XPost: rec.arts.sf.written, rec.arts.sf.science   
   From: jclarkeusenet@cox.net   
      
   In article , bap@shrdlu.com says...   
   >   
   > On 16/01/14 17:33, J. Clarke wrote:   
   > > In article , bap@shrdlu.com says...   
   > >>   
   > >> On 15/01/14 03:35, 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 maint   
   nance-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 . . .   
   > >>   
   > >> That's what you are talking about, the rest of us aren't.   
   > >   
   > > Speak for yourself.   
   > >   
   > >> The car   
   > >> doesn't have to drive home after delivering you to work it can pick up   
   > >> one of your cow-orkers who needs to visit another site or go to the   
   > >> airport. Meanwhile your wife gets a different vehicle to take her to the   
   > >> beauty parlor. The kids don't need a person to pick them up from school,   
   > >> they have a car available to do that.   
   > >   
   > > In other words you are advocating abandoning the private car and just   
   > > having everybody use robotaxis for everthing.  If that model were viable   
   > > everybody would already be using regular taxis for everything.   
   >   
   > No, because we don't have driverless taxis. The current model requires   
   > you to hire not only a taxi but a very expensive driver too.   
      
   The median pay for a taxi driver is about $11/hour.  The government   
   reimburses its employees $13.80 for 30 miles of driving a private car,   
   and the government is notoriously cheap in that regard.  The driver is   
   not the major expense.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)