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Comment by throw_m239339 | Hacker News Reader

I remember quite well some people here claiming that Uber was just about to replace all their drivers with autonomous cars. It was back in 2015... we're in 2021.

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It’s happening in the year of Linux on the desktop.

We can invent something new : The year of the Linux driver

Or, "When Linux becomes your daily driver" ;)

and apple web notifications

Autonomous cars are more expensive than drivers; the only reason they dislike having real drivers is that they have a voice.

Over the long run there is no way that autonomous cars are more expensive

Depends on how often they crash.

Depends on how much more expensive autonomous car is. If such car is 1 million and regular is 100k and lifetime of both is 5 years you can pay more than 20 per hour to driver...

Creating an autonomous car in the first place is the expensive part, the marginal cost can’t be significantly higher than the cost of a regular car.

The hardware (ML chips, failsafe systems, LIDAR, radar, cameras, other sensors) isn't cheap. I'd expect an autonomous car to cost at least 5k-10k more if mass produced at a similar scale, and probably more than that in practice due to smaller numbers. Plus R&D of course.

autonomous cars have to exist before we can debate which is less expensive.

right now it's like debating which is less expensive unicorns or leprechauns.

Who's liable if the driver crashes?

Who's liable if the automated car crashes?

Uber doesn't want to be responsible for the risks associated with their reward.

> Who's liable if the driver crashes?

Depends. If the driver is judged to be an employee, the employer can be liable, depending on circumstances.

Extreme ends of the spectrum:

- Company didn’t and couldn’t know that the driver was too drunk/tired to drive

- Employee complained about working hours and traffic conditions; employer threatened employee with dismissal.

> Who's liable if the automated car crashes?

Again, depends. Could be the taxi company, the car owner, the manufacturer, even the driver (if they ignored zillions of warnings from the car, for example)

Often times an expensive machine with an expensive service contract that requires an expensive technician is often a lot more expensive than just hiring someone for minimum wage and offering zero benefits. It's why McDonalds has had technology to automate burger flipping since the invention of the integrated circuit but prefers to use cheaper part time labor instead to this day, and why car factories only started using more automation and reducing headcounts in factories only after labor unions began demanding better pay and benefits.

> replace all their drivers with autonomous cars.

And now, they have been given a huge incentive to do just that.

Way to foster innovation Dutch govt. !

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