Hacker News Reader

Comment by threeseed | Hacker News Reader

> Long term however I believe cars will just be a shared network of autonomous vehicles for moving people and things

I doubt it.

The majority of drivers on the road are your typical 9-5 commuters. For them it will still be more convenient (no need to wait for another car) and cheaper to just buy a car and there is still something intrinsic to human nature about "owning" something. People leave all manner of goods in their car.

I see autonomous vehicles taking over taxis however.

View on HN

I hate owning a car. It takes up space, I'm only using it a small percentage of the time, and most of the time when I want to drive around I've been drinking anyway.

While I agree (I have a bunch of stuff in my car), I think it's important to consider cities like New York: where there's substantial cost or effort required to own a car, people are content to use alternatives (cabs, Uber, subway, Citibike, etc).

If the alternative is readily available (ie. on-demand automated vehicles), I think the maintenance expense reductions and capital redeployment possible by automating transport will motivate law-makers to increasingly penalize private car use. If you have to pay an extra $5000/year for a private vehicle permit, a lot of people will switch.

>The majority of drivers on the road are your typical 9-5 commuters.

And a car will automatically be at their house every morning. The car will fill up with people on the same route for cost savings.

>The car will fill up with people on the same route for cost savings.

Yuk. No thanks.

Then pay more for exclusivity: Car ownership, automated car with privacy, or shared automated.

Like uber pool, vs uber normal vs uber premium. Just have to get rid of the pesky drivers.

9-5 commute? Sign me up for an autonomous car.

The family wagon with 2 child seats, pram, toys, nappies, etc... That one makes sense to own.

Yeah I'd have gone full Uber and ditched the car if it wasn't for having kids that need seats.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com