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To: jiggyboy
There are several issues that get conflated. A rapidly increasing number of young people (and some retirees) in urban areas are finding it practical to dispense with their cars and rely on Uber and Lyft. This is interesting because we have always had taxis. The speed and reliability of taxi service, however, has been so spotty that most people preferred their own cars. Uber and Lyft seem to have upgraded quality and reliability to the point that people are willing to trust them as primary transportation. Whether that will continue as government regulators start to milk the cash cow remains to be seen.

As to self-driving cars: it will be interesting. If the density of the on-call fleet is such that a car will reliably appear at your door within a couple of minutes, do you really want to undergo the expense of a personal automobile? The self-driving car will still take you anywhere you want to go.

7 posted on 02/04/2018 9:48:02 AM PST by sphinx
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To: sphinx
do you really want to undergo the expense of a personal automobile?

Maybe I do, maybe I don't. But I want that option, and I don't want that option cut just because that makes life a little sweeter for (future) Big Auto. Do I want to heat my house with wood? Do I want to cook my own food? Do I want to pump my own gas? Do I want to paint my own house?

The self-driving car will still take you anywhere you want to go.

Unless / until:
- I slowly roll to a stop, or don't slow to a stop at all, because a bug or virus in the software in the car or in "the intelligent road" says so.
- Somebody figures out how much fun it is to broadcast fake or noise laser / lidar / radar / whatever signals to every car on Highway X for five minutes, either causing a crash in front of me, or me being in that crash.
- Some state or local or federal computer decides that I am the same Mr. Jiggy Boy who didn't pay his taxes or child support / is now on the Terrorist Watchlist / has violated parole / died yesterday / etc. (NB: One of these mistakes has happened to me.)
- Same but for my car: it's reported as the getaway car in a bank robbery / is overdue for maintenance / is owned by an Amber Alert guy / etc.
You get the idea.

12 posted on 02/04/2018 10:14:56 AM PST by jiggyboy (Ten percent of poll respondents are either lying or insane)
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