Author Topic: Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?  (Read 6374 times)

Kaplin261

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Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?
« on: September 29, 2015, 04:34:24 PM »
As a investment I would, imagine a self driving car intergrated with Uber.

You could earn your investment back in under 1 year.

LAGuy

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Re: Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?
« Reply #1 on: September 29, 2015, 04:43:24 PM »
What makes you think they'll ever be for sale? I imagine Google has already beat your investment model to the punch. Guess you could design your own fleet of self driving cars, however.

Kaplin261

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Re: Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?
« Reply #2 on: September 29, 2015, 05:10:34 PM »
What makes you think they'll ever be for sale? I imagine Google has already beat your investment model to the punch. Guess you could design your own fleet of self driving cars, however.

Because there is already a major market for automobiles. The actual hardware that is needed for a self driving car would fit with out to much modifications to the cars we are currently buying.

AZDude

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Re: Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?
« Reply #3 on: September 29, 2015, 05:19:28 PM »
$100,000 is a bit steep. $50,000? Yeah.

As for Uber, you could take your car to work, and then while you are working, your car is ferrying people around, making even more money.

Retire-Canada

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Re: Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?
« Reply #4 on: September 29, 2015, 05:47:27 PM »
What makes you think they'll ever be for sale? I imagine Google has already beat your investment model to the punch. Guess you could design your own fleet of self driving cars, however.

I agree. I don't think self-driving cars will be owned by private individuals they way they are now. They will be a service in any built up areas. Folks out in the boonies might still own their own car since it wouldn't be easy to share cars in a low density area.

hodedofome

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Re: Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?
« Reply #5 on: September 30, 2015, 10:33:30 AM »
As far as I know, the current crop of self driving cars still need a human available to take over in case there's a problem. It makes me wonder if we'll ever get to 100% self driving without any needed human intervention. At least not without a major overhaul of our transportation system. If GPS isn't working one day, you're screwed.

If that's the case, will we ever see unattended taxis?

ketchup

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Re: Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?
« Reply #6 on: September 30, 2015, 10:40:29 AM »
Self-driving RV.  Fall asleep in Illinois, wake up in Montana.

Left

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Re: Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?
« Reply #7 on: September 30, 2015, 10:47:00 AM »
Self-driving RV.  Fall asleep in Illinois, wake up in Montana.
amtrak ride instead? For some reason trains aren't popular in the US?

ShoulderThingThatGoesUp

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Re: Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?
« Reply #8 on: September 30, 2015, 12:01:59 PM »
Self-driving RV.  Fall asleep in Illinois, wake up in Montana.
amtrak ride instead? For some reason trains aren't popular in the US?

Amtrak from Chicago to Missoula costs $390 (for a bed) and takes 32 hours. Twelve of those are on a bus. Driving takes 23 hours. Flying takes 5 and costs under $500. America is BIG.

gooki

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Re: Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?
« Reply #9 on: October 01, 2015, 04:46:08 AM »
If GPS isn't working one day, you're screwed.

If that's the case, will we ever see unattended taxis?

1. Your not screwed if gps goes down. Self driving cars probably be using glonass anyway with a fall back to gps. So that's two satellite systems that would have to fail at the same time. A third or even fourth system will likely be live by the time we see self driving cars become mainstream.
2. Self driving cars are not solely reliant on sat nav, the do/can use many other sensors to determine their location and the surroundings.
3. 95% of cars will be an unattended taxi.

Current cars see about 10% utilisation. Moving away from car ownership, and to on demand car use, utilisation will increase to 30%+, Thats one third less cars on the road.

Left

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Re: Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?
« Reply #10 on: October 01, 2015, 05:28:48 AM »
Self-driving RV.  Fall asleep in Illinois, wake up in Montana.
amtrak ride instead? For some reason trains aren't popular in the US?

Amtrak from Chicago to Missoula costs $390 (for a bed) and takes 32 hours. Twelve of those are on a bus. Driving takes 23 hours. Flying takes 5 and costs under $500. America is BIG.
and at 4% off of a $100,000 car... you would have enough for almost 1 train ride a month :D

GuitarStv

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Re: Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?
« Reply #11 on: October 01, 2015, 06:12:11 AM »
I wonder what the insurance savings would be on a self driving car.  Since you're not driving, you shouldn't need any insurance, right?

Left

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Re: Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?
« Reply #12 on: October 01, 2015, 07:09:04 AM »
I wonder what the insurance savings would be on a self driving car.  Since you're not driving, you shouldn't need any insurance, right?
you shouldn't need insurance on a rental because you don't live there right?

Mr. Green

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Re: Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?
« Reply #13 on: October 01, 2015, 07:14:14 AM »
We're a long way from autonomous cars. It'll be another couple years before the government even allows a self-driving car with a person behind the wheel. It'll probably be 20 years beyond that before you'll see autonomy, if ever. Autonomy raises a whole lot of questions that have to be answered. Who is liable in the event of a problem, etc.

seattlecyclone

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Re: Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?
« Reply #14 on: October 01, 2015, 08:25:06 AM »
We're a long way from autonomous cars. It'll be another couple years before the government even allows a self-driving car with a person behind the wheel. It'll probably be 20 years beyond that before you'll see autonomy, if ever. Autonomy raises a whole lot of questions that have to be answered. Who is liable in the event of a problem, etc.

Elon Musk just said he expects Tesla to have fully autonomous vehicles in three years. That's a far cry from 20 years even if he is overstating things a bit.

GuitarStv

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Re: Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?
« Reply #15 on: October 01, 2015, 08:35:40 AM »
I wonder what the insurance savings would be on a self driving car.  Since you're not driving, you shouldn't need any insurance, right?
you shouldn't need insurance on a rental because you don't live there right?

You're still driving when you use a rental car.

I don't buy insurance when a bus drives me around, because I'm not driving.  If the car is doing the driving, not me then why do I need insurance?

jba302

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Re: Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?
« Reply #16 on: October 01, 2015, 08:40:54 AM »
We're a long way from autonomous cars. It'll be another couple years before the government even allows a self-driving car with a person behind the wheel. It'll probably be 20 years beyond that before you'll see autonomy, if ever. Autonomy raises a whole lot of questions that have to be answered. Who is liable in the event of a problem, etc.

Elon Musk just said he expects Tesla to have fully autonomous vehicles in three years. That's a far cry from 20 years even if he is overstating things a bit.

Capable but not legal, I think that's the bigger issue. Legal regulations on this stuff is going shit-slow. I work in R&D for an insurance company and have been screaming my head off (figuratively...for now) that we need to get some figures down on paper for handling this and my boss has said that the regulators aren't even close to having discussions, and those guys are the ones that advise the lawmakers. 20 years sounds excessive to me, but 10 or even 15 is a reasonable minimum. There's a lot of good progress in the passive driver area because you can still pin the driver for problems, but full automation is an enormous legal step.

seattlecyclone

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Re: Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?
« Reply #17 on: October 01, 2015, 11:03:37 AM »
We're a long way from autonomous cars. It'll be another couple years before the government even allows a self-driving car with a person behind the wheel. It'll probably be 20 years beyond that before you'll see autonomy, if ever. Autonomy raises a whole lot of questions that have to be answered. Who is liable in the event of a problem, etc.

Elon Musk just said he expects Tesla to have fully autonomous vehicles in three years. That's a far cry from 20 years even if he is overstating things a bit.

Capable but not legal, I think that's the bigger issue. Legal regulations on this stuff is going shit-slow. I work in R&D for an insurance company and have been screaming my head off (figuratively...for now) that we need to get some figures down on paper for handling this and my boss has said that the regulators aren't even close to having discussions, and those guys are the ones that advise the lawmakers. 20 years sounds excessive to me, but 10 or even 15 is a reasonable minimum. There's a lot of good progress in the passive driver area because you can still pin the driver for problems, but full automation is an enormous legal step.

I'm not aware of any law in my state that would preclude a licensed driver from sitting in the car and "operating" it by telling it where to go and then sitting back to enjoy the ride. Having it drive around empty would be another matter. Even so, I could totally see Musk pulling an Uber and saying "I don't care if the laws are ready yet, we're doing this." Once people experience the convenience of getting driven around by a computer, they will demand that their legislators make it legal.

jba302

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Re: Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?
« Reply #18 on: October 01, 2015, 02:31:52 PM »

I'm not aware of any law in my state that would preclude a licensed driver from sitting in the car and "operating" it by telling it where to go and then sitting back to enjoy the ride. Having it drive around empty would be another matter. Even so, I could totally see Musk pulling an Uber and saying "I don't care if the laws are ready yet, we're doing this." Once people experience the convenience of getting driven around by a computer, they will demand that their legislators make it legal.

Here's a good example of the laws that have to be figured out-

https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ots/laws/Pages/distracted-driving.aspx

That can reasonably apply to an autonomous vehicle right now. Which is kind of dumb when you think about it, but it's there on the books and it's a problem if you take your hands off the wheel and the google car does a barrel roll on a highway. I hope you are right more than I am, it's just what I've been seeing so far is a very apprehensive approach that isn't going to be resolved quickly.

seattlecyclone

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Re: Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?
« Reply #19 on: October 01, 2015, 02:55:02 PM »

I'm not aware of any law in my state that would preclude a licensed driver from sitting in the car and "operating" it by telling it where to go and then sitting back to enjoy the ride. Having it drive around empty would be another matter. Even so, I could totally see Musk pulling an Uber and saying "I don't care if the laws are ready yet, we're doing this." Once people experience the convenience of getting driven around by a computer, they will demand that their legislators make it legal.

Here's a good example of the laws that have to be figured out-

https://dps.mn.gov/divisions/ots/laws/Pages/distracted-driving.aspx

That can reasonably apply to an autonomous vehicle right now. Which is kind of dumb when you think about it, but it's there on the books and it's a problem if you take your hands off the wheel and the google car does a barrel roll on a highway. I hope you are right more than I am, it's just what I've been seeing so far is a very apprehensive approach that isn't going to be resolved quickly.

Yes, the "no texting while driving" and "no drinking while driving" rules make a lot less sense when your car takes care of everything that requires active attention. That doesn't mean Tesla (or others) won't be able to sell those cars as soon as they make them work. It merely means that there will be some stupid rules you have to follow when "driving" one of these cars, at least until your state's legislature gets its act together.

LouLou

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Re: Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?
« Reply #20 on: October 01, 2015, 03:18:05 PM »
Self-driving RV.  Fall asleep in Illinois, wake up in Montana.
amtrak ride instead? For some reason trains aren't popular in the US?

Amtrak from Chicago to Missoula costs $390 (for a bed) and takes 32 hours. Twelve of those are on a bus. Driving takes 23 hours. Flying takes 5 and costs under $500. America is BIG.

So true, and I love riding trains! I live in the Midwest. There are only two or three cities where it makes any sense at all to take a train. And since I drive a small, fuel efficient car, driving is often cheaper anyway.

That said, trains are profitable on the east coast where there are multiple metropolitan areas closer together.

MrsPete

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Re: Would you pay $100,000 for a self driving car?
« Reply #21 on: October 01, 2015, 03:40:11 PM »
$100,000 is a bit steep. $50,000? Yeah.
I was thinking just the opposite:  My brother just bought a car not long ago, and it was close to $50,000 ... so I figure the technology for a self-driving car would be MUCH, MUCH, MUCH more than anything available today.

Would I personally buy a self-driving car for $100,000?  No way.  I don't really enjoy driving, but I don't hate it that much.  I'm slightly tempted to say that I might buy it for myself if I were too old to drive, but I suspect I could pay someone to chauffer me around occasionally for less. 

 

Wow, a phone plan for fifteen bucks!