Re:The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car
by gambiting on Tuesday May 12, 2015 @03:25AM
(#9530036)
I have many friends who buy cars from the $500-$1000 range and then drive them for a few years, fixing everything themselves using replacement parts. The cars are usually 15-20 years old. The insurance is $100-$200 a year. If they drive daily,do you think anyone will rent them a brand new, technology packed car for what is effectively $20 a month? HN lives in this bubble when everyone can afford a new car, or at least a lease on a car, but if you move slightly out of the 1st world countries(and by that I mean good countries with free healthcare, free education, but still with developing economies), you will find that for a lot of people $200 is half of their monthly salary. And yet those people drive their cars too. They don't live in poverty by any means, it's just that the standard of living is different than in the West.
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Re:The View from the Front Seat of the Google Self-Driving Car
by Houshalter on Tuesday May 12, 2015 @05:02PM
(#9534843)
>do you think anyone will rent them a brand new, technology packed car for what is effectively $20 a month?
Self driving cars won't always be new though. The price of the technology will drop rapidly as they become mass produced. And there will always an economic advantage to renting vs owning. The cost of the car is effectively divided over several people instead of one.