Re:Driverless Hype Collides with Merciless Reality
by slavik81 on Friday September 14, 2018 @06:31AM
(#17986112)
> all we'd achieve is cooler taxis
I think you underestimate the impact of ubiquitous, free valet parking on urban design. We surround everything with parking to minimize walking distance to/from our vehicles, but you could organise things very differently if everyone was picked up and dropped off.
You could also park cars bumper-to-bumper, because you don't need trusted human drivers to move the cars boxing you in. Removing isles from the parking lot would nearly double the number of cars that could fit in a given space.
It's counter-intuative, but I think driverless cars may eventually make cities more walkable.
City driving is a hard problem space, and all we'd achieve is cooler taxis.
The real game changer is instead driverless trucks.
Shipping is both a trillion dollar industry, and the problem space of "highway driving when it is sunny out" is much much easier than the consumer usecase, while still being extremely valuable.