Where I live, apartments and houses outside cities cost less one third of what a similar apartment would cost in the city. After autonomous cars become commonplace, I can not imagine why I would buy an apartment in the city. Are there any reasons to do so?
I think traveling time still matters even when you can spend your time better because you don’t have to focus on the road. A lot of people can’t even read inside of cars without getting queasy.
Despite Trumps campaign promises of infrastructure investment we also don’t see a lot of money getting invested in more roads. If people drive larger distances this places additional strain on road capacity. Driverless cars can use roads a bit more efficiently but there’s still only so much cars that can be on the road at the same time.
It depends on the details. What will happen to traffic? Maybe autonomous cars will be more efficient in terms of traffic, but on the flip side of the coin people may drive more often if driving is more pleasant which might make traffic worse.
Also, if you’re using a rental or “uber” model where you rent the autonomous car as part of a service, that kind of service might be a lot better if you’re living in a city. It’s much easier to make a business model like that work in a dense urban environment, wait times for a automated car to come get you will probably be a lot shorter, ect.
Here’s something I’ve been curious about: If you’re running an autonomous car rental, what do you do with peak load times? I have to imagine there’s a drastic difference in demand between 9am~11am vs 5pm~7pm, and an even larger difference between those and 2am~4am. Part of me thinks demand drives prices and everyone shifts their arrival/departure times a little to try and find lower transport costs, but I also would assume that rush hour traffic would do that all on its own. The other likely outcome seems to be that you keep enough vehicles on hand to satisfy peak demand, and then they just sit quietly in a parking lot the rest of the time.
Half of my daily commute takes place on a single lane dirt road, and I therefore have no idea why people endure heavy traffic unless they have completely inflexible work hours. Does anyone have any ideas?
The other likely outcome seems to be that you keep enough vehicles on hand to satisfy peak demand, and then they just sit quietly in a parking lot the rest of the time.
Probably this.
Then again, it’s not all bad, it might be beneficial for the company to get some time between the morning rush hour and the evening rush hour to bring your cars somewhere to be cleaned, to recharge them, do any maintenance and repair, ect. I imagine just cleaning out all the fast food wrappers and whatever out of the cars will be a significant daily job.
What do you think will happen to cities?
Where I live, apartments and houses outside cities cost less one third of what a similar apartment would cost in the city. After autonomous cars become commonplace, I can not imagine why I would buy an apartment in the city. Are there any reasons to do so?
I think traveling time still matters even when you can spend your time better because you don’t have to focus on the road. A lot of people can’t even read inside of cars without getting queasy.
Despite Trumps campaign promises of infrastructure investment we also don’t see a lot of money getting invested in more roads. If people drive larger distances this places additional strain on road capacity. Driverless cars can use roads a bit more efficiently but there’s still only so much cars that can be on the road at the same time.
It depends on the details. What will happen to traffic? Maybe autonomous cars will be more efficient in terms of traffic, but on the flip side of the coin people may drive more often if driving is more pleasant which might make traffic worse.
Also, if you’re using a rental or “uber” model where you rent the autonomous car as part of a service, that kind of service might be a lot better if you’re living in a city. It’s much easier to make a business model like that work in a dense urban environment, wait times for a automated car to come get you will probably be a lot shorter, ect.
Here’s something I’ve been curious about: If you’re running an autonomous car rental, what do you do with peak load times? I have to imagine there’s a drastic difference in demand between 9am~11am vs 5pm~7pm, and an even larger difference between those and 2am~4am. Part of me thinks demand drives prices and everyone shifts their arrival/departure times a little to try and find lower transport costs, but I also would assume that rush hour traffic would do that all on its own. The other likely outcome seems to be that you keep enough vehicles on hand to satisfy peak demand, and then they just sit quietly in a parking lot the rest of the time.
Half of my daily commute takes place on a single lane dirt road, and I therefore have no idea why people endure heavy traffic unless they have completely inflexible work hours. Does anyone have any ideas?
You do the same thing that Uber does at the moment. You do surge pricing. At 2am-4am many cars are likely to be at the parking lot.
Probably this.
Then again, it’s not all bad, it might be beneficial for the company to get some time between the morning rush hour and the evening rush hour to bring your cars somewhere to be cleaned, to recharge them, do any maintenance and repair, ect. I imagine just cleaning out all the fast food wrappers and whatever out of the cars will be a significant daily job.