Self Driving Car Caching

[+NYPaddleCacher]

On 4/14/2018 at 2:59 PM, noncentric said:

Interesting discussions about self driving cars. As I read through it, I kept thinking - couldn't Uber/Lyft be used for that?

After testing out the autodrive features in a Tesla, I don't think my nerves are suited to riding in an autonomously driven car. Even when the car performs fine when creeping in traffic jams, it was nerve-wracking when on the highway and changing lanes.

Our local bus system has a trailhead route that they ran last summer and are expanding for this summer. I've already looked into how I could use it for thru-hikes. So far, it seems that I've already cached out the trails that are serviced by the routes, but the expanded routes they've proposed sound promising.

I've had that same thought about Uber/Lyft and the use of autonomous vehicles for taxi/cab companies as well.  If someone buys an autonomous vehicle, they're not going to be using it all the time, so why not make it available for others to use to generate some income.  

 A couple of summers ago my niece proposed and then went on a  summer internship program on the use of trains and how they could be used to connect with local ground transportation.  She took a bicycle (named Stevie) on a cross country train trip, visiting 20 cities in 15 states on a 38 day trip using an Amtrak rail pass.  At each city she met with local bicycle advocates, mayors, and many others to show how one could use the train and a bicycle to see the country.  The program was so sucessful it was repeated again last year (with a different person) and the 2018 Summer By Rail project will use the train to visit baseball parks across the U.S.  

To me, the logical extension is to connect the national train and air travel routes with local public transportation, which could include autonomous vehicles as an integral part.  Autonomous vehicles should all have a bicycle rack.

[+noncentric]

7 hours ago, NYPaddleCacher said:

On 4/14/2018 at 0:59 PM, noncentric said:

Interesting discussions about self driving cars. As I read through it, I kept thinking - couldn't Uber/Lyft be used for that?

I've had that same thought about Uber/Lyft and the use of autonomous vehicles for taxi/cab companies as well.  If someone buys an autonomous vehicle, they're not going to be using it all the time, so why not make it available for others to use to generate some income.  

My thought about Uber/Lyft was more along the lines of -- instead of buying or hiring an autonomous car, why not call an Uber/Lyft (driven by a human) instead of being droped off / picked up by an autonomously driven car. It just seemed to me, that in the prior posts, that cachers could be calling Uber/Lyft instead of an autonomous car. Heck, even hiring a personal driver for a few days per year of PT caching would certainly cost less than buying/maintaining/insuring an autonomous car.

 

[+Team Microdot]

40 minutes ago, noncentric said:

My thought about Uber/Lyft was more along the lines of -- instead of buying or hiring an autonomous car, why not call an Uber/Lyft (driven by a human) instead of being droped off / picked up by an autonomously driven car. It just seemed to me, that in the prior posts, that cachers could be calling Uber/Lyft instead of an autonomous car. Heck, even hiring a personal driver for a few days per year of PT caching would certainly cost less than buying/maintaining/insuring an autonomous car.

 

Why BUY a car at all?

Why spend all that money owning and maintaining something that sits idle and takes up space 95% of the time.

Why suffer the hassle and expense of servicing, tires, fluid checks, wear-and- tear and depreciation.

Autonomous cars will usher in the era of car as a service.

Auto manufacturers will manufacture a range of vehicle sizes to fit occupancy rates, journey lengths, levels of comfort etc.

When you want to go somewhere, pull up the app on your phone and book the right size vehicle for THAT journey. If you're travelling alone a single occupancy vehicle should be more cost effective. Need to go out in a large group - hire a suitably sized vehicle for THAT journey.

The app shares your precise location and the vehicle picks you up there - or at some other pre-booked location - takes you where you need to go and then leaves. You pay only for what you use.

I forsee the largest owners of vehicles being the manufacturers. They'll save a fortune by being able to manufacture generic vehicles for the sole purpose of transportation without having to manufacture to suit individual tastes or changing fashions.

 

 

 

Edited April 17, 2018 by Team Microdot
spelling

[+Team Microdot]

9 minutes ago, Team Microdot said:

 

 

Edited April 17, 2018 by Team Microdot
duplicate post

[+noncentric]

58 minutes ago, Team Microdot said:

Why BUY a car at all?

Why spend all that money owning and maintaining something that sits idle and takes up space 95% of the time.

Why suffer the hassle and expense of servicing, tires, fluid checks, wear-and- tear and depreciation.

Autonomous cars will usher in the era of car as a service.

Auto manufacturers will manufacture a range of vehicle sizes to fit occupancy rates, journey lengths, levels of comfort etc.

When you want to go somewhere, pull up the app on your phone and book the right size vehicle for THAT journey. If you're travelling alone a single occupancy vehicle should be more cost effective. Need to go out in a large group - hire a suitably sized vehicle for THAT journey.

The app shares your precise location and the vehicle picks you up there - or at some other pre-booked location - takes you where you need to go and then leaves. You pay only for what you use.

I forsee the largest owners of vehicles being the manufacturers. They'll save a fortune by being able to manufacture generic vehicles for the sole purpose of transportation without having to manufacture to suit individual tastes or changing fashions.

Uhm, yeah. Like I said, just as easy to book an Uber/Lyft vehicle that's driven by a human.  Around here anyway, I've seen plenty of people use Uber/Lyft services regularly to get around for errands and whatnot.  Just a few days ago, I sold something on Craigslist and met the person at a local business. The buyer jumped out of an Uber, we exchanged money/items, and they jumped back in the Uber. Existing human-driven option allow choosing vehicle size, one-way dropoffs, and pay for only what they use. It's not a new idea.

 

I'm just not seeing the appeal of "calling" for an autonomously-driven vehicle vs a human-driven Uber/Lyft vehicle.  But that's just me. It will be interesting to see what happens with the recent Uber fatality. I'm sure that liability will factor into manufacturers' decisions to pursue such options or not.

[+Team Microdot]

19 minutes ago, noncentric said:

Uhm, yeah. Like I said, just as easy to book an Uber/Lyft vehicle that's driven by a human.  Around here anyway, I've seen plenty of people use Uber/Lyft services regularly to get around for errands and whatnot.  Just a few days ago, I sold something on Craigslist and met the person at a local business. The buyer jumped out of an Uber, we exchanged money/items, and they jumped back in the Uber. Existing human-driven option allow choosing vehicle size, one-way dropoffs, and pay for only what they use. It's not a new idea.

 

I'm just not seeing the appeal of "calling" for an autonomously-driven vehicle vs a human-driven Uber/Lyft vehicle.  But that's just me. It will be interesting to see what happens with the recent Uber fatality. I'm sure that liability will factor into manufacturers' decisions to pursue such options or not.

Uhm, yeah. Like when you said:

 

1 hour ago, noncentric said:

Heck, even hiring a personal driver for a few days per year of PT caching would certainly cost less than buying/maintaining/insuring an autonomous car.

I thought you were balancing hiring an uber / personal driver against buying/maintaining/insuring an autonomous car.

I still thank that's the case.

But you should definitely feel free to pooh-pooh my views / thoughts / ideas / comments because - nothing new.

Uber has had numerous licenses revoked over here. It looks like we prefer to travel in properly licensed, registered and audited taxis.

I remember stopping off for a virtual at the airport just before we flew back from Florida. We ended up in a car park reserved for Uber/Lyft drives by mistake. There's no way I'd have got into a car with any of them.

 

[+noncentric]

1 hour ago, Team Microdot said:

2 hours ago, noncentric said:

My thought about Uber/Lyft was more along the lines of -- instead of buying or hiring an autonomous car, why not call an Uber/Lyft (driven by a human) instead of being droped off / picked up by an autonomously driven car. It just seemed to me, that in the prior posts, that cachers could be calling Uber/Lyft instead of an autonomous car. Heck, even hiring a personal driver for a few days per year of PT caching would certainly cost less than buying/maintaining/insuring an autonomous car.

 

Why BUY a car at all?

As I said in the first sentence, buying OR HIRING. Everything before the word "Heck" was about buying or hiring.

Sorry, I forgot to add a carriage return before typing the sentence that starts with "Heck".

 

8 minutes ago, Team Microdot said:

I remember stopping off for a virtual at the airport just before we flew back from Florida. We ended up in a car park reserved for Uber/Lyft drives by mistake. There's no way I'd have got into a car with any of them.

Ah, because they didn't "look" right to you?  Got it.

[+noncentric]

On 3/22/2018 at 6:47 AM, Team Microdot said:

I can't help thinking that they'd be really good for car caching - especially where there's nowhere to park. You could get the car to drop you off and then come back for you later, possibly summoning it using an app on your smartphone.

Like summoning a human-driven Uber/Lyft vehicle via the Uber/Lyft app, or even calling a properly licensed, registered and audited taxi? Heck, around here, there are some properly licensed, registered and audited taxis that are jumping onto the app bandwagon.

 

On 3/22/2018 at 6:47 AM, Team Microdot said:

Many people I speak to say they could never trust a machine to drive them around so I thought I'd ask here and see what people's thoughts were...

I expressed my thoughts in posts above, but my thoughts were taken as a personal attack against another cacher, so I don't think my thoughts are actually wanted here. Good-bye and happy caching!