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Comment by soheil | Hacker News Reader

I don't think it'll be fundamentally different than taking a black car for example or any uber for that matter. If you think you can dine and work in black car then you can in a self-driving car too, but I haven't seen that happening yet. There are challenges to that that are not just the fact you are not driving, like the fact that the car moves constantly, making turns, etc. are things that are not very friendly to a dining experience or getting work done.

Perhaps if there was a dedicated lane where self-driving cars would move slowly like a train that would be more plausible. Or maybe even freeway driving, no stop and go traffic though.

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Once self driving cars are a thing, won't the design change? No need for a driver's seat, no need to put in a gear stick or parking break partition.

If I own my own self driving car, rather than summoning one, I think you'll see a big shift in designs because it will be your or your family's space.

I recently finished watching the anime "Legend of Galactic Heroes".

In an early episode, a character summons a roaming [empty] driverless hover-car taxi [hailed with a transmitting credit-card-sized hailing device no less] to help an injured compatriot on his way. Watching the scene was surreal; when it first aired no doubt it was totally SF, but now it's actually within the grasp of reality.

The entire vehicle's interior was, basically, Limo seating. No room for any driver at all. The car lands, they get in and close the doors, and the car takes off all 5th Element but driverless to their destination -- one character laid out injured, the other consoling and helping whilst sitting upright.

I just have to believe that interior configurations are going to change similar to this.

I don’t know about “dining,” but people here in Los Angeles eat entire meals while driving every day. Having hands free won’t necessarily be like hanging out at home, but there is a whole lot you can accomplish if you’re used to it.

If anything it’ll probably be less likely for majority of people to eat for example while riding one, specially if there’re fleets that are operated by a company. Think subway, you’re not allowed to eat or drink, yet currently people do eat and drink in their personal cars.

If self driving cars are individually owned then there may be a trend towards a different experience but that may come much later after we have self driving cars hitting the road, as the cost and risk to operate one makes it unfeasible for the manufacturers to sell them at scale to the general public instead of operating their own ridesharing fleets.

Current cars aren't exactly designed for "leisure." In the future we will probably see more car designs centered around leisure such as sleeping, working, or eating.

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