Who will own these self-driving, electric cars? If you own one personally, it could drive you to work and back. A great experience, but parking it during the night and day is inefficient. The car could drive around other people during the 95% of the time you don’t use it.
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[…] (3) From status objects to shared vehicles removes the brand advantage. (4) From personal ownership to shared fleets undoes the dealer sales network. This pretty much just leaves them with their manufacturing capability (which we shouldn’t underestimate).
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Let’s pause for a moment and recap what we have so far: (1) People want cheaper, faster, and safer transport. (2) Self-driving, electric cars will outperform manual gasoline ones. […]
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[…] (3) Sharing a self-driving car will be cheaper than owning one. (4) Leasing companies will own car fleets which will be available through sharing platforms. (5) It’s unlikely existing car brands will win the market in this new world.
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Now that we have self-driving cars, what else will change? For one, the roads will be different. Once all cars are self-driving, we don’t need road signage or markings anymore. Traffic lights will be a thing of the past. Good digital maps are how self-driving cars navigate.pic.twitter.com/DnzbAhx7c5
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As time progresses, governments will understand that building a road is half their job and publishing live data about it the other half. Access to the location, condition, utilization, and speed limits of each road in the past, present, and future will be baseline expectation.pic.twitter.com/W3fqaV88MP
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Cars will use cameras, lidar, and radar to see the next 200m, but need external information to know what is happening kilometers away. Road owners can provide this by using phone triangulation and video detection.pic.twitter.com/29SgbRBwO2
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Cars will also need to know what other cars are doing and intending to do. This requires a communication channel (like Wifi-P) and information standard (yet to be defined).
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My bet is on 1-way (think UDP), as opposed to 2-way (like TCP), data transfer between vehicles as well as with the road. No manufacturer wants a crash “because the road didn’t respond” or “the other car gave me the wrong information.” Cars need to be as independent as possible.pic.twitter.com/TKgnIbhzN5
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On-demand cars on smart roads also means every person’s trip history will be stored, for as much as sharing platforms require identification.
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These self-driving cars will also religiously follow traffic rules, as it will speed up the overall system and governments will make it part of their certification process.
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No need to speed anyway, as self-driving cars react faster than humans and can thus go faster.pic.twitter.com/r28cPHdkz2
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This does bring us to the point of regulation. Many observers point out that it might be the single largest stumbling block for full autonomy, though I’m hopeful.
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People and companies in your place will see the personal benefits of self-driving cars once a neighboring city, state, or country allows for it. That creates competitive pressure to update regulation. Governments are slow, but this will move faster than you think.
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Governments will want to certify that self-driving cars are “safe,” which honestly will be an industry itself. Most of these cars will use some form of machine learning, so we likely need simulations as opposed to formal verification.
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Once regulation is adjusted, there will be a transition phase with mixed manual/self-driving traffic. This will make self-driving look worse than it really is, because the manual traffic is less predictable. We honestly can’t do much about it (see investments needed above).
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Trucks will be the first ones to go autonomous, because their usage can be limited to the relatively easy confines of highways and companies are willing to put up with those limitations.pic.twitter.com/C0QdEUyOpf
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Picture container depots at city edges and self-driving trucks shuttling between them. An extension of what’s already happening in ports.pic.twitter.com/RIXY8Mj6We
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Over time, cars will be able to navigate the more complicated inner cities with their pedestrians, bikes, and other traffic. This is where things will get really interesting.
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For one, more people will start using cars for trips than ever before, as the price will be low compared to other transport modes. We will run headlong into the Jevons paradox of improved efficiency causing usage increase. (Which makes the above $900b investment conservative)pic.twitter.com/cYY7MynviU
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A big turning point will be once self-driving cars are cheaper than mass rail transport (tram, metro, train). The average per mile cost in the UK is £0.31 for cars vs £0.16 for trains now, so we need a 50% drop.
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In the Netherlands, 10% of commuters take public transport and 50% go by car. In the United Kingdom, 15% go by train/bus and 70% by car. Roads will have to support 20% more cars if everyone would switch.pic.twitter.com/L5bi0iiRQG
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The transport of choice for commuting changes dramatically if you look at cities instead of countries. In New York City, 60% go by public transport and 30% by car. In London, 50% take public transport and 30% go by car.pic.twitter.com/nq9BdZhnDo
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Sharing platforms will likely get 30% of people to pool during peak hours through price incentives. Self-driving cars will also be able to drive much closer, more consistently, and faster. Which probably increases road throughput with another 50%.
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The 30% carpooling and 50% road throughput increase should more than offset the 20% inter-city car usage increase. And cities will need a bit more work. Long live the roads we already have!pic.twitter.com/DSeBAEGwu2
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The majority of public transport needs will be covered by car sharing platforms. Though there will still be a role for governments to incentivize coverage in low utilization/high-cost areas (i.e., rural).
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Car sharing platforms can cover off-peak hours with regular capacity, and peak hours through carpooling and supply positioning. Demand super peaks, like natural disaster evacuations, are a challenge though. Will that be solved through capacity redistribution between areas?
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Besides people switching from other modes of transport to cars, we will have new use cases for car transport. No more shuttling teenagers to football games. Elderly can see their grandchildren more often.
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It’s also a question what people will do during these autonomous trips. Current rail transport (tram, metro, train) is likely a good comparison — especially for carpool trips. Expect lots of smartphone usage.pic.twitter.com/gi9tnbaV0R
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As cars get smarter and accident rates go down, we will be able to get rid of airbags and seatbelts. This would completely open up in-car design and likely trend towards minimal and utilitarian furniture, as leasing companies optimize for cost.
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Current public transport is likely the closest comparison for future self-driving car interiors. Low-cost, easy to maintain, and space efficient. All the things fleet operators love.pic.twitter.com/YQl4bLckTJ
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