The Future Of Autonomous Transport - Our Thoughts

"carwitter" (carwitter) 08/27/2016 at 20:29 • Filed to: autonomous transport, autonomous cars, driverless cars

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Turning up to a conference on autonomous transport in my home town, I’m sitting in a room listening to keynotes surrounded by middle aged men in ill-fitting suits.

I’m one of a handful of ‘youngsters’. It looks as though the future of connected transport is more in the hands of the last generation.

Naturally, that would be the case as big money is on the cards, fat bonuses and big pay cheques. Industry is at the heart of moving this forward, and there are at least three floating bald spots on my horizon as the conference begins…

But what if you could park out of town, or not even use your car to commute within your town think of the money saved. 20% of household outgoings are spent on transport in one way or another.

Imagine having a vehicle turn up to your front door at 7:30 am.

You get in, close the door and get driven along a pathway to the main road. Once you hit the main road the majority of vehicles you see are the same pods you are in.

All of these cars are connected, traffic flows smoother with timing at roundabouts and grid roads making the journey almost seamless.

You arrive at work, close the door and the pod drives off to pick another punter up.

Sounds good eh? Stress free travel to work, no sitting in traffic, no road rage and all for a small monthly fee.

We already have shopping deliveries which negates the need to actually go to a supermarket, so the car would be relegated to longer journeys, or pleasure trips.

There is talk of nobody owning a car, that manufacturers will be ‘providers of a service’ it’s all a bit bollocks to me.

I can’t see someone giving up the freedom of owning their own car, why would you move to a service based model where you have to bring in a third party and let them know when you require the use of a car.

If this had always been the case then yes, it would work. But that isn’t the case, people have been able to purchase their own automobile and will always want to do that.

For me I’m against driverless cars on the whole. But I enjoy driving. I take my car out just for the hell of it.

However, there will be a market for the serviced based model, people drive because they have to, they don’t enjoy it and see a car as a white good.

For this group of motorists a pay as you go, affordable loan scheme will be a revelation. But I don’t see it happening for many, many lifetimes.

Thoughts?

Birddog > carwitter 08/27/2016 at 20:38

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Alissa? Is that you?

nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul > carwitter 08/27/2016 at 20:40

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I’m not sure how I feel about autonomous driving to be honest. I feel like I’m at a 110% awareness when driving in moderate but flowing traffic - ready for the next idiot to try and occupy the same space as mine. I’d need to see how autonomous vehicles are able to cope with such instances. Then the whole does it put my vehicle into the wall or try to hold off the other vehicle?

I do however appreciate drift detection, adaptive cruise control and emergency braking. That’s enough autonomy without removing the driver.

The only fully automated transportation network I could believe in would be

And even they still had self-piloting vehicles on the roadways.

mazda616 > carwitter 08/27/2016 at 20:52

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What happens when I want the car to take my wife and infant son somewhere and it just previously hauled a prostitute and her “customer?” Or someone who did a line of cocaine across the dashboard? Or a group of kids was so drunk they puked everywhere? Or some deviant vandalized it and spray-painted curse words all over the place and one angry parent has their toddler ask them what “shit” means?

Those are all what comes to my mind when I think of these shared autonomous car blob thingys picking up random people all day. People are disgusting and they’ll always find a way to screw things up.

1111111111111111111111 > carwitter 08/27/2016 at 20:54

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I’m all in for electric and autonomous cars. I still don’t see myself subscribing to a service. I want to own it, and be able to hop in and let it sit as long as I want. Because I would own it means I have something invested, and could sell it. That’s why I don’t lease.

1111111111111111111111 > nFamousCJ - Keeper of Stringbean, Gengars and a Deezul 08/27/2016 at 20:58

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There are few things I enjoy more than driving. I would take an autonomous car no problem. I may go first gen. I know it sounds cross purposes, but I have a fun weekend car, and a commuter, hopefully soon a track car. If I could offload the commute and business trips that aren’t fun driving that’s a boon for me.

1111111111111111111111 > mazda616 08/27/2016 at 20:59

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I assume they will be surveillance. Also if your kid doesn’t know any swear words at 2 you’re doing it wrong.

Scott > mazda616 08/30/2016 at 07:51

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I suspect people that already use public transport where they live, would use such services, they would be accustom to the inconveniences. Those that do not, or that live in places where such kind of behavior is completely not tolerated and nobody does it, you might get a few people switching over. However those of us that simply don't use public transport, even when clean and nice, probably never will switch over.