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posted by cmn32480 on Saturday November 07 2015, @04:33PM   Printer-friendly
from the sharing-your-vroom dept.

Arthur T Knackerbracket has found the following story:

The transition to fully driverless cars is still several years away, but vehicle automation has already started to change the way we are thinking about transportation, and it is set to disrupt business models throughout the automotive industry.

Driverless cars are also likely to create new business opportunities and have a broad reach, touching companies and industries beyond the automotive industry and giving rise to a wide range of products and services.

We currently have Uber developing a driverless vehicle, and Google advancing its driverless car and investigating a ridesharing model.

Meanwhile, Apple is reportedly gearing up to challenge Telsa in electric cars and Silicon Valley is extending its reach into the auto industry.

These developments signal the creation of an entirely new shared economy businesses that will tap into a new market that could see smart mobility seamlessly integrated in our lives.

Consider, for example, the opportunity to provide mobility as a service using shared on-demand driverless vehicle fleets. Research by Deloitte shows that car ownership is increasingly making less sense to many people, especially in urban areas.

Individuals are finding it difficult to justify tying up capital in an under-utilised asset that stays idle for 20 to 22 hours every day. Driverless on-demand shared vehicles provide a sensible option as a second car for many people and as the trend becomes more widespread, it may also begin to challenge the first car.

Results from a recent study by the International Transport Forum that modelled the impacts of shared driverless vehicle fleets for the city of Lisbon in Portugal demonstrates the impacts. It showed that the city's mobility needs can be delivered with only 35% of vehicles during peak hours, when using shared driverless vehicles complementing high capacity rail. Over 24 hours, the city would need only 10% of the existing cars to meet its transportation needs.

The Lisbon study also found that while the overall volume of car travel would likely increase (because the vehicles will need to re-position after they drop off passengers), the driverless vehicles could still be turned into a major positive in the fight against air pollution if they were all-electric.

It also found that a shared self-driving fleet that replaces cars and buses is also likely to remove the need for all on-street parking, freeing an area equivalent to 210 soccer fields, or almost 20% of the total kerb-to-kerb street space.


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  • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Max Hyre on Saturday November 07 2015, @08:27PM

    by Max Hyre (3427) <reversethis-{moc.oohay} {ta} {eryhxam}> on Saturday November 07 2015, @08:27PM (#260098)
    At least for me. I won't have an EZ-pass [wikipedia.org] because the government has no need to know when I make a trip on a toll road. I've even worked out routes around the toll points that have no cash lane.

    So, how much less do I want a car that reports every trip I make, in detail, to some corporation? (And only one request away from the government having the info.) Do you really want to be trapped in a car being subjected to advertising from your destination store's competitors? And that's the least of it.

    With luck, I'll be dead befor they outlaw human-driven vehicles. Somehow I don't see the electorate rising up to insist on privacy.
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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 07 2015, @10:34PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 07 2015, @10:34PM (#260128)

    I used to think like you -- avoid the EZ-Pass, since it's nobody's business when and where I travel.

    Then, I realized all toll booths have cameras, and are 99% likely taking a snapshot of my license plate, OCR-ing it, and storing it in some computer forever.

    Once you internalize that, the EZ-Pass no longer makes any difference, might as well save yourself the hassle of waiting in line at the single remaining cash tollbooth...

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 07 2015, @11:09PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Saturday November 07 2015, @11:09PM (#260136)

      You used to think like him, and then you decided to hand over your information on a silver platter. Since keeping your privacy is hard, you might as well give up whatever remaining privacy you have. Give up and reduce your chances of success to zero. Brilliant activism!

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @04:50AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @04:50AM (#260245)

        nothing on that silver platter "they" weren't taking from me already, that was my whole point.

        I'd love to deny them whatever information they *don't* already have, but adding hours of backroads to my commute to accomplish that crosses into "cutting off one's nose to spite one's face"...

        • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @10:17AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @10:17AM (#260285)

          Well, your point is an outright exaggeration. The government is neither all-knowing nor omnipresent. There are also methods you can use to obscure your license plate from license plate readers without completely covering it up.

          but adding hours of backroads to my commute to accomplish that crosses into "cutting off one's nose to spite one's face"...

          So you *can* accomplish it. Yet you choose not to. The more people accept injustice, the more it will prevail. Challenge injustices in every aspect of your life.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @12:01AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @12:01AM (#260157)
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @04:59AM

        by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @04:59AM (#260246)

        So there' s the polycarbonate reflective flash shielding, and the market for that is "noisy" (i.e. there's so much cheap crap that probably doesn't work that it's hard to pick the one that actually does). Then there's people driving around with license plates shielded so darkly that one can't see it with the naked eye, which is just asking for the cops to pull you over and mess with you. This LED gimmick falls into the same category (cop car pulling up behind you, if their license plate reader shows yours looking "weird", you're in for some fun times).

        I don't want to play bullshit cat and mouse games with the cops. As long as my plate is visible to the naked eye, there'll eventually be a technology that can read it automatically, in relatively short time. Anything else is like asking the cops to kick me, so no thanks.

        I guess while I'm at it I could put on a fart can and a spoiler wing as well :)

        "If EVERYONE just started acting like ricers the cops can't pull us ALL over, man!" is a nice fantasy, I've had it many times, but then I wake up, get in the car, and drive to work, like every other schlub.

        Have any *realistic* suggestions ?

        • (Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Sunday November 08 2015, @10:25AM

          by Anal Pumpernickel (776) on Sunday November 08 2015, @10:25AM (#260288)

          I don't want to play bullshit cat and mouse games with the cops.

          Your 'solution' seems to be to give up and let government thugs violate your privacy with impunity. You don't want to take any risks when challenging evil, and if something that will help you take back some of your privacy now won't work perfectly or work forever, you simply give up and allow your privacy to be violated. This is such a self-defeating attitude and why the government is able to commit so many wrongs. Those of us who take action against the government will not be discouraged by your lack of concern for freedom.

          "If EVERYONE just started acting like ricers the cops can't pull us ALL over, man!" is a nice fantasy, I've had it many times, but then I wake up, get in the car, and drive to work, like every other schlub.

          Like most cowards, you mean. Not everyone is like you.

          Have any *realistic* suggestions ?

          Accept that challenging evil can be risky and that no solution is going to be absolutely perfect. Don't expect a perfect solution to the issue of mass surveillance of public places, but try the best ones that are available to screw over the surveillance as much as you can.

          You seem to have some amount of desire for freedom, but you have no desire to actually fight for it or take risks to get it. If everyone were like you, we would have no freedom whatsoever. Luckily, there are people who will fight for freedom and take risks doing it, and you will reap the rewards despite doing nothing and attempting to discourage the activists the entire time.

          • (Score: 1) by khallow on Sunday November 08 2015, @04:23PM

            by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Sunday November 08 2015, @04:23PM (#260384) Journal

            no solution is going to be absolutely perfect

            I think his concern is about the "solutions" that are very distant from perfect.

            but then I wake up, get in the car, and drive to work, like every other schlub.

            Is also a solution for dealing with surveillance and one that is nearer to perfection than to stand out as the one in a thousand people interfering with surveillance in a blatantly obvious way.

            • (Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Monday November 09 2015, @08:52PM

              by Anal Pumpernickel (776) on Monday November 09 2015, @08:52PM (#260919)

              I think his concern is about the "solutions" that are very distant from perfect.

              Whereas he has none of his own except to give up, which is significantly worse.

              Is also a solution for dealing with surveillance and one that is nearer to perfection than to stand out as the one in a thousand people interfering with surveillance in a blatantly obvious way.

              That's a solution for "dealing with" surveillance, not for getting rid of it. It seems few people want to take any risks in the name of freedom, but that doesn't stop them from wanting freedom. Oh, well; as usual, the majority is useless.

              • (Score: 1) by khallow on Monday November 09 2015, @09:36PM

                by khallow (3766) Subscriber Badge on Monday November 09 2015, @09:36PM (#260938) Journal

                That's a solution for "dealing with" surveillance, not for getting rid of it.

                No different from your not quite absolutely perfect solution.

                • (Score: 2) by Anal Pumpernickel on Tuesday November 10 2015, @12:22AM

                  by Anal Pumpernickel (776) on Tuesday November 10 2015, @12:22AM (#260992)

                  Not really, because you're trying to thwart the surveillance's effectiveness, and perhaps doing so in a visible way. If enough people do this, the surveillance will become less useful. Also, if more people do this, even more people may join in as it gains more publicity. If worthless government thugs harass people over this, that just means even more publicity.

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @06:55PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday November 08 2015, @06:55PM (#260439)

    Yeah, because the government can't read license plates. SMH

    Also, this mindset of 'free' transit is silly. Trains are pretty cool, but they go where they go. There's no flexibility. Between a train and walking, I'm pretty good. Along that same line, merely seeing what tollbooths I use is about as detailed a view into my personal life as noticing I wear Levis. "Whoa, I went downtown again. You got me there, big brother. Care to guess where I went? Nope, not the concert. Nope, not a bar. No mistress. Uh-uh, too late for clothes shopping or a job... (etc)'.

    If you want your privacy protected, get it at the point of origin: illegalize gathering and retaining individual activity data. It's harder, bordering on impossible in a corporatocracy. But obsessing about the rest of these things is nibbling at data sources rather than the database they feed. Kill one source, another springs up. Go for the core. Or we'll just be tracked due to facial recognition via surveilance cameras, the things we buy, the less-vigilant people we associate with, our cellphones nattering with LTE power poles (was that a story here or on /.?), etc.