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Exel0n t1_iwbpvj2 wrote

Reply to comment by rodchenko in Waymo’s driverless taxis keep making incremental progress, while others flounder by AdmiralKurita

the average car spent like 90% of the time parked. a AV is active most of the time. average human-driven car are way way more wasteful of resources than AV.

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Boxofcookies1001 t1_iwbqmnn wrote

Yeah autonomous vehicles won't lower overall emissions but it will increase the efficiency of car usage and space utilization.

Now if they move to electric AVs this will be a huge game changer.

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noitstoolate t1_iwbww9h wrote

Which seems like a no brainier if this is a business. EVs are both cheaper to operate and cheaper to maintain. Assuming the break even time is less than the service life of the vehicle, it would be a good business move to go to electric.

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Unshkblefaith t1_iwcfr26 wrote

They would only improve space utilization in terms of parking. You still need the roadways, which are more problematic in terms of space, maintenance, and walkability of cities. Then you also need to account for the increased production and maintenance costs associated with replacing parts like this and drivetrain components on vehicles that are active for most of the day.

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Unshkblefaith t1_iwce7yu wrote

Increasing the up-time isn't necessarily a good thing. That just increases energy usage and wear on wearable parts like tires, drive trains, etc. Cars aren't just inefficient because of down time. Hell parking is only one of their space considerations. Roadways are a significantly more important space consideration in which low- occupant cars are highly inefficient. This is because roadways replace walkable areas for pedestrian traffic.

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rodchenko t1_iwg4u6e wrote

Can you imagine trying to walk around a city with millions of autonomous cars constantly driving around?? Horrible! Like you say, there's the tire wear (and that rubber doesn't just disappear), but also the noise. I can't think of a future I'd like to live in less.

The alternative; an efficient underground metro, trams and buses, safe bike and walking, it would be so peaceful and lovely!

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rodchenko t1_iwg4h68 wrote

So a fleet of driverless cars constantly driving around a city... How do humans exist outside of a car in this situation, with constant traffic flow? Also, how many cars per citizen, on average? Let's say a city of 5 million people, are there 2.5 million cars constantly driving around??

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