There have been driverless metros since the 70s. China and Europe have both been making huge strides into self-driving intercity and high speed trains, with China using driverless bullet trains for the 2022 Olympics. China has also been doing a ton of work in the full self driving tram and bus space, with select systems already being field tested in urban cores.
But sure, keep talking about how your Tesla is so sheer space(x) age that it even overcomes the economies of scale of public transit.
Also, you know how the dream of every FSD car fan is to be able to hop in the backseet by your self and just fall asleep while the car drives? Guess what? I do that on my commute every day it’s great.
Also also, way easier and cheaper to retrofit FSD into existing trains and busses than the probably 100+ times higher number of existing private cars! And most trains and busses have a modular construction specifically for these kinds of upgrades while private cars are almost never upgraded during their service life!
I like the idea of using self driving cars as supplementary to a transit system to help with the last mile problem, with the assumption that they would be cheaper to run than taxis and such. Thinking of my own city, the inner areas have pretty solid coverage. Problem is, once you start going out into the suburbs the coverage can be really bad. Weekday only, infrequent, slow, or just sparse. Having a van that picks up a few people on an as-needed basis and drops them off at a transit stop makes a lot of sense.
You’re describing public transit though.
I absolutely am. I think public transit is excellent, but it’s obvious to me that the US has painted itself into the corner with shitty urban design. We need some way to ease into making car free living a real option. Going cold turkey is not going to work for most cities.
Having a van that picks up a few people on an as-needed basis and drops them off at a transit stop makes a lot of sense.
What I am saying is this right there should be a part of a public transit system.
Small vans and self-driving cars that help people from sprawled suburbs reach their subway or local rail lines, or a bigger avenue where big buses go, make all the sense as part of such a public transit system. As long as these cars/vans are community-managed like the rest of the public transit system, it makes perfect sense to me.
So it’s not about self-driving cars/vans vs. public transit, just as it’s not about buses vs. public transit or trains vs. public transit. The reason I reacted like I did is because your post makes it seem as if it is a “self-driving cars/vans vs. public transit”, is all. 🙂
Ah, gotcha. Just for some background for the future, I am very pro-transit, as well as pro-bike and pro-pedestrian. I’ve never owned a car despite having the financial means to and I have made housing decisions around not needing a car. Any ideas I espouse will be towards discouraging car dependency and encouraging transit usage, biking, and walking.
🤝
Car stans?
self driving car? oh yeah? how about you drive some bitches on yourself smh my head 🙄
