Driverless cars promise to reduce accidents, revolutionise transport • Hacker News Board

Re: Driverless cars promise to reduce accidents, revolutionise transport

#61

Post by mike-cardwell » Sun, Sep 02, 2012, 7:55 PM UTC

PedroBatista wrote: post #60

mike-cardwell wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

About 40,000 Americans die in road accidents a year. 90% of those due to human error. If you think that your freedom to mindlessly stare at some tarmac is worth 36,000 dead Americans every year, that's your right. Good luck trying prevent the inevitable. More realistically, good luck whining about your freedoms on the Internet.

Finally! the ad-hoc statistics card was played and it came attached with the "but think of the children" postcard too. btw, if someday you feel the need to stop pulling out stats of your ass, here it is: http://www.census.gov/compendia/statab/cats/transportation/m...

Are you drunk? Not only did I not mention children, but the documentation at the link you yourself provided, backs up my stats...

Re: Driverless cars promise to reduce accidents, revolutionise transport

#62

Post by PedroBatista » Sun, Sep 02, 2012, 8:03 PM UTC

amit_m wrote: post #54

PedroBatista wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

By not knowing how to drive something, you are losing an important ability. Your reach will be 3 or 4 miles at most, and over time this passive "I just want to [_____], do it for me" mentality sets in. And for what? just not to drive? to have more 20min available to check your Twitter stream? Remember, you are choosing to be ignorant in a very important aspect of modern live, and i guess only those who at some point…

Seriously? Most of the world's population doesn't drive a car. It's not good for very long distances and not good for very dense urban areas where traffic is slow and parking is lacking. It can't drive in rural areas (unless you have a sturdy jeep) and it costs a lot of money. Also, it has a non-negligible probability to kill you along the way. The modern car is not some one-true solution to transportation, it's grea…

Most of the world's population doesn't drive a car because they can't afford one.

"I suspect the car is going out of fashion as people move more and more into dense cities."

Really? millions and millions of chinese people moved to massive urban areas and the first thing they buy when they earn some money is a car or a motorcycle, making China the biggest auto market in the world around 2010/11. Pretty much the same pattern with the "BRIC"s

Look, everywhere outside the same old cosmopolitan places where the reality distortion field is too strong, people will own a car and they will make roads and bridges so they can happily drive them.

Re: Driverless cars promise to reduce accidents, revolutionise transport

#63

Post by Someone » Mon, Sep 03, 2012, 5:49 PM UTC

maxerickson wrote: post #55

Someone wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think they would be beaten by the tactic that killed Fleet Street (where newsprinters got rid of all their personnel by moving their business, but leaving outdated personnel such as typesetters behind. See http://www.mediauk.com/article/32718/the-fleet-street-revolu... ): secretly buy your driverless trucks, and replace all your drivers overnight. That way, you won't have employees that can strike against the chang…

I wouldn't be surprised if the trucking companies are able to offer them a competitive wage for acting as freight minders. They might even end up with similar pay for less total hours away from home.

What freight would there be to mind that isn't minded already today? The only thing I can think of is the freight on the driverless cars, but I do not see how that would lead to "less total hours away from home"

Re: Driverless cars promise to reduce accidents, revolutionise transport

#64

Post by maxerickson » Mon, Sep 03, 2012, 8:06 PM UTC

Someone wrote: post #63

maxerickson wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wouldn't be surprised if the trucking companies are able to offer them a competitive wage for acting as freight minders. They might even end up with similar pay for less total hours away from home.

What freight would there be to mind that isn't minded already today? The only thing I can think of is the freight on the driverless cars, but I do not see how that would lead to "less total hours away from home"

A trucker is only allowed to drive a certain number of hours a day, mostly because they are supposed to rest. If they aren't driving, they can sleep while the truck is moving.

Re: Driverless cars promise to reduce accidents, revolutionise transport

#65

Post by Someone » Wed, Sep 05, 2012, 6:32 PM UTC

maxerickson wrote: post #64

Someone wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What freight would there be to mind that isn't minded already today? The only thing I can think of is the freight on the driverless cars, but I do not see how that would lead to "less total hours away from home"

A trucker is only allowed to drive a certain number of hours a day, mostly because they are supposed to rest. If they aren't driving, they can sleep while the truck is moving.

=> trucks will make more hours a day driving

=> we need need fewer trucks

=> we need fewer drivers minding those fewer trucks

I fail to see what would make truck owners offer 'competitive salaries' given that there will likely be X>1 truck drivers competing for each 'truck minder' job, and that the job requires fewer qualifications (drivers do the minding today, and future minders will not need a drover's license)