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from the I'm-sorry-Dave,-I-can't-do-that dept.
[...] some experts believe as much as 95% of passenger miles could be electric, autonomous by 2030, thanks to some basic economics. Because electric vehicles cost a whole lot less to drive and maintain—but more to buy—and because autonomous vehicles greatly reduce the cost of commercial driving, a combination of the two technologies will make autonomous Transportation as a Service exponentially more cost competitive than either owning a car, or hiring a car and driver. It's also exponentially more profitable for car companies, who have long feared the loss of maintenance and service profits associated with a transition to electric cars.
This question will come up more frequently as self-driving technology advances. Will perfection of that technology make a difference, though, in the face of social behaviors that have been deeply ingrained over the past century?
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Wednesday July 26 2017, @09:59PM (1 child)
Flip that around, though, and say "until there's a gas station on every forecourt, including in rural areas I'll never consider an ICE." Clearly that's not the case, and yet people still do own ICEs.
If you are driving 500-600 miles per day or more, you're likely a trucker or a delivery guy. Fuel costs are a significant marginal cost to doing business, so finding a way to maintain operations on that route with recharging would help your bottom line a lot. If you're not a trucker or delivery guy with a regular route, but rather a travelling salesman or insurance investigator or something, you're probably going to be assigned to a region and you could figure out a way to make sure you take your half-hour lunch at a convenient charge point every day. Dollars to donuts you already probably refuel at the same gas stations every day anyway but just don't think about it that way.
Maybe none of that still fits your edge case, but it might. If you can save a lot on fuel costs and the higher maintenance cost of ICEs, it might be worth a second look.
Washington DC delenda est.
(Score: 2) by zocalo on Wednesday July 26 2017, @11:49PM
Absolutely agree on the cost issues; I could probably save quite a bit (at least with current comparative costs), not to mention cut back on the pollution I'm creating which bothers me as well, but right now the logistics of a pure EV are just too much of a stretch. On the plus side, the number of EV charging points in the UK is going up fast (262 points in the last 30 days [zap-map.com], apparently) so I figure if I go with a hybrid for my next car, then if this initiative works as well as I hope it will, then combined with further tech advances by the time I'm thinking about my next-car-but-one a pure-EV might actually be doable.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!