A Week with Chauffeurs Showed the Major Flaw in a Self-Driving Car Future
Here&#x27;s what this research tells me: demand for transportation is much higher than the current use of transportation.<p>Current use is limited by cost and convenience.<p>Self-driving car is likely to fix both so it&#x27;ll lead to more use of transportation.<p>This is a good thing. We&#x27;re currently deprived and if things go well, we&#x27;ll get more of what we want.<p>The congestion problem is mostly overblown.<p>First, maybe with rare exceptions like L.A., the traffic is only bad during rush hour, when people are going to work and getting back home. Other times there&#x27;s plenty.<p>Second, the way we drive currently is very inefficient. Just last weak I was walking in San Diego along a street at ~5:30 PM i.e. rush hour.<p>I just eyeballed but ~80% cars were single person.<p>Not to mention that ~40% cars were gigantic, because it looks that if people can afford gigantic cars, they&#x27;ll  buy them. And in US they can afford it.<p>Robotaxis would fix those 2 issues.<p>The cars would no longer be an expression of personality and a status symbol but a utility operated by an organization focused on practicality and cost, like buses and trains.<p>It&#x27;s also very easy to use pricing to force people to use the available resources efficiently during congestion.<p>Let&#x27;s say a ride is $10 if you drive in a car alone. $5 if you share with another person and $3 if you share it with 2+ people.<p>If that pricing delta is not enough, increase the price of to $20 (vs $3) or to $50.<p>Or provide commuting passes tho employers (kind of like Google buses) where a company pays a $100 to robotaxi company per month and the employee gets to use it for free for commute, but only in shared mode.<p>The future with robotaxis is much brighter than those doomsday prediction of traffic.