from the to-make-the-cars-green,-they-used-copious-amounts-of-paint dept.
Lyft passengers will soon be able to request a ride in an electric or hybrid vehicle when they're planning a trip.
The ride-hailing company is launching the feature first in Seattle and then in other cities. The option will show up when passengers are choosing between available Lyft vehicles and it will not cost more for riders than traveling in a car with an internal combustion engine.
Lyft is also rolling out electric vehicles in Seattle and Atlanta in the fleet of cars that it rents to Lyft drivers who don't own their own vehicles.
The company met with driver and rider groups in the Pacific Northwest and "the number one thing on the list for passengers and for drivers was green vehicles," said Jon McNeill, chief operating officer of Lyft.
Does requesting an electric car reduce your personal carbon footprint that much after having flown into town on a 747?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 07 2019, @06:01AM (1 child)
Can you see wait times for each before you select one? I imagine one or the other will be in higher demand at any point in time. Is there also a I-don't-care-just-get-here-already option?
(And, no, I didn't RTFA. I prefer to speculate from my uninformed position as is the tradition on this fine site.)
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday February 07 2019, @10:39PM
Just assume that Uber is already setting up a secret campaign to disable them or send them to fake calls, while faking a higher Uber car availability.
(Score: 2) by MichaelDavidCrawford on Thursday February 07 2019, @06:02AM (1 child)
Fuel costs are of great concern to the airlines so the aircraft manufacturers invest heavily in fuel economy technologies, for example the graphite epoxy fuselage of the 787.
I don’t know about the 747 specifically but I once read that as a whole, one gallon of jet fuel transports one passenger sixty miles. Compare that to the most efficient gasoline cars.
Yes I Have No Bananas. [gofundme.com]
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Thursday February 07 2019, @11:26AM
> one gallon of jet fuel transports one passenger sixty miles. Compare that to the most efficient gasoline cars.
Jet fuel is far more similar to diesel than to gasoline when it comes to energy density (so much so military jets can ran on pump diesel in an emergency), so you should compare to the most efficient diesel cars.
A quick search gave me this: https://www.nextgreencar.com/view-car/54735/ford-focus-estate-1.5-tdci-style-econetic-105ps-diesel-manual-6-speed/ [nextgreencar.com]
Its an estate with 5 seats, with a lab-tested 85MPG (and a real life tested 60MPG). Assuming the "real life" MPG, one gallon of fuel can transport 5 passengers and their luggage sixty miles.
As Taxi drivers tend to buy the most efficient cars they can (because fuel is a business cost to them, which they want to minimise), the Taxi ride could well end up being far more fuel efficient than the plane ride there.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 07 2019, @06:11AM (2 children)
I don't want to interact with human.
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday February 07 2019, @03:39PM
Ride in a driverless car and soon you won't interact with any humans -- ever.
Besides, it's not like those humans necessarily want to interact with you. If you hear music playing you know you have the option to just shut the fuck up -- especially if your driver is an Arab or Somalian. He don't want to talk to you.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Thursday February 07 2019, @10:44PM
Flaw in the reasoning : going driverless now will cause long interaction with the police after the sudden unexpected interaction with the pedestrian/cyclist/truck/cab.
Was watching a show where guys were driving through Chinese cities ... Autonomous tech ain't ready, not even close.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by black6host on Thursday February 07 2019, @06:54AM (4 children)
Yes, this may seem like a gimmick. But, the reality is that back when I learned to drive electric cars were the thing of the future. Slowly we're seeing adoption and this really is just one more small piece in a much larger puzzle.
Check back in 20 years and see where we are with EVs.
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Thursday February 07 2019, @11:48AM (2 children)
I don't know, a lot of people seem to think electric cars "are a thing of the future". Fact is they are very much a thing of the past. Electric vechicles pre-date internal combustion. Some of the first motorised vehicles were battery electrics. As such, battery and motor technology has been developing for the last century along with IC Engines.
Yet still, the technology is inferior to ICE. The problem isn't the electric motors, the problem is the batteries. They are a very poor method of storing energy, and it shows, especially when you compare against liquid fuels. That is why historically they are only used where liquid fuels can't be (small portable electronics primarily). Anything big enough to be powered by an ICE and liquid fuel, was done so (assuming no other restrictions).
> Check back in 20 years and see where we are with EVs.
The only reason EVs are popular right now, is because governments are pushing people to buy them with bribes (discounts, subsidies, perks). Nobody I know bought an EV because they wanted an EV, or because it was better than their old car. They bought them because of the perks provided by the government (and usually as a second or third car).
The moment a government stops the perks (like I think Sweden did recently), all the growth in EV purchases collapsed. It is artificial demand, and as soon as governments stop propping up demand, it collapses.
ICE cars became popular because they were clearly better than alternatives, and they are still popular because they are better than the alternatives.
What will happen in 20 years, I am not sure. It could go either way. At some point Governments won't be able to afford the subsidies and perks for EVs, and will stop them. People would then flock back to ICE cars.
Therefore governments would have to restrict availability of ICE cars. Essentially make it so there is no better alternative to EVs anymore, and people would have no choice. Either they pay the full costs of the EV they need, or don't have a car.
I suspect the latter will happen. There will be fewer cars in the western world as people become poorer. As urban cities get denser there just won't be space for cars anymore. Even now, fewer and fewer people can afford a car. You got "car sharing" apps, and taxis for being driven somewhere, plus a bunch of public transport. Not to mention bicycles, including ones with electric/ICE assist. I suspect that will be the main method of mass mobility in the future (mostly bikes, think How China was in the 80s).
Cars will become a thing for the well off only, and probably a mix of ICE and EV, depending on how energy storage technology moves on.
(Score: 2) by black6host on Thursday February 07 2019, @12:23PM (1 child)
Good points you raise. Let's meet up in 2039 and discuss! :)
(Score: 2) by Unixnut on Sunday February 10 2019, @02:06PM
Alas, the universes time system clock is stored as a 32-bit integer, and as such all existence will cease in 2038. Renders the topic a bit moot :-D
I suspect up until then, the world will go through quite some changes. It has changed a lot since the 2000's already.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 07 2019, @12:52PM
idk where you live but around here maybe 1 of every 10 cars on the freeway or around town is electric. Of new cars, maybe 1/4.
Not bad considering EVs are currently either second cars (cheap and low ramge like Leaf, Fiat, etc.) or a $50k+ luxury item (Tesla).
(Score: 1, Offtopic) by aristarchus on Thursday February 07 2019, @07:48AM (1 child)
Hold the mayo, hold the mustard, I want a diesel. And not one that rolls coal, 'cause that is not clean. Give me your
urea!
(Score: 1) by Ethanol-fueled on Thursday February 07 2019, @03:42PM
I will confess to having used Lyfts to get fast-food while drunk, but only in podunk towns where nobody knows who I am and drivers need the money a lot more. But I have never and will never commit the cardinal sin of eating in any car whether mine or that of others.
Once in Vegas during a Lyft ride to get food we even got the driver a bacon ultimate cheeseburger.
(Score: 2) by DeathMonkey on Thursday February 07 2019, @04:36PM
Yes. It reduces your carbon footprint by the same amount regardless of whether you flew beforehand or not.
Also, is there some evidence that most Lyft users are travelling when they use the service? Is it ok to use the service if we're not travelling?
Personally, we use it more at home than abroad but only because we're not abroad as much as we'd like to be.