Americans will do anything but invest in transit. It's been shown over and over again that simple electrified rail is by far the most cost effective, green, and efficient transit solution.

The great thing about robo-taxis is that they don't actually solve a problem. If I showed somebody two images of inner city traffic jams, they wouldn't be able to tell me which is humans driving gas engine'd cars, and which is self driving electric vehicles.

> If I showed somebody two images of inner city traffic jams, they wouldn't be able to tell me which is humans driving gas engine'd cars, and which is self driving electric vehicles.

The city with self-driving cars will economically outperform the city with human-driven gas cars.

Just like America economically outperforms Europe. The best and brightest from Europe/cities with manual human drivers will leave their dying cities behind and move to the futuristic, inspiring, and highly-compensating self-driving car city/America.

Europeans are upset that America is getting away with treating the underprivileged so poorly, yet America constantly outperforms Europe $-wise. And yes, everything in life is about $.

America with good public transit would definitely outperform dollar-wise America without it.

China is investing heavily in robotaxis too, and also has active deployments in large cities (which also have transit). I'm not sure why you're trying to make this about Americans.

> The great thing about robo-taxis is that they don't actually solve a problem. If I showed somebody two images of inner city traffic jams, they wouldn't be able to tell me which is humans driving gas engine'd cars, and which is self driving electric vehicles.

They absolutely solve problems. They just don't solve the one particular problem you mentioned. For example, they solve the problem that cities don't have enough parking spaces.

Trains do not solve last mile.

Last mile I can walk/cycle.

Just get rid of traffic jams and 9 lane highways, and diesel emissions.

Trains would actually sort a great deal if the network is wide enough and frequent enough.

Not everyone can walk and cycle. I am glad you can.

> Last mile I can walk/cycle

You can, but can everyone else? I see quite a few disabled, seniors and pregnant people on trains. Not to mention people who are exhausted from their day.

Their point might be, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good, perhaps. I was in Seoul, South Korea recently, and their public transit was simply insane. could get anywhere in the city with merely at most a 2 minute walk away from both my current location to the bus/train stop, and the end bus/train stop to my intended destination. For transit to longer areas, there were trains every 30 minutes at least to for example the coast from the center of the country.

I saw plenty of disabled and elderly and they all were able to take the buses and trains, and they used a cab for the last mile.

In contrast in the US, we don't have the transit at all, unless you live in a city like NYC, we just use cars everywhere.

> Their point might be, don't let the perfect be the enemy of the good, perhaps.

Agreed, we should be making it easier and more convenient to take mass transit instead of driving. If improving last mile transit options beyond walking/biking helps to get more people out of cars and onto trains, that's a good thing. We just need to make sure we build enough mass transit to support that use case.

I welcome any and all efforts by our local governments to build better bus, subway, and train infra. Any day now…

Yeah, if you don't factor in needing the government to build trains.

I know the US has sucky trains, but commuter rail in Massachusetts is not electrified, so it is pretty dirty. I also recall a study of diesel busses running regularly scheduled routes. Because the load factor over the whole day is low, buses do not save much if any fuel or emissions.

Solving the above problems plus being on-demand and door to door is a huge benefit.

THIS

This is correct, but public transit is a sort of political matter so will take a lengthy time to take off. Which is a sad portrait of modern American politics.

Over a long enough run, maybe, but the roads already exist. You don't need eminent domain, debt-financed billion-dollar public works projects, and years of disruption to existing urban transportation corridors to install rail.

On the other hand, at least making some of these driverless buses or common-destination carpool shuttles would be more efficient over any span than single-passenger coupes.

These aren't meant to compete with trains. They're meant to get you from the train station to your actual destination.