# Self-driving pods are slow, boring, and weird-looking — and that’s a good thing - LOL



## jocker12 (May 11, 2017)

When self-driving cars first entered the public conscious seven or eight years ago, the assumption was that ride-hailing and taxi services were the most obvious application. Take a normal car, add cameras and high-tech sensors, stuff some GPUs in the trunk, remove the driver, and presto! Instant future. The predictions were predictably pie-in-the-sky. One study projected that autonomous vehicles will create a massive economic opportunity that will scale from $800 billion in 2035 to $7 trillion by 2050. These cars were just going to print money for companies like Google and Uber.

But recently, much of that hype has collided with the reality that self-driving cars will take much longer to hit the road than previously thought. Public support for the technology has waned in the wake of a fatal crash involving a self-driving Uber vehicle last March. A bill that would allow for the sale and deployment of hundreds of thousands of self-driving vehicles is stalled in the US Senate, and it's not expected to pass anytime soon. Many critics now say that self-driving cars are stuck in the "trough of disillusionment," a reference to the "Hype Cycle" popularized by research firm Gartner.

So while we wait for the driverless revolution to fully manifest, these small, painfully slow shuttle pods are a positive sign of what's to come. For decades, driving has been synonymous with high speeds on the open road, and the tens of thousands of traffic deaths that occur each year were dismissed as the byproduct of unfettered vehicular freedom._ *(No, the danger comes from driver's and pedestrians lack of education.)*_

If we're serious about eliminating those deaths, then we need to psychologically prepare ourselves for urban transportation that's slower, safer, more boring(LOL), and a lot more like public transportation. As cities increasingly look to these services to attract employers, hopefully they will incentivize transit agencies to make real improvements to our bus and rail systems. Because self-driving technology that doesn't work in concert with public transportation isn't a revolution worth fighting for.

The entire article at https://www.theverge.com/2018/9/17/17859112/self-driving-cars-shuttle-pods-delivery-services


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

lol so basically they're saying "sdc's suck and that's a good thing"

ok, got it


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## goneubering (Aug 17, 2017)

They think urban transportation that’s SLOWER is a good thing??!!


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## jocker12 (May 11, 2017)

uberdriverfornow said:


> lol so basically they're saying "sdc's suck and that's a good thing"
> 
> ok, got it





goneubering said:


> They think urban transportation that's SLOWER is a good thing??!!


Yeah, they try to associate "slow" with "safe". Problem is nobody likes slow, because if they would've liked it, cars would have been a failure from the very beginning, and walking would have been the norm.

Some shills around here try to say a car with a driver it would be too expensive in the future (as a rideshare option), while a self driving pod will be cheap and affordable and slow, ignoring how cheap service attracts cheap and most of the times, destructive customers. The more they'll use self slow driving pods, the more disappointed and irritated they will be by the slow performance (in a way shoving them in their faces how their are being discriminated because of their poverty), the more likely they will trash the stupid robots, the more money the robot owners will need to spend with repairing or cleaning costs.

It is a vicious circle.


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## goneubering (Aug 17, 2017)

jocker12 said:


> Yeah, they try to associate "slow" with "safe". Problem is nobody likes slow, because if they would've liked it, cars would have been a failure from the very beginning, and walking would have been the norm.
> 
> Some shills around here try to say a car with a driver it would be too expensive in the future (as a rideshare option), while a self driving pod will be cheap and affordable and slow, ignoring how cheap service attracts cheap and most of the times, destructive customers. The more they'll use self slow driving pods, the more disappointed and irritated they will be by the slow performance (in a way shoving them in their faces how their are being discriminated because of their poverty), the more likely they will trash the stupid robots, the more money the robot owners will need to spend with repairing or cleaning costs.
> 
> It is a vicious circle.


Too slow = More road rage!! We know SDCs are already hated in Chandler.


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## uberdriverfornow (Jan 10, 2016)

jocker12 said:


> Yeah, they try to associate "slow" with "safe". Problem is nobody likes slow, because if they would've liked it, cars would have been a failure from the very beginning, and walking would have been the norm.
> 
> Some shills around here try to say a car with a driver it would be too expensive in the future (as a rideshare option), while a self driving pod will be cheap and affordable and slow, ignoring how cheap service attracts cheap and most of the times, destructive customers. The more they'll use self slow driving pods, the more disappointed and irritated they will be by the slow performance (in a way shoving them in their faces how their are being discriminated because of their poverty), the more likely they will trash the stupid robots, the more money the robot owners will need to spend with repairing or cleaning costs.
> 
> It is a vicious circle.


yep, most people like going the speed limit which can also be safe


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