# So The Driverless Car Can Drive....But Can It Sit?



## rtaatl (Jul 3, 2014)

With all the recent hype surrounding Uber's driverless car (with people still in it) being released in Pittsburgh; let's focus on some things that "other dude in the car" has to manage. 
So what happens after a drop? Does the car keep moving or does it park itself? Where would it go? Does the engine keep running? Driving in a dense urban area doesn't leave a lot of open space to find a spot to sit. A driver actually has to manage where to go and how long to wait. Knowledge of the surroundings helps because you just can't wait anywhere. If the car shuts off then there needs to be not only an auxiliary source of power to run the system, but an actual artificial intelligence to know when to shut off and where to go when dormant. If you have the vehicles constantly running you're talking at least 70% in dead miles per day. Where do the vehicles go to refuel and who pumps the gas....better yet who's going to be paying for all this upkeep. There are just some things technology can't replace. It's like one day a while back when I was shopping for a new washer and dryer. The sales reps kept talking about the new machines and how they're wireless and you can control them from your phone. Yes, but how are the clothes going to make it from the washer to the dryer remotely? There are just some things yet to be figured out and this is fairly similar. 

Word to Uber, you might want that "other dude" back. You're not ready for this logistical nightmare. If it was this easy as you proclaim, it would have been done years ago. No idea original...your Uber Math is working against you now.


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## tohunt4me (Nov 23, 2015)

rtaatl said:


> With all the recent hype surrounding Uber's driverless car (with people still in it) being released in Pittsburgh; let's focus on some things that "other dude in the car" has to manage.
> So what happens after a drop? Does the car keep moving or does it park itself? Where would it go? Does the engine keep running? Driving in a dense urban area doesn't leave a lot of open space to find a spot to sit. A driver actually has to manage where to go and how long to wait. Knowledge of the surroundings helps because you just can't wait anywhere. If the car shuts off then there needs to be not only an auxiliary source of power to run the system, but an actual artificial intelligence to know when to shut off and where to go when dormant. If you have the vehicles constantly running you're talking at least 70% in dead miles per day. Where do the vehicles go to refuel and who pumps the gas....better yet who's going to be paying for all this upkeep. There are just some things technology can't replace. It's like one day a while back when I was shopping for a new washer and dryer. The sales reps kept talking about the new machines and how they're wireless and you can control them from your phone. Yes, but how are the clothes going to make it from the washer to the dryer remotely? There are just some things yet to be figured out and this is fairly similar.
> 
> Word to Uber, you might want that "other dude" back. You're not ready for this logistical nightmare. If it was this easy as you proclaim, it would have been done years ago. No idea original...your Uber Math is working against you now.


The UBER driverless car will of course get only the BEST of the stacked pings.

Therefore the UBER driverless car will steadily be moving from one trip to the other. Unlike us,who get 1 trip every 1/2 hour lately.

The UBER driverless car will only be sent to the best location to pick up the highest rated riders.

The UBER driverless car will not dead mill about or be parked waiting.


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## rtaatl (Jul 3, 2014)

tohunt4me said:


> The UBER driverless car will of course get only the BEST of the stacked pings.
> 
> Therefore the UBER driverless car will steadily be moving from one trip to the other. Unlike us,who get 1 trip every 1/2 hour lately.
> 
> ...


I guess it's also going to run on unicorn farts and pixie dust.


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## andaas (May 19, 2015)

tohunt4me said:


> The UBER driverless car will of course get only the BEST of the stacked pings.
> 
> Therefore the UBER driverless car will steadily be moving from one trip to the other. Unlike us,who get 1 trip every 1/2 hour lately.
> 
> ...


That will just lead to more lawsuits from drivers in markets featuring driverless vehicles, where drivers proclaim favoritism for Uber's driverless vehicles over human driven vehicles.


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## Uber48208 (May 4, 2016)

What if enough riders 1* 2* the driverless car... does it get deactivated?


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## uberdriver (Aug 4, 2014)

rtaatl said:


> With all the recent hype surrounding Uber's driverless car (with people still in it) being released in Pittsburgh; let's focus on some things that "other dude in the car" has to manage.
> Where do the vehicles go to refuel and who pumps the gas....
> 
> Word to Uber, you might want that "other dude" back. You're not ready for this logistical nightmare.


Gee, airplanes are routinely remotely hooked up to be refueled while they are in the air FLYING at 400+ miles per hour, and you think that designing a pump nozzle that would be remotely activated to get hooked to a PARKED car is not possible ?


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## rtaatl (Jul 3, 2014)

uberdriver said:


> Gee, airplanes are routinely remotely hooked up to be refueled while they are in the air FLYING at 400+ miles per hour, and you think that designing a pump nozzle that would be remotely activated to get hooked to a PARKED car is not possible ?


That's the US Military....they get $60+ trillion to play around with every year. What gas station is going to pay for this experiment. You know Uber isn't going to pay for something experimental that you have to put across the grid in every major city. You're talking millions and millions of dollars. We haven't even started on the actual fuel costs yet. So yes, a logistical nightmare this will be.


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## uberdriver (Aug 4, 2014)

rtaatl said:


> That's the US Military....they get $60+ trillion to play around with every year. What gas station is going to pay for this experiment. You know Uber isn't going to pay for something experimental that you have to put across the grid in every major city. You're talking millions and millions of dollars. We haven't even started on the actual fuel costs yet. So yes, a logistical nightmare this will be.


Check your facts. Aerial refueling is used by lots and lots of types of planes, big and small, expensive and cheap. Including a single engine small Cessna 172 plane that flew non-stop for over 64 days without landing. The refueling for it was sometimes done from a convertible CAR (a first generation T-Bird).


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## rtaatl (Jul 3, 2014)

uberdriver said:


> Check your facts. Aerial refueling is used by lots and lots of types of planes, big and small, expensive and cheap. Including a single engine small Cessna 172 plane that flew non-stop for over 64 days without landing. The refueling for it was sometimes done from a convertible CAR (a first generation T-Bird).


No one's doubting it's possibilities, but who's going to pay for numerous automated pumps to be located throughout an entire city. Then have these throughout multiple cities either nation or worldwide. It's a lot different than a few KC-130s flying around.

Then your talking about an autonomous car pulling up to an autonomous pump. That's a whole different set of AI instructions besides and "autopilot" feature to drive itself. That takes a lot more money in R&D. Uber doesn't have anywhere near the funds to do this. I'm sure there is going to be some half azz way to get by for now. Yet there's going to be nothing autonomous about these runs in Pittsburgh for now.


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## Atom guy (Jul 27, 2016)

rtaatl said:


> With all the recent hype surrounding Uber's driverless car (with people still in it) being released in Pittsburgh; let's focus on some things that "other dude in the car" has to manage.
> So what happens after a drop? Does the car keep moving or does it park itself? Where would it go? Does the engine keep running? Driving in a dense urban area doesn't leave a lot of open space to find a spot to sit. A driver actually has to manage where to go and how long to wait. Knowledge of the surroundings helps because you just can't wait anywhere. If the car shuts off then there needs to be not only an auxiliary source of power to run the system, but an actual artificial intelligence to know when to shut off and where to go when dormant. If you have the vehicles constantly running you're talking at least 70% in dead miles per day. Where do the vehicles go to refuel and who pumps the gas....better yet who's going to be paying for all this upkeep. There are just some things technology can't replace. It's like one day a while back when I was shopping for a new washer and dryer. The sales reps kept talking about the new machines and how they're wireless and you can control them from your phone. Yes, but how are the clothes going to make it from the washer to the dryer remotely? There are just some things yet to be figured out and this is fairly similar.
> 
> Word to Uber, you might want that "other dude" back. You're not ready for this logistical nightmare. If it was this easy as you proclaim, it would have been done years ago. No idea original...your Uber Math is working against you now.


All great questions that have to be sorted out. I'm going to guess that at first these cars will only go to high density cities where they can be kept in perpetual use, so they don't have to park and wait or try to find a parking spot. I can't see Uber populating smaller cities with self driving cars when the ridership isn't there and the cars would sit idle. You are right about dead miles. These cars are going to have to have some sort of central garage facility to be maintained - imagine Uber having to buy locations in every city they service or rent such facilities - $$$. The cars will be dead mining back to base to get cleaned and gassed, then all start their next ride from this location. That's one of the benefits to Uber of having drivers - the cars get distributed throughout each city and parked for free, gassed and cleaned for free.


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