Waymo teams up with Jaguar to intro a new, premium self-driving car

Re:Waymo teams up with Jaguar to intro a new, premium self-d... by rifung on Wednesday March 28, 2018 @01:31AM (#16695577)

> the real ultimate benefit of mass transit that taxis can never replicate is _thoroughput_ in a dense area

But what if in the far future people stop owning cars and so everyone is hailing a self driving car? Perhaps then there would be enough people that you would almost always carpool? Would buses still be necessary then? I'm sure they'd still make sense in some cases but I can also see some bus stops being replaced

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Re:Waymo teams up with Jaguar to intro a new, premium self-d... by galdosdi on Wednesday March 28, 2018 @11:02AM (#16698191)

Yes, they still would in places like Manhattan and Tokyo, but you're right that they wouldn't be necessary in many other high but still not super high density places.

Even assuming 4 people to a sedan, the space needed for the engine and the safe following distance makes the density very low compared to a bus/train that is long and can have people standing packed in.

4 people to a sedan only gives you a factor of 4 improvement, which is just not enough for places like Manhattan or Tokyo. They would still need to build a dozen down from like 50.

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