Monday, Oct. 2, 2023
38th edition of the 11th year of SmartDrivingCars eLetter
Why Driverless Cars Are a Tough Sell
C. Friedersdif, Sept. 27, "Last week, I asked for your thoughts on self-driving cars.
Replies have been edited for length and clarity….
"Our century-long love affair with all things automotive dooms the driverless concept to a niche market," one reader argues…." Read more
Hmmmm… Maybe for those who are able to "Home Depot" (or do it themselves) their mobility…For the many, many others who need a ride and can't "Do it Themselves" for whatever reason (who are responsible for about 500 million personTrips each day), a driverless vehicle that provides a good ride is an enormous market opportunity whose ease and affordability might even make the "Do it Themselves-er" ask "what the heck have I been doing burdening myself with the capX, parking, fueling, headaches???" Looking beyond the market opportunity and societal benefits, we take issue (again) with the premise that driverless vehicles are/should be intended for private, single-family ownership. We push against the notion that these potentially-life changing modes of transport should be positioned as just another luxury good for the 1%. Also, is it really accurate to refer to a "century-long love affair with all things automotive"? Or have capitalist forces compelled us to believe we love paying for, maintaining, driving, etc our own cars? I expected more from The Atlantic. Alain
Driverless cars a tough sell? Not to people who need mobility. That's Alain's response to a piece in The Atlantic. Plus Mercedes Drive Pilot, Uber plays nice with taxi industry, Teamsters oppose Cruise Origin, Tesla, Microsoft and May Mobility. And Alain shares his IATR presentation- Modernizing the Giving of Rides. 0:00 open 0:41 The Atlantic ...
Hmmmm… First, we pray for a speedy recovery for this victim in this still developing story that is unfortunately all too common. A human driver strikes "launches" a pedestrian to the adjacent lane. Rather than stop to provide aid, the human driver flees the scene. Two serious, irresponsible, illegal and outrageous misbehaviors by a human. The mise-en-scene is having the driverless car immediately braking with full force trying to mitigate the situation, and, of course, not leaving the scene.
This one strikes home because a similar incident killed one of my relatives many years ago as a human tailgater startled a young driver who hit my relative in a crosswalk knocking her to the side. The tailgater screamed past the startled car, ran over my relative and took off. A driverless car would not have been tailgating, would not have been startled, would not have screamed past in the opposite lane. Also, worth reading... "" Alain
Uber and taxis have historically not gotten along. This is an understatement.
www.theverge.com
➤ Tesla has released Q3-23 delivery and production numbers