Tesla 'Robo-Uber' Just Around the Corner According to Elon

[nutzo]

Newsflash, bub. If you have OnStar on your vehicle, its ALREADY connected to the government shut off switch. And you will adapt to the changes just like everyone else. You MIGHT decide to own your own vehicle in 20 years. But I am guessing most will not. It will be significantly more expensive to do so. Taxes on personally owned vehicles will begin to skyrocket, as governments will want to limit cars that are on the road. Or you might see what you see now in New York, Seattle, Chicago, etc...where you pay $250-$1000/mo (or more!) for a parking space. The luxury of everyone owning a car was fine when there were only 100 million Americans. As room gets more limited and populations increase, we will need to change our society to a different paradigm.

What might work in the big government controlled cities will not work in rural areas or even the suburbs.

Out here in California, they keep pushing builders to build these high rise "luxury" apartments and condos, but that's not what most people want.
They can't afford the rent on the apartments, and most people who have or want to start a family desire a home with a yard.
This has caused single family home prices to skyrocket.

How does $879,000 for an 1,800sq home sound? That's what a house in my neighborhood sold for last week. (7,000sq foot lot, 2 car garage and a pool)
Luckily I bought 20 years ago, and we have Prop 13 that limits property tax increases. That is so far out of my price range, I'd need a 300% raise to qualify for the loan.

And no, I don't have OnStar on any of my vehicles, don't want it, and will not buy a car that has it.
I have no need for my car to be connected to the internet to start it remotely or to unlock the doors.
The car company that provides what I want is the one that will get my business. If they all go stupid, then I'll drive older cars.
If a state makes it too expensive to own a car, I'll move to a state that isn't so anti middle class or anti consumer.

As for paying $250-$1000/mo for a parking space, I'd never live anywhere like that.
I general avoid going any place that charges for parking, which usually not a problem since I hate places so crowded they need parking garages.

All that said, I can eventually see using a self driving Uber service to replace our 2nd car, especially once I'm retired, as it would likely be rare to need the 2nd car.
That would leave me room in the garage for a workshop.

Besides, in 20 years I probably won't be driving much, so old age will likely save me from this decision anyways

 

[nutzo]

Jesus. Trucks cost $60k now? Makes absolutely no sense. They are some of the cheapest vehicles to produce. They could probablt make a decent profit on them I'd they sold them for $15k, new.

No wonder Ford is dropping most of their small cars to focus on trucks. The profit margins must be insane.

Want to make me happy? Give me a 200+ mile electric version of a MY2000 Volvo V70 wagon. Keep the interior and all features exactly the same. There is no need to mess with perfection.

One of the reasons Trucks & SUV's are so expensive, is that the manufactures have to sell small and electric cars below cost to meet the fleet mileage requirements.
They jack up the prices on trucks and SUV to cover the loses on the electric cars.

 

[jnemesh]

What might work in the big government controlled cities will not work in rural areas or even the suburbs.

Out here in California, they keep pushing builders to build these high rise "luxury" apartments and condos, but that's not what most people want.
They can't afford the rent on the apartments, and most people who have or want to start a family desire a home with a yard.
This has caused single family home prices to skyrocket.

How does $879,000 for an 1,800sq home sound? That's what a house in my neighborhood sold for last week. (7,000sq foot lot, 2 car garage and a pool)
Luckily I bought 20 years ago, and we have Prop 13 that limits property tax increases. That is so far out of my price range, I'd need a 300% raise to qualify for the loan.

And no, I don't have OnStar on any of my vehicles, don't want it, and will not buy a car that has it.
I have no need for my car to be connected to the internet to start it remotely or to unlock the doors.
The car company that provides what I want is the one that will get my business. If they all go stupid, then I'll drive older cars.
If a state makes it too expensive to own a car, I'll move to a state that isn't so anti middle class or anti consumer.

As for paying $250-$1000/mo for a parking space, I'd never live anywhere like that.
I general avoid going any place that charges for parking, which usually not a problem since I hate places so crowded they need parking garages.

All that said, I can eventually see using a self driving Uber service to replace our 2nd car, especially once I'm retired, as it would likely be rare to need the 2nd car.
That would leave me room in the garage for a workshop.

Besides, in 20 years I probably won't be driving much, so old age will likely save me from this decision anyways

If single family homes in your area are over $800,000 you are ALREADY living in an area like that. In the next 20 years, it will be worse. You don't get to drive older cars either, because eventually, these will be banned from public roads. You MAY be able to buy one, but will be restricted to driving on your own roads on private lands.

You dont get it, do you? This is tied in with overpopulation and limited space and resources. So no, you won't have an option, unless you live in the middle of nowhere.

 

[jnemesh]

Come talk to me when you have a self driving car that can move my truck from the where I loaded it to over by the tree next to the pond. Or one that can hook up the boat and take it down and launch it with no manual input. Or one that can navigate a back trail thats not on any maps (because it isnt a road) on my way to the lake. Or one that is smart enough to park on the beach in a spot that it wont get stuck in...



Last time I checked Onstar wasnt run by the government. That aside first thing I did when I got the truck was to disconnect the system.

Disconnecting OnStar is legal...for now. This wont be the case when self-driving cars are the norm, and not the exception. Your days of driving your own vehicle are numbered.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

Disconnecting OnStar is legal...for now. This wont be the case when self-driving cars are the norm, and not the exception. Your days of driving your own vehicle are numbered.

I think you overstate this.

Pushing for a mandate on autonomous vehicles would be political suicide for whoever even goes near it.

I just don't think that will happen.

More likely it will just go the way of the manual transmission. Fewer and fewer people will be interested in non-autonomous vehicles until eventually it does not make sense for automakers to make them anymore, and we will get to where we are today, where it is difficult to find a car you like with a manual transmission.

 

[nutzo]

If single family homes in your area are over $800,000 you are ALREADY living in an area like that. In the next 20 years, it will be worse. You don't get to drive older cars either, because eventually, these will be banned from public roads. You MAY be able to buy one, but will be restricted to driving on your own roads on private lands.
You dont get it, do you? This is tied in with overpopulation and limited space and resources. So no, you won't have an option, unless you live in the middle of nowhere.

No, you don't get it.

There is plenty of land, but in certain states (like here in California), the politicians are controlled by people who don't want the land developed.
Usually these are rich people who live in their walled mansions and don't want the little people bothering them.
They think the little people should be living in small apartments and use mass transit, while they have 10,000sq foot homes with pools and parking for a dozen cars.

You know what would happen if they allowed more homes to be built without all the excessive regulations and environmental studies? Eventually the prices would start to fall. Same with rents and building apartments. However, this is California, a blue state, so that's not likely to happen.


Yes we have $800,000+ track homes where I live, but we have plenty of free parking. They all have garages, driveways, and a reasonable amount of street parking.
Almost all shopping centers where I live have plenty of free parking.

Running out of resources? Not even close.
We where supposed to be running out of oil in the 70's, yet 40 years later, we have more known oil reserves than ever. There is at least another 50+ years at the current consumption rate.

We are not running out of land or resources. Both are being artificially limited by people who gain politically and monetarily by this manipulation.

Banning older cars? That will mainly hurt the poor and the lower middle class, since they are the ones who buy 10-15 year old cars.
But who cares about them. I guess they will not even have cars to sleep in when they can no longer afford their high prices apartment.

 

[jnemesh]

No, you don't get it.

There is plenty of land, but in certain states (like here in California), the politicians are controlled by people who don't want the land developed.
Usually these are rich people who live in their walled mansions and don't want the little people bothering them.
They think the little people should be living in small apartments and use mass transit, while they have 10,000sq foot homes with pools and parking for a dozen cars.

You know what would happen if they allowed more homes to be built without all the excessive regulations and environmental studies? Eventually the prices would start to fall. Same with rents and building apartments. However, this is California, a blue state, so that's not likely to happen.


Yes we have $800,000+ track homes where I live, but we have plenty of free parking. They all have garages, driveways, and a reasonable amount of street parking.
Almost all shopping centers where I live have plenty of free parking.

Running out of resources? Not even close.
We where supposed to be running out of oil in the 70's, yet 40 years later, we have more known oil reserves than ever. There is at least another 50+ years at the current consumption rate.

We are not running out of land or resources. Both are being artificially limited by people who gain politically and monetarily by this manipulation.

Banning older cars? That will mainly hurt the poor and the lower middle class, since they are the ones who buy 10-15 year old cars.
But who cares about them. I guess they will not even have cars to sleep in when they can no longer afford their high prices apartment.

And we are officially done here. Have fun living in your fantasy world. Get back to me in 20 years, let me know how that worked out for ya!

 

[jnemesh]

I think you overstate this.

Pushing for a mandate on autonomous vehicles would be political suicide for whoever even goes near it.

I just don't think that will happen.

More likely it will just go the way of the manual transmission. Fewer and fewer people will be interested in non-autonomous vehicles until eventually it does not make sense for automakers to make them anymore, and we will get to where we are today, where it is difficult to find a car you like with a manual transmission.

When the safety record of the autonomous cars is established, it wont be political suicide to mandate them. I am talking over the next 20 years...not next year, nor the year after, nor the year after that. It WILL happen. Bet on it.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

When the safety record of the autonomous cars is established, it wont be political suicide to mandate them. I am talking over the next 20 years...not next year, nor the year after, nor the year after that. It WILL happen. Bet on it.

Meh, it still becomes an issue of taking peoples freedoms away.

If the above were the case, we'd have banned guns a long time ago

 

[jnemesh]

Meh, it still becomes an issue of taking peoples freedoms away.

If the above were the case, we'd have banned guns a long time ago

You don't have a RIGHT to a personal transportation machine. And kids growing up in 20 years aren't going to remember what driving the car themselves is like anyway. I am sure some people still insist on driving a horse and buggy (mainly in Amish country), but the majority of us drive automobiles these days. Same thing. It's not about the "gummint taking our rights"! It's about the progress of technology and the products like manually driven cars that will quickly become obsolete.

 

[Zarathustra[H]]

You don't have a RIGHT to a personal transportation machine. And kids growing up in 20 years aren't going to remember what driving the car themselves is like anyway. I am sure some people still insist on driving a horse and buggy (mainly in Amish country), but the majority of us drive automobiles these days. Same thing. It's not about the "gummint taking our rights"! It's about the progress of technology and the products like manually driven cars that will quickly become obsolete.

Well, I guess all we can do is talk again in 20 years and see what happened

 

[sfsuphysics]

So if a person driving a Ford hits and kills someone, then Ford shouldn't sell any more cars?

No, if a guy named Tom hits and kills someone and the news goes national and he becomes a household name for being known for killing someone while driving with their feet then Ford shouls not refer to the foot driving system as the "Tom Foot Driving System". It is like naming your kid Charles if your last name is Manson.

This is not about the self driving systems, this is about refering to what you want to do as the same name of something that just killed someone and everyone knows as the company that killed someone. I mean reference that as robo Lyft or something at the very least

 

[sfsuphysics]

You don't have a RIGHT to a personal transportation machine.

Freedom and right are not synonymous. I love the freedom of choosing what I want to drink for dinner, I dont have any right to have choices of beverage

 

[nutzo]

And we are officially done here. Have fun living in your fantasy world. Get back to me in 20 years, let me know how that worked out for ya!

I'll be long retired and probably getting too old to drive by then, so it won't matter, assuming I'm still around.

 

[sfsuphysics]

oh if only people who were "too old to drive" stopped driving...

(insert joke about Asians too... but that'd be racist)

 

[ruffbytes]

Yup, less traffic for everyone. But "your truck" is going to get a LOT more expensive to own and operate. As self-driving cars proliferate, you can bet that licensing and registration for manually operated vehicles will be increased greatly, to incentives people like yourself to move to the safer, more reliable vehicles. Human drivers will be regarded as unwelcome, as they are far more accident prone than the self driving cars will be.

There will be a lot of us driving our old trucks where I live.

It is going to be interesting to see how well these self driving cars get. If they end up safer than manual driving, you can be sure I will buy the biggest self driving SUV offered for my wife and kids.

I think this manual vs self driving has become a religious argument. We all should wait and see how it pans out. I hope everyone is safer and doesn’t die in car wrecks.

I currently think that self driving cars will not be better than manual until there is uniformity in the design and marking of roads, especially in one off construction areas, etc. The car should know that manual mode is required.

Anyways, good comment!

 

[Uvaman2]

Musk has enjoyed an insanely patient shareholder group. At some point they will tire of so many empty promises and missed production deadlines, then they will reign him in.

I think he's accomplished amazing technological feats, but he will need to deliver on other fronts as well.

He is also dealing with a massive shorter conspiracy.