# Uber Drivers' In SF, Phoenix And Pittsburgh Could Feel The Impact Of SDC's This Year



## tomatopaste (Apr 11, 2017)

This House unanimously approved the self driving car bill that gives manufacturers more leeway to test their vehicles by allowing the industry to put up to 100,000 vehicles on the road annually with exemptions from federal safety standards.

My guess is most of the 100,000 cars will go to cities already testing SDC's and are already 3D mapped; San Francisco, Phoenix and Pittsburgh. And into SDC rideshare systems already operational like; Uber, Google and Gm. If 33,000 SDC's go into each city, how will that affect current Uber drivers? The cars will still have a safety driver but the pax won't be taking a regular Uber. I'm not saying it's going to happen this year, but it could. All the pieces are in place.

https://www.ft.com/content/378cada4-934f-11e7-bdfa-eda243196c2c

Don't hate the Tomato, he's just the messenger.


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## RamzFanz (Jan 31, 2015)

I hadn't thought of it from this point of view. Excellent point.


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## tomatopaste (Apr 11, 2017)

RamzFanz said:


> I hadn't thought of it from this point of view. Excellent point.





RamzFanz said:


> I hadn't thought of it from this point of view. Excellent point.


What do they mean by exemptions from fed safety standards. Are they referring to the SDC part that's not fully tested? Cause I'm guessing they're going to use off the shelf cars like they're doing now.


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## Ayad (Jan 1, 2015)

If that's the case, it would nearly double the reported 37,000 rideshare cars in San Francisco. To solve that problem, a good percentage of the robots will likely be incorporated into the ridesharing industry. Part of the experiment would be rider input and opinion - not just seeing how well they navigate traffic.
This is another reminder for us to have an exit strategy.


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## RamzFanz (Jan 31, 2015)

tomatopaste said:


> What do they mean by exemptions from fed safety standards. Are they referring to the SDC part that's not fully tested? Cause I'm guessing they're going to use off the shelf cars like they're doing now.


So, twofold IIRC:

One is in the bill. They will not be held to crash safety standards but, as I understand it, it's for the road testing portion only, not live fleets.

When they open SDC TNC fleets they will probably use small and low speed electric cars in urban areas which are already exempt from crash safety standards.


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## tomatopaste (Apr 11, 2017)

Ayad said:


> If that's the case, it would nearly double the reported 37,000 rideshare cars in San Francisco. To solve that problem, a good percentage of the robots will likely be incorporated into the ridesharing industry. Part of the experiment would be rider input and opinion - not just seeing how well they navigate traffic.
> This is another reminder for us to have an exit strategy.


If they brought 33,000 self driving cars into SF, the driver part of Uber is over in San Francisco. It might take a few months until most pax feel comfortable with a SDC's but realize there will still be a human safety driver behind the wheel, so I think all but the most skittish will be willing to try it.

Plus after a few weeks they'll have real data to prove how safe it really is. Realize also they won't need 37,000 cars. Whether it's Uber or Google or GM, they'll see everything. They'll now exactly how many cars are needed at the Marriot at 4pm on an average Thursday and be able to stage the cars accordingly. Surge is moot at that point. And it's not up to Uber either. Google could bring 33k cars into SF and corner the rideshare market overnight.


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## jocker12 (May 11, 2017)

tomatopaste said:


> This House unanimously approved the self driving car bill that gives manufacturers more leeway to test their vehicles by allowing the industry to put up to 100,000 vehicles on the road annually with exemptions from federal safety standards.
> 
> My guess is most of the 100,000 cars will go to cities already testing SDC's and are already 3D mapped; San Francisco, Phoenix and Pittsburgh. And into SDC rideshare systems already operational like; Uber, Google and Gm. If 33,000 SDC's go into each city, how will that affect current Uber drivers? The cars will still have a safety driver but the pax won't be taking a regular Uber. I'm not saying it's going to happen this year, but it could. All the pieces are in place.
> 
> ...


Ooooops -
*The House approved a bill to put more self-driving cars on U.S. roads - **but the Senate will be another story** - *https://www.recode.net/2017/9/6/16259306/house-senate-self-driving-driverless-cars-autonomous
" Lawmakers still have to weigh measures to fund the government, raise the debt ceiling and pay for the relief efforts in Texas after Hurricane Harvey, if not another storm barreling toward Miami.

Amid all of that, the chamber still aims to tackle tax reform, at the urging of President Donald Trump. And it could turn unexpectedly to immigration, after Trump on Tuesday scrapped a program that protected young adults from deportation.

For its part, the Trump administration is expected to issue its own guidelines for self-driving cars as soon as next week. It's supposed to be an update of the voluntary safety checklist of sorts first issued under former President Barack Obama in 2016.

The agency, though, faces its own series of roadblocks. The Transportation Department's safety watchdog - the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration - still has no permanent director. Trump hasn't even nominated anyone to the post. *NHTSA, however, is tasked in the House's just-passed bill with writing new safety rules around the construction of self-driving cars.*

Meanwhile, a panel of industry executives advising the U.S. government on driverless-car technology *essentially has fallen apart under Trump. *The group hasn't met even once, sources told Recode."


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