Sometimes I wonder why the tech industry invests so much on self-driving cars. What issue is it trying to solve really? Is it to create safer roads for people to drive? Is it to allow people to do whatever they want while they are stuck in a 2 hr commute traffic? You know what existing form of transportation that solves these issues? Public transportation. Why not invest more in high quality trains and buses? Why not invest more on these infrastructure? Sincerely, a techie. #tech #av
To create more tech jobs and use up that VC money
This is basically it. Turning your car into a platform for those thick SaaS bucks by letting R2D2 keep you from getting arrested for DUI.
yeah, public transportation won't create the next trillion-dollar valuated unicorn, and that's the only goal that these companies are pursuing. It's not about solving a problem, it's about making money.
BeCaUsE i WaNt To LiVe In A sCi-Fi MoViE
If we had actual self driving cars that worked perfectly it would be life changing. You could just go to sleep and wake up anywhere you wanted. Car design could be completely rethought. If properly implemented it could be the most important invention of the last 20 years. It’s just really hard to actually do.
It would be really cool if you could even fit more than one person, and there could be a cafe and bathroom too. Oh wait…
We’d need self driving for Mars, it’s a multi decade process, hold tight
Self driving cars could be vastly more efficient. They can safely travel faster, closer, and work together to optimize and reduce traffic. Will they is another question though... Public transportation sucks. With the exception of few densely populated cities it's inconvenient and simply doesn't work.
Tell me you know nothing about civil engineering without telling me you know nothing about civil engineering.
Ehh let him/her have it...obviously New is an expert on civil engineering 🙄
Because you still have to get to public transit and are frequently exposed to unpleasant people on it
Unpleasant people are everywhere. Especially on the roads. Driving next to you. Jesus, how do you have a job with such smooth-brain takes?
Yes but in your own car you don't have to interact with crazy people. When you take any public transportation in America there is always one homeless or crazy person yelling or attacking people. Go to new York city and take the subway and see it for yourself.
Self driving cars will become public transportation itself soon enough
There were self driving buses as public transportation in Japan during the Olympics.
agree but an infrastructure for these buses need to exists first. cant really just slap that self driving functionality out of nowhere lol
It is to not have to pay salaries and benefits to human employees for running a fleet of delivery and taxi operations. Some retail customers may also find it safer alternate to driving, but for now those customers are the only way to gather massive amounts of training data for future generations of self driving vehicles.
you really haven’t thought about this much have you?
Enlighten us
Try to find scenarios to land and monetize AI technologies
@Confluent, mind referring?
You are like a few years late to this discussion. This debate was raging a few years and now I feel like no one cares that much about self driving cars anymore
Not even waymo cares?
I mean of course companies are still working on it but the topic is not so much the rage as it was just few years ago. Like there was so much hype for Cruise, Argo and many others who’s names I’m forgetting. Probably the pandemic and also Teslas failure to deliver caused it to drop off public interest