Maybe instead of trying to train an AI powered car to deal with the insane chaos that is the road system, what if we designed something to remove that chaos? Maybe like a path that’s just for these self driving cars. There’s a network of paths to get you to your final destination.
But if we did that, there’d still be our current problems of running out of fuel, or battery power. Which could be solved by electrifying those paths.
But it’d be very difficult to have each of those individual cars switch between paths. Maybe it would be easier if instead of the cars switching paths, the people switched paths. Maybe we just make really long cars, and numerous people can get in them, and then switch cars as needed. People would need to know where to switch between these long cars. So we’d want to set schedules of when they’re running to where, and then have an app or something that just told you where to get on and off.
And if they’re really long, maybe we could kickstart this before we have self-driving abilities anyway. We could just have one person in the front driving it.
And maybe to reduce the need for rubber, instead of regular wheels on a road, they could just be metal wheels on metal tracks.
Unless the train comes to my house, it does not solve the same problem as a self-driving car. It solves the same problem as a bus. I have to go where it stops, and it has to stop where I need. You can throw all kinds of should on that, like ‘well things should be near stations,’ and ‘stations should be near people,’ but that won’t mean they are. And if we’re just wishing, we may as well skip a step and say, ‘things should be near people,’ rendering the whole thing moot.
Go right ahead and say ‘walkable cities are an excellent goal,’ but the point is, I don’t live in a goal.
You don’t live somewhere that self-driving cars can fully autonomously navigate either. No-one does.
Orienting urbanism towards public transit and the conditions that support it (mixed use zoning, pedestrian connectivity, reduced/removed parking mininums, etc.) are incremental steps that can be taken right now, today and make cities better places to live in, unlike self-driving cars which don’t even fucking exist and only serve as a stupid carrot on a stupid stick for NA to stay hilariously dependent on car-centric infrastructure.
‘Gradual change can happen right now’ is really underlining what’s wrong.
Again - sure, trains and public transit and walkable cities are fine goals. We can and should. But cheekily brushing off the desire for a perpendicular technology that’s already partially demonstrated (and gets more feasible year by year) is not being honest about the problem or the solution. Will self-driving cars solve problems caused by cars? Of fucking course not, just look at the words in that sentence.
But nor are they at-odds with positive change, except in the agendas of assholes who will pick any excuse. Elmo defrauded multiple states with the promise of holes in the ground. This tech is not to blame for the stupid evil done in the name of this tech.
If by some miracle we have both sensible urban design and self-driving cars in about ten years, the demand for those cars will be drastically reduced and we’ll all be better-off for it, but those cars will still be really fucking useful.
Thanks but not thanks, most people on the public transport are disgusting and weird… Although I can live with that, they would need to have 24/7 schedules and insecurity is a big downside too.
Disclaimer, I actually don’t know if trains work 24/7 as there is not a single one where I live (not for passengers at least) and even if there was insecurity still an issue, one of the disadvantages of living in a 3rd world country.
Maybe instead of trying to train an AI powered car to deal with the insane chaos that is the road system, what if we designed something to remove that chaos? Maybe like a path that’s just for these self driving cars. There’s a network of paths to get you to your final destination.
But if we did that, there’d still be our current problems of running out of fuel, or battery power. Which could be solved by electrifying those paths.
But it’d be very difficult to have each of those individual cars switch between paths. Maybe it would be easier if instead of the cars switching paths, the people switched paths. Maybe we just make really long cars, and numerous people can get in them, and then switch cars as needed. People would need to know where to switch between these long cars. So we’d want to set schedules of when they’re running to where, and then have an app or something that just told you where to get on and off.
And if they’re really long, maybe we could kickstart this before we have self-driving abilities anyway. We could just have one person in the front driving it.
And maybe to reduce the need for rubber, instead of regular wheels on a road, they could just be metal wheels on metal tracks.
Just throwing some ideas out there.
I saw the train conclusion coming from “a network of paths to reach your destination.”
I do think that rail is a great solution to a lot of modern transportation needs.
Unless the train comes to my house, it does not solve the same problem as a self-driving car. It solves the same problem as a bus. I have to go where it stops, and it has to stop where I need. You can throw all kinds of should on that, like ‘well things should be near stations,’ and ‘stations should be near people,’ but that won’t mean they are. And if we’re just wishing, we may as well skip a step and say, ‘things should be near people,’ rendering the whole thing moot.
Go right ahead and say ‘walkable cities are an excellent goal,’ but the point is, I don’t live in a goal.
You don’t live somewhere that self-driving cars can fully autonomously navigate either. No-one does.
Orienting urbanism towards public transit and the conditions that support it (mixed use zoning, pedestrian connectivity, reduced/removed parking mininums, etc.) are incremental steps that can be taken right now, today and make cities better places to live in, unlike self-driving cars which don’t even fucking exist and only serve as a stupid carrot on a stupid stick for NA to stay hilariously dependent on car-centric infrastructure.
‘Gradual change can happen right now’ is really underlining what’s wrong.
Again - sure, trains and public transit and walkable cities are fine goals. We can and should. But cheekily brushing off the desire for a perpendicular technology that’s already partially demonstrated (and gets more feasible year by year) is not being honest about the problem or the solution. Will self-driving cars solve problems caused by cars? Of fucking course not, just look at the words in that sentence.
But nor are they at-odds with positive change, except in the agendas of assholes who will pick any excuse. Elmo defrauded multiple states with the promise of holes in the ground. This tech is not to blame for the stupid evil done in the name of this tech.
If by some miracle we have both sensible urban design and self-driving cars in about ten years, the demand for those cars will be drastically reduced and we’ll all be better-off for it, but those cars will still be really fucking useful.
deleted by creator
Thanks but not thanks, most people on the public transport are disgusting and weird… Although I can live with that, they would need to have 24/7 schedules and insecurity is a big downside too.
Disclaimer, I actually don’t know if trains work 24/7 as there is not a single one where I live (not for passengers at least) and even if there was insecurity still an issue, one of the disadvantages of living in a 3rd world country.