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How Ubiquitous Autonomous Cars Could Affect Society (Video)
We talked with Peter Wayner about autonomous cars on June 5. He had a lot to say on this topic, to the point where we seem to be doing a whole series of interviews with him because autonomous cars might have a lot of unanticipated effects on our lives and our economy. Heck, Peter has enough to say about driverless cars to fill a book, Future Ride, which we hope he finishes editing soon because we (Tim and Robin) want to read it. While that book is brewing, watch for some thoughts on how autonomous cars (and delivery vans) might affect us in the near future.
Truckers, you're going to be the first on the chopping block in this edition of technology theater. That's the end of the last blue collar job that lets you travel.
Why should my car waste its time in my garage when it can make some extra money on the side as a taxi? I can call it back whenever I want to use it myself.
The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
One aspect of autonomous vehicles that few people seem to consider is its potential effect on the housing market.
Consider the size of the RV market, and the number of people who prefer the RV lifestyle after they retire. Now consider the fact that one of the more annoying aspects of owning an RV is that you have to drive it everywhere yourself.
Now imagine twenty years from now when you'll be able to buy an autonomous RV. You go to sleep in it, and in the middle of the night it takes you to whatever destination you desire. In the morning, you open the door and you're in a new city. What you really own is not an RV, but a magic house that can take you anywhere you desire, a few hundred miles every night.
With that kind of freedom, how many people would choose to become high-tech nomads, and never live on fixed piece of property again? In fact, I think this will be a major profit center for automakers. Most people won't bother owning cars when they can call for one on a smartphone, but $100K to $200K super-RVs will become the home of choice and the way for GM and Ford to stay in business.
Drifting off-topic here, but I agree, and I can explain why.
Typical reading speed is 250-300 words per minute with random access. Typical speaking rate is more variable but I'll go with the audiobook reading rate, 160 words per minute with sequential access. So it is a much better use of my time to read an article than to watch or hear a presentation of that article.
That said, _writing_, especially writing well-reasoned and coherent prose such as one can not-infrequently find on Slashdot, takes disproportionately longer than reading the same prose. So the audio and audiovisual formats are appealing to the presenter, because speaking is easier than writing for people with the right skills. An expert, reasonably experienced at public speaking, can give an illuminating presentation with little or no preparation.
My opinion is that video and podcasts can be worthwhile if you know the speaker is good, and are willing to trade off efficient use of your time for efficient use of his.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
Whenever this topic comes up in conversation, I often point out the "you get there when you get there" notion. When you're able to just play on your iPad the whole time, it becomes your personal subway car... with one big difference:
The dudes in the video seem to think (erroneously, IMHO) that we'll just stop owning cars because we can just hail one like a cab. But a self-driving short-term rental car *is* a cab. It *might* be cheaper, and it'll annoy me less than the stupid driver (at least until marketers pay to put TV's in them and play commercials for the whole ride). But here's the thing: the reason I don't take cabs/busses/subways/etc is because I can't leave my shit in them. The car that I own currently contains my flight bag, gym bag, my guitar, my iPod is plugged into the car-stereo with all of my favorite tunes (which, though digital, is still "some of my shit" that I always want to be there).
It's a little like George Carlin's "a place for your stuff" bit. The reason I like living in a house instead of going from hotel to hotel is because I don't want to gather up all of my stuff and bring it along with me to my next destination. And the same goes for transportation. I don't want to have to completely "vacate" the conveyance every time I want to get out and do something. So, for me, the allure of autonomous cars is that we'll finally have "personal subway cars", in the sense that they're reserved for us. We don't have to take all of our stuff out of them to make ready for the next random person.
Also (dunno if the video mentioned this), there could be a drop off in parking spaces. At first, I figured that we'd never have to try to find parking spots, since the car can drop us off in front of the door to the store, and then it would go park itself. But then I realized... heck, it doesn't even need to *park*. It could just go drive around for a while. In places with parking meters, this could be cheaper than actually paying for parking.