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Alice
@AliceFromQueens
Self-driving cars are like the new weight loss drugs Their value is so large, so obvious, and so scalable, that we can confidently predict their triumph regardless of knee-jerk cultural resistance and their wildly exaggerated downsides.
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Ethan Mollick
@emollick
It seems like there is not enough of a policy response to the fact that, with 57M miles of data, Waymo’s autonomous vehicles experience 85% less serious injuries & 79% less injuries overall than cars with human drivers. 2.4 million are injured & 40k killed in US accidents a year
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David Watson 🥑
Aaron Erickson
@AaronErickson
Waymo doesn't demand a tip, doesn't drive like an asshole, and doesn't involve "rating your customers" badly if you have the audacity to give less than 5 stars after the human driver nearly runs over 7 pedestrians while they are sending tweets while driving
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Jimmy Gandhi
@jimmygandhi
Self driving cars means we don't need High-Speed rail and they should be incorporated into a public transit.
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Jimmy Gandhi
@jimmygandhi
Replying to @ejzim and @antoniogm
Instead of high speed rail we ought to have highways that only self-driving cars can use and they drive at min 120 miles per hour.
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David Murphy
@ByDavidMurphy
One big question is whether our infrastructure can handle a rapid shift to self-driving. Especially if personal vehicles can drop people off at work and return home, thereby eliminating the need for parking. Think it through
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Alice
@AliceFromQueens
insurance costs will figure but the charge could easily be tucked into the price of the car and carried by the manufacturer who is actually "driving"
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John Thacker
@Thackej
I mean, I'd say that about port automation, but here we are in the US thanks to the Longshoremen. I won't completely count out the ability of unions to make life terrible for the masses and slow adoption.
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Alice
@AliceFromQueens
Is there a powerful union of suburban commuters whose livelihoods depend on doing no work for 3hrs a day while staring at traffic?
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Srsly tho
@srsjeff
Not sure about the "scalable" part. Waymo can't surge. They have a set number of cars. So, they can only take a piece of the market. For Waymo to fully take over from Uber & Lyft would require a lot of redundant cars sitting idle most of the time to be available for peak times.
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Francesca Langer
@ChessieLanger
self-driving cars are like the most depressing technology ever; if the future is cars and not trains, then how is it even the future? what’s even the point?
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Alice
@AliceFromQueens
To move ppl from place to place more efficiently and cheaply than cars do now. And to improve the lives of ppl who have to drive cars to get to work or for their work
Zach Baguette
@BaugherZach
I know for a fact that the car community will still exist, and over time become a steady but minority group among those who have cars. Is there a modern equivalent to this? Maybe the horse lovers?
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Ian
@ian_engstrom
It seems probable that car ownership will become much less common in cities. Ppl will switch to flat fee driverless car subscriptions. Cars will show up in minutes and it'll be a lot cheaper than what folks currently spend on their car payment+insurance+maintenance+parking.
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David R
@RangerDave2001
If a kid runs in front of my car, will the Waymo algorithm run steer me into a fatal collision to spare the child or just run him down? What if it’s an adult & my own kid is in the car w/ me? How much passenger risk will Waymo accept to avoid hitting a dog? How about a squirrel?
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Alice
@AliceFromQueens
Yeah dude no one has ever thought of that before. What a brave new point that will upend the industry
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Michael Babich 🇺🇦
@MichaelBabich
Vanity stats. For decades, this technology can't get there. Applications are limited to very particular areas in very specific traffic and weather conditions. It'd take another decade at least for the tech to be remotely ready. Not to mention it makes zero economic sense now.
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My pet 🦂 Scorpion, Skippy, gives great Noogies.
@OhHellsBells
Cars without drivers still require getting accustomed to. While I accept data in defense of their safety records, I’m also somewhat leery of not seeing a person behind the wheel. I am open to my current leeriness lessening the more I research the benefits of autonomous vehicles.
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My pet 🦂 Scorpion, Skippy, gives great Noogies.
@OhHellsBells
I do not see autonomous vehicles’ benefits being directly analogous to slimming drugs, primarily because no motor vehicle will result in one looking better & being healthier, whereas Ozempic (which has cardiovascular & blood pressure benefits, too) has resulted in both.
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Alice
@AliceFromQueens
There’s a difference between an analogy and an equivalence. Do you need me to explain what that is?
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bears43
@bears_43
I don’t disagree, but this study is absurd. Comparing Waymo taxis ferrying tech workers at 15mph in a small set of well mapped cities in pristine conditions vs all traffic fatalities which include high speed freeways, semi trucks, hazardous weather, etc.
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Colin is tormented by the nothingness
@musicalcolin
In SF we have Waymo. But to me they feel like more like a gimmick than anything else. Most people have cars, if you don't have a car you take a bus, and if you need to get somewhere faster you take an uber. Not sure what waymo adds other than something fun to show to tourists
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Alice
@AliceFromQueens
Not necessarily. Hub and spoke w trains will still make sense where trains are already useful. In a city where just about everyone commutes by car already there won’t be a significant change.
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