Future Cars: Electric and Autonomous Vehicles

[LakeCharles]

Good article in the NYTimes about how autonomous vehicles may end up increasing pedestrian fatalities:

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/201 ... e=Homepage

[Multimodal]

I used to think these were the coolest thing, and a great answer.

But the more I learn about land use, transportation, and what we need to do for climate change, I think these will only be used in the very wealthiest areas, where people (1) refuse to bike in the open air, and (2) refuse to allow their neighborhoods to densify.

Of course, those are the very same areas where cul de sacs rule, and where any transportation is extremely inefficient. In which case those very well to do people may well stick to cars.

[David Greene]

Unfortunately accurate.

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[NickP]

I kind of view electric cars like vaping, in that I view neither as an ultimate solution, but I do see them as steps towards the ultimate goals of using lesser fossil fuels/lowering the over all carbon footprint, and decreasing the number of people who smoke.

[Bob Stinson's Ghost]

The potential scenarios for electric vehicles span a wide range of possibilities, from a car-to-go type sharing service using BEV Smartfortwo's, all the way up to Suburbans and Tahoes which are even heavier because they are carrying 2000 LB battery packs. The environmental impacts of these two scenarios would be drastically different.

Is there general agreement here that zero cars should be the goal?

[mister.shoes]

Zero cars, period? Or zero individually-owned cars?

[amiller92]

I kind of view electric cars like vaping, in that I view neither as an ultimate solution, but I do see them as steps towards the ultimate goals of using lesser fossil fuels/lowering the over all carbon footprint, and decreasing the number of people who smoke.

Meanwhile, vaping is how the tobacco industry got the number of people addicted to nicotine to grow again and electric vehicles will be the excuse used to ward off changes that might help decrease car dependence, so, yeah...

[talindsay]

Meanwhile, vaping is how the tobacco industry got the number of people addicted to nicotine to grow again and electric vehicles will be the excuse used to ward off changes that might help decrease car dependence, so, yeah...

It's the auto industry's dream future - people still moving in privately owned single-occupancy vehicles that need to be replaced regularly, with the added benefits of greenwashing and more expensive repairs.

[NickP]

I kind of view electric cars like vaping, in that I view neither as an ultimate solution, but I do see them as steps towards the ultimate goals of using lesser fossil fuels/lowering the over all carbon footprint, and decreasing the number of people who smoke.

Meanwhile, vaping is how the tobacco industry got the number of people addicted to nicotine to grow again and electric vehicles will be the excuse used to ward off changes that might help decrease car dependence, so, yeah...

As a said, not the end solution by any means. I also admit I’m setting a very low bar when I say “step in the right direction.” lol. In addition, for clarity’s sake, when I said ”smoke,” I specifically meant smoke cigarettes. While nicotine is not great, I remember being taught more about the other unhealthy chemicals in cigarettes, like arsenic, formaldehyde, acetone, etc. Since I wasn’t aware of those being used in vaping, I figured vaping was a slight improvement. It’s definitely a superficial view on my part and I’m sorry if I offended.

[talindsay]

According to Wired, the NTSB has determined, among other things, that the Uber self-driving cars weren't programmed to detect pedestrians outside crosswalks (!!!):
https://www.wired.com/story/ubers-self- ... ld-jaywalk