Nevada approves regulations for self-driving cars

#70

Post by unexpected »

pdx wrote: post #28
unexpected wrote: post #25

This is a beautiful example of a state, in desperate need of revenue, supporting legislation that encourages businesses to start up without increasing/decreasing taxes. Now if only the US could do the same thing with stem cells.

Is the Nevads government subsidizing research into self driving cars with tax money? If not, than I see no parallel to stem cells. For the last 10 years or more, you're welcome to do anything you want with stem cells. Go crazy. You just haven't been able to get tax money to fund it, if the stem cells happened to be embryonic.

wow, I didn't know that! Thanks for the education. Maybe I can fill in other industries (like the transcanada oil pipeline!) instead.
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