while public transport absolutely sucks in most US cities compared to Europe, self driving cars could actually provide a good replacement for it
two issues remain
* will self driving cars become cheaper to use than public transport, because even self-driving cars can haul at most 5 people at the same time, while public transport buses easily do from 10 people at low traffic to 60 people at peaks. Yes ,running costs are also higher for buses, but costs don’t scale up that fast
* American cities are still ridiculously low density, so even if the cost per km approaches European transit levels, it might still be cheaper to use the personal car due to how spread out American cities are
that being said, i still expect FSD cars to massively disrupt the car industry and reduce need to own passenger cars in large cities dramatically
also, another big L for Musk, Waymo is now doing 6-7 million paid rides per year, while Tesla has yet to release a FSD capable car at least for specific city areas
Waymo now covers half of Metro Phoenix and 1/3 of the Bay area AFAIK ,probably more since i haven’t checked their progress in months
**EDIT: the top 10 metro areas in US apparently have a combined population of 87 million people and make up like 26% of the entire US population**
so if Waymo focuses on them over the next decade, the climate impact due to lower car sales and production and higher uptake of electric-hybrid vehicles( which Waymo exclusively uses) could be astonishing
ale_93113 on
This is great, between this and china having several autonomous buses and taxi services in some cities, it seems like self driving cars are FINALLY replacing some drivers on some localized markets
it will take some time for full penetration, but it is encouraging to see it grow beyond mere curiosity
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rare US win
while public transport absolutely sucks in most US cities compared to Europe, self driving cars could actually provide a good replacement for it
two issues remain
* will self driving cars become cheaper to use than public transport, because even self-driving cars can haul at most 5 people at the same time, while public transport buses easily do from 10 people at low traffic to 60 people at peaks. Yes ,running costs are also higher for buses, but costs don’t scale up that fast
* American cities are still ridiculously low density, so even if the cost per km approaches European transit levels, it might still be cheaper to use the personal car due to how spread out American cities are
that being said, i still expect FSD cars to massively disrupt the car industry and reduce need to own passenger cars in large cities dramatically
also, another big L for Musk, Waymo is now doing 6-7 million paid rides per year, while Tesla has yet to release a FSD capable car at least for specific city areas
Waymo now covers half of Metro Phoenix and 1/3 of the Bay area AFAIK ,probably more since i haven’t checked their progress in months
**EDIT: the top 10 metro areas in US apparently have a combined population of 87 million people and make up like 26% of the entire US population**
so if Waymo focuses on them over the next decade, the climate impact due to lower car sales and production and higher uptake of electric-hybrid vehicles( which Waymo exclusively uses) could be astonishing
This is great, between this and china having several autonomous buses and taxi services in some cities, it seems like self driving cars are FINALLY replacing some drivers on some localized markets
it will take some time for full penetration, but it is encouraging to see it grow beyond mere curiosity