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Comment by seanmcdirmid | Hacker News Reader

You can already experience self driving cars by taking an Uber or a taxi, or being chauffeured if you are richer. None of that is new, the self driving aspect just promises to make those experiences perhaps more accessible (or at the very least, not less accessible than they are now). For example, I took a taxi to and from work every day when I lived in Beijing, which came to about 100 kuai/day for a 20-30 minute drive each way, which is affordable to a lot of people (although only possible due to cheap labor). I wouldn’t mind being driven to work here in the states, although it isn’t really economically feasible (and perhaps should be replaced with direct public transit if that was time competitive, which it isn’t, but could be).

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Yeah which I think the only remaining good application of self-driving car ( taxi ) doesn't bring that much convenient, since taxi here is already somewhat reasonably priced. I can't speak for the the US experience.

Also the article touches briefly on drivers going into jobless. A lot of drivers where i'm from seems to be retiring middle-old age working in taxi. I think it's a good job fit for them and I don't know how the new self-driving industry can provide the same thing (?)

A significant portion of taxi fares go to the driver, as opposed to the maintenance of cars. There are other marginal benefits such as making the driver's seat available, eliminating the driver's commute and as well as the risk of criminal driver behaviour, that probably offsets some of the drawbacks of having one fewer human being dealing with rare, complex non-driving situations such as a pregnant woman having to give birth in the car.

The economic benefit is significant to companies building self-driving cars, good enough to pursue if the tech is within reach. But to your point it's indeed much less of an improvement compared to various historical automation technologies that create >10x incremental efficiency gains.

Labor is becoming more expensive, even in the developed world. Eventually, people will want to do more productive things that drive a taxi for a little bit of money.

There is an argument for traffic optimization that will be possible when self driving taxis are common, but this is more of an argument also for the developing world where traffic is a much larger problem than the developed world (e.g. LA traffic is nothing compared to Beijing traffic).

I just look forward to a lifestyle in the states compared to the one I had back when I was living in China.

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