Re:Waymo: Google's self-driving car company
by shimon on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @03:29PM
(#13170657)
In the shorter term, there are still huge efficiencies to be gained with smarter ride sharing. Imagine if something like uberpool served a majority of car commuters instead of a tiny fraction... you could get a lot of cars off the road but still provide a very high level of service.
Re:Waymo: Google's self-driving car company
by semi-extrinsic on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @06:15PM
(#13172194)
Or, wait, what if we made the car really long and put in even more passengers per driver? It might even have a pre-determined schedule and be pretty cheap?
Re:Waymo: Google's self-driving car company
by bambax on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @06:30PM
(#13172310)
Trains won't stop in front of your house.
Re:Waymo: Google's self-driving car company
by dragonwriter on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @06:49PM
(#13172468)
No, but busses can be pretty close, and shared vans actually will. I suspect those are closer than trains to what the grandparent post was referencing.
Re:Waymo: Google's self-driving car company
by jmilloy on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @03:50PM
(#13170850)
So all the cars also drive back out of the city around 9am and back in again around 3pm? That sounds like more cars on the road (over the course of a day) rather than less.
Re:Waymo: Google's self-driving car company
by dragonwriter on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @03:55PM
(#13170905)
It's more cars on the road per car trip, but fewer car trips per person per day for the reasons already explained upthread.
Re:Waymo: Google's self-driving car company
by jmilloy on Tuesday December 13, 2016 @04:21PM
(#13171163)
Upthread I see arguments for why there won't be many fewer cars, because everyone still needs to get to/from work and they do that at roughly the same time. Ride-sharing is what helps. Parking outside of the city has nothing to with demand for cars.
Initially, no, but long-term you can move much parking to cheaper places around the periphery of the urban area rather than needing a parking spot where people live, one where they work, and fractions everywhere else they might go. So sustainable density of everything that isn't parking spaces in the city core goes up, walkability and transit access improve, so the cars/people ratio drops.