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They will jack up your rates because you, like all of us, are a fundamentally worse driver than a computer. It's that simple. Driving is by far the most dangerous thing most of us do on a day to day basis and that's because humans are just terrible at driving.Couldn't. Care. Less. Last accident was 10+ years ago. Last accident that was my fault was Almost 30 years ago. How can they hike my rates if I haven't had an accident. They'd be persecuting all drivers who don't ( or can't) afford new cars with this technology. It will be a very slow transition to automated for this among many reasons.
Who votes most? Old people. Who will resist this? Old people. It'll be 20+ years before insurance companies can go after analog drivers.
They will jack up your rates because you, like all of us, are a fundamentally worse driver than a computer. It's that simple. Driving is by far the most dangerous thing most of us do on a day to day basis and that's because humans are just terrible at driving.
A driverless future is coming. It's going to be the biggest revolution in cars since, well, cars.
A self driving vehicle is not going to get me on the gravel road that leads to the rail trail where I cycle.
People weren't interested in those noisy contraptions they used to call horseless carriages either, but they caught on (and have been subsidized by the government ever since). Yes the used car market is huge, but most cars only get so old before they're taken off the road altogether. There will obviously be a transition period where human driven cars are still around.Go right ahead. Ironically, it will mean I will sell my econobox Honda Fit daily driver, but I'll still keep my sports car, which pollutes more. Either way I'll save money by being down to one car.
I still don't believe you'll be able to jack rates. The used car market is huge, yet somehow you think people will all go along with paying more. It's not like you can snap your fingers and everyone will jump on buying a brand new car. There are still lots of 20+ year old cars on the road today and this won't change overnight.
And as that survey showed no ones actually interested in a self driving car. Also, you'll be persecuting the people least able to afford this change who buy used cars. Any government that tries to implement - or allows insurance companies to do this - won't survive the next election. I'm not denying it won't happen, it just won't happen as fast you think.
I think the biggest flaw in your logic is that you're equating autonomous cars with collective ownership. And while those two trends will probably support each other, there's nothing about autonomous cars that would prevent you from buying one for yourself. And if you do that you could attach bikes to it and go on all the dirt roads you want. Autonomous cars have nothing to do with "urban elite", whatever that means.Insurance rates change with experience which is an equation with both a numerator and a denominator. Fewer owned cars means fewer customers which changes the denominator. Costs get spread over fewer people. Self driving cars might mean lower payouts (do the really expensive accidents happen only in the city?) which changes the numerator. I don't see how one can predict where that will lead overall.
I still find this discussion hugely citycentric. (Maybe there is a narrowminded urban elite, after all). A self driving vehicle is not going to get me on the gravel road that leads to the rail trail where I cycle. Zipcar doesn't want me attaching a bike rack to their vehicle for the day. My most-used shopping mall has an unimproved parking lot that fills with water when it rains. I don't want a computer parking me in the deepest part of the puddles just because its databank remembers that is where the parking spaces are.
Self driving is great for urban hailing applications, and maybe for freeway driving on the open road. That is a useful part of the overall mix. But people will still want to own their vehicle, and there are too many places that city dwellers want to go to that will require human driving. Many cities restrict access in personal vehicles for reasons of congestion, but those living there still own personal vehicles.
- Paul
Who votes most? Old people. Who will resist this? Old people. It'll be 20+ years before insurance companies can go after analog drivers.
I think the biggest flaw in your logic is that you're equating autonomous cars with collective ownership. And while those two trends will probably support each other, there's nothing about autonomous cars that would prevent you from buying one for yourself.
We bring the purchase back, but his building super has a rule that big items have to go in the back door, so I have to squeeze down the service laneway (backing up) to get to the back door. I have to spot the vehicle so we can unload the large and heavy boxes from the hatchback. How do I tell the cab-bot to do that? It may know the street grid, and how to find the main entrance, but can it improvise?
Old people as a demographic have a ton to gain from driverless cars. For every stereotypical curmudgeon who would cling to their traditional car there should be many seniors who fear loosing the capacity to drive and the massive loss of freedom that entails.
People weren't interested in those noisy contraptions they used to call horseless carriages either, but they caught on (and have been subsidized by the government ever since). Yes the used car market is huge, but most cars only get so old before they're taken off the road altogether. There will obviously be a transition period where human driven cars are still around.
They will jack up your rates because you, like all of us, are a fundamentally worse driver than a computer. It's that simple. Driving is by far the most dangerous thing most of us do on a day to day basis and that's because humans are just terrible at driving.
A driverless future is coming. It's going to be the biggest revolution in cars since, well, cars.
I don't see why not. Intercity and long-distance trips are by far the most useful immediate commercial application (trucking industry).
A rental self-driving car might have a boundary they can't leave but your private self driving car won't have that.
They can do whatever they want. You need their service.
