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| Thread ID: 138712 | 2015-01-11 05:01:00 | Self Drive Cars - the next environmental disaster | Paul.Cov (425) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1391901 | 2015-01-11 05:01:00 | So, I want to vent an opinion about the potential misuse of self drive cars. Imagine how many km's these cars will do with no passengers in them at all! It'll encourage the development of single car households (which is not necessarily a bad thing itself), but imagine the scenario in a place like Auckland where it can be an hour long journey anywhere, and $20+ parking per day. With a self drive car the day might start with: 1) Drive the primary worker to work, then empty car returns home 2) Drive school kid(s) to school, then empty car returns home 3) Drive other parent from home to shops. There's no parking spaces, so program the car to drive continuously around the block, or send it back home for the next hour. Repeat the process for the end of day commuting, and repeat for each household. Suddenly this scenario sees Aucklands traffic woes get even worse, and polution levels double, and time with family members together further plummet. Yes, it might save lives, it might save us sleep time and stress, but it might also suck badly. But at least it would allow someone more than 2 beers before the trip home. Imagine Uber with self drive cars. Online payment, no driver required. |
Paul.Cov (425) | ||
| 1391902 | 2015-01-11 05:04:00 | Public transport. :thumbs: | pcuser42 (130) | ||
| 1391903 | 2015-01-11 05:26:00 | We are a one car family, SWMBO and I, we can both drive, I prefer cycling to work because I can. Selling the second car a few years ago has meant that as of next month I can drop to part time work. Its not what you earn its how you choose to spend it that matters. A self drive car for us would be pointless. |
gary67 (56) | ||
| 1391904 | 2015-01-11 09:29:00 | Self driving yes but I don't believe they have, or will, make them totally autonomous. They will not be able to drive themselves home or drive the kids to school. For safety reasons a licensed driver still needs to sit in the driver's set ready to take over manually in case of emergency. Also it's not like everyone will rush out and buy one, any such issues are a long way off and some other disaster will have gotten our attention by then.I have a feeling it won't be legal to let the car drive you home after a few beers either, at least not until they have established enough of a safety track record and proven reliable enough to be trusted totally. I don't think these cars will ever be the issue you fear they will in practice. Also when we run out of oil, electrical cars prove themselves to be a pipe dream, hydrogen turns out to be too energy expensive to produce, and synthetic fuels are prohibitively expensive and unable to keep up with demand, we can all start cycling to work to piss off the few rich motorists left :p |
dugimodo (138) | ||
| 1391905 | 2015-01-11 18:57:00 | imagine the scenario in a place like Auckland where it can be an hour long journey anywhere, and $20+ parking per day. With a self drive car the day might start with: 1) Drive the primary worker to work, then empty car returns home 2) Drive school kid(s) to school, then empty car returns home 3) Drive other parent from home to shops. There's no parking spaces, so program the car to drive continuously around the block, or send it back home for the next hour. . $20? Even in the CBD there are cheaper all day parkings than that..... Anyway, why should it go home? Even if parking was $20 say, then it could just go a bit further away and park. As for driving kids to school, eliminate that completely and you solve most of the Akld traffic problems. As we all know school holiday traffic is terrific. It would do a lot to prevent fat kids too. And what if it does do a lot of Kms? It would do it better than a lot of divers, the owner gets to sit around reading, viewing the net or whatever while enjoying the ride - without the downside of public transport - namely the enormous amount the charge, the need to take several buses, the walking in between, the stopping at unneeded locations (to the person in question) and the extra time all that takes. And it's available all the time, unlike public transport for those that work non-standard hours. Sounds great to me. |
pctek (84) | ||
| 1391906 | 2015-01-11 22:10:00 | Cant see the point in self driving cars. Take the bus instead . I cant see self driving cars really working unless ALL cars are self drive . And even then you need the human backup driver, in case of emergency or system failure. I drive my car, so it's self drive (by myself) :-) |
1101 (13337) | ||
| 1391907 | 2015-01-11 22:43:00 | Public transport. :thumbs: Public transport is a complete and utter failure in Auckland. It is expensive and unsafe, It does not even exist in some of the City and is only used by those poor sods who have no alternative and are lucky enough to live on the route of a bus/train that actually goes from their home to their destination. |
CliveM (6007) | ||
| 1391908 | 2015-01-12 00:23:00 | Public transport is a complete and utter failure in Auckland. It is expensive and unsafe, It does not even exist in some of the City and is only used by those poor sods who have no alternative and are lucky enough to live on the route of a bus/train that actually goes from their home to their destination.I see someone hasn't used it in a while. | pcuser42 (130) | ||
| 1391909 | 2015-01-12 00:31:00 | Cant see the point in self driving cars. Take the bus instead . enormous cost for a bus ticket the need to take several buses to get from A to B the walking in between the stopping at unneeded locations (to the person in question) and the extra time all that takes. public transport for those that work non-standard hours - when there isn't any buses! That would be the point for me. |
pctek (84) | ||
| 1391910 | 2015-01-12 02:00:00 | I see someone hasn't used it in a while. That would be right. Read Pctek post #9 to see why. |
CliveM (6007) | ||
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