
Self-Driving Cars Are Overdue for a Reality Check - IntronExon
https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/30/16950726/state-of-autonomous-car-self-driving-ces-detroit-2018
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huebnerob
This article seems to assume that we're all excited about the prospect of
buying our very own self-driving car. On the contrary, I'm _more_ excited
about the newfound practicality of a decentralized car ownership model that
driverless vehicles gives to us.

Speaking boldly, the difference between a taxi cab and a driverless car is
just an implementation detail. No surprises here, Uber and Lyft are investing
heavily in trying to get the cabbie out of the cab for just this reason.

So where things get interesting is when you start reaping the benefits of
almost eliminating the variable cost of a car ride. This doesn't matter much
for personal car ownership, because you don't charge yourself to be your own
driver.

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IntronExon
In this coming utopia, how clean are the cars? Public anything always seems to
become pretty nasty. A fleet of automated vehicles, especially at nights and
on weekends, could get _messy_.

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huebnerob
I use car2go frequently in Brooklyn, it's true that cleanliness is
problematic. Perhaps some form of computer vision in the car could recognize
if a user left anything in disarray and penalize appropriately. It wouldn't
catch everything, but most of these problems are just people leaving garbage
behind.

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IntronExon
That’s a good idea, and I wonder if you could automate cleaning the cars? Not
a full shampoo and detailing, but maybe a robot arm with brush and suction and
ML vision?

