Quote:
Originally Posted by Chief Pagan
Non-ownership, self-driving cars could be really transformative.
If you are no longer buying a car based on: well sometimes I need to carry five people and all this stuff and drive it up in the mountains and since I own it, it's part of my identity so I should get a big ass SUV/Truck etc.
I usually work from home and to the extent I ever commute, it is only about 15 minutes. But if I had some commute that was pushing up against an hour or something, and I was being picked up in a single occupancy vehicle (which is a separate discussion). It really only needs to have a single seat that folds back flat like a first class airline, but the car could be relatively small since it only needs to hold one person and not much stuff. I would plan on sleeping, nodding off in the morning. On the way back home, would probably recline back and spend it on my phone/tablet like I would on a plane.
For going to the grocery store or something involving family, yea you would order something larger. But unless the ride sharing is actually, like going to involve sharing rides, a lot of cars could both be small but have one, large comfortable seat.
The thing that worries me about the on demand car, is it not actually being there when I really want it. Like when there is a forest fire or flood, I want to have a car in my driveway that is mine, that I know I can drive away in. Not a 'sorry, we aren't going to drive any of our cars into that to pick you up'.
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Having my own car would also be really good if I slice my hand open cutting watermelon and need to get to an emergency room. But I guess we already have vehicles for that situation, and we call them ambulances.
So yeah, maybe it's big disasters that are the impetus for that. But in that case maybe you keep a scooter in the garage.
The life you're describing seems awesome. And you're right - you could have different sizes of autonomous vehicles that you can call if you're one-person commuting or going out to dinner with the wife or needing to bring drywall home from the store.
I'd also be thrilled to have a self-driving car for long road trips. It would be even better than a train because I could pull over at will.
This needs to happen.