If a couple percent of cars were in this kind of system, they'd be waiting all over. It would be much less than 20 minutes. They could even set up equivalent "stations" where there's almost always a car parked within a couple blocks and it can get there before you do.
I don't go on a lot of long-term trips, but if I did that would still be a reason to get one car for a household instead of multiple. For rarer trips I would be happy to have a rental drive itself to my house.
If you mean day trips, then none of those issues are notable with a competent self-driving fleet except "one bag", but I don't think I've ever needed more than one bag for a day trip...
Really it sounds like you describe an efficient public transport system :). Of course not every city has that (I hear public transport kind of sucks in the US), but still it's important to know that other countries have that, without autonomous cars.
You'd have to run a bus every three minutes to get the same speed of pickup at stations.
But also those busses wouldn't be able to come to your door, or drop you off directly at your destination.
So I don't think I'm describing efficient public transport. I'm describing something like the platonic ideal of taxis in a dense city, but without the huge number of drivers.
I would say that metros in Paris are much, much closer to 3min than to 20 (20 sounds like the middle of the night).
But now imagine if every passenger instead took an individual car? That would require a lot of cars.
Yes, an individual car is more comfortable if you can afford it and if not too many people have one (otherwise you need big big roads to avoid traffic jams). But really my ideal is closer to metros/trams than taxis.
If you bring out metros, you can get to those numbers, but now you're at a tiny number of places, and most cities just aren't dense enough for that even if they're going for great public transit.
otherwise you need big big roads to avoid traffic jams
Right, that's the main downside, but there's a lot of areas where they'd fit.
I think trams and buses work well, too. Of course buses are getting closer to autonomous taxis, but it still feels more efficient to share a bus than to have one person per taxi :).
Then of course they can be used together. In my city there is a system of rental cars that you leave at different stops: you have a card and can just take the car if it's there. The car doesn't come to you, but still it's a pretty good solution I think.
Anyway, autonomous cars have to get reliable before they can actually be used with public transports, I guess.
Comments
If a couple percent of cars were in this kind of system, they'd be waiting all over. It would be much less than 20 minutes. They could even set up equivalent "stations" where there's almost always a car parked within a couple blocks and it can get there before you do.
I don't go on a lot of long-term trips, but if I did that would still be a reason to get one car for a household instead of multiple. For rarer trips I would be happy to have a rental drive itself to my house.
If you mean day trips, then none of those issues are notable with a competent self-driving fleet except "one bag", but I don't think I've ever needed more than one bag for a day trip...
Really it sounds like you describe an efficient public transport system :). Of course not every city has that (I hear public transport kind of sucks in the US), but still it's important to know that other countries have that, without autonomous cars.
You'd have to run a bus every three minutes to get the same speed of pickup at stations.
But also those busses wouldn't be able to come to your door, or drop you off directly at your destination.
So I don't think I'm describing efficient public transport. I'm describing something like the platonic ideal of taxis in a dense city, but without the huge number of drivers.
I would say that metros in Paris are much, much closer to 3min than to 20 (20 sounds like the middle of the night).
But now imagine if every passenger instead took an individual car? That would require a lot of cars.
Yes, an individual car is more comfortable if you can afford it and if not too many people have one (otherwise you need big big roads to avoid traffic jams). But really my ideal is closer to metros/trams than taxis.
If you bring out metros, you can get to those numbers, but now you're at a tiny number of places, and most cities just aren't dense enough for that even if they're going for great public transit.
Right, that's the main downside, but there's a lot of areas where they'd fit.
I think trams and buses work well, too. Of course buses are getting closer to autonomous taxis, but it still feels more efficient to share a bus than to have one person per taxi :).
Then of course they can be used together. In my city there is a system of rental cars that you leave at different stops: you have a card and can just take the car if it's there. The car doesn't come to you, but still it's a pretty good solution I think.
Anyway, autonomous cars have to get reliable before they can actually be used with public transports, I guess.