XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.sf.science   
   From: rod.speed.aaa@gmail.com   
      
   "Robert Bannister"  wrote in message   
   news:bjp0vhFhco2U2@mid.individual.net...   
   > On 15/01/2014 11:35 am, J. Clarke wrote:   
   >> In article , robban@clubtelco.com   
   >> says...   
   >>>   
   >>> On 14/01/2014 10:57 pm, J. Clarke wrote:   
   >>>> In article , leszek.karlik@gmail.com   
   >>>> says...   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> On Tue, 14 Jan 2014 13:20:24 +0100, Sea Wasp (Ryk E. Spoor)   
   >>>>>  wrote:   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> [...]   
   >>>>>> However, that would not save you much if anything because you'd still   
   >>>>>> have to maintain all those vehicles.   
   >>>>>   
   >>>>> Luckily, electric vehicles are significantly less   
   >>>>> maintenance-intensive   
   >>>>> than   
   >>>>> internal combustion vehicles.   
   >>>>   
   >>>> But now you have the issue of the electric vehicles not having any   
   >>>> range   
   >>>> and being slow to recharge, so the strategy of sending them hither and   
   >>>> beyond picking up and dropping passengers fails.   
   >>>   
   >>> As far as I know, all current electric cars will do about 100km before   
   >>> they need to be recharged. Not many people commute that far by car every   
   >>> day.   
   >>   
   >> We are not talking about one person having a car that he uses to commute   
   >> to work and back.  We are talking about him having a self-driving car   
   >> that drives him to work, drive itself back home, takes his wife shopping   
   >> and to the beauty parlor, takes her home, drives back to his office to   
   >> pick him up and take him home after work, and somewhere along the way   
   >> takes the kids to soccer.  It's doing a lot of driving around that the   
   >> single-user commuter car isn't.  And when you expect it to also make you   
   >> money by carrying passengers for hire . . .   
   >   
   > Yes. All those journeys with an empty vehicle makes the whole concept   
   > uneconomic.   
      
   No, you just have as many robot cars as you have non robot cars now   
   and get the advantage of being able to have it drop you at the door   
   at each end and park itself where ever makes sense at each end etc.   
   You then whistle it up using your smartphone when you need to use   
   it again.   
      
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