Not necessarily. I can see there being a business model for both short term rentals (taxi) or longer term rentals (rent-a-car).
There is another factor. While one might be able to take a car to the parks a bit easier if they were self-driving, what would be the fun in that? One of the big "adventures" of Disney *is* being able to ride the monorail...because it's a monorail! Who wants to take a boring old car when there is a monorail!
I can see a market for a short term rental market for travelers. If, for instance, I were to take a road trip and need to have my luggage with me from stop to stop, I'd rather not have to deal with multiple vehicles irrespective of the driving status.
This brings up the point that, to a large extent, the utility of a vehicle is as a mobile equipment locker. Unless folks can address this separately, I suspect at least some folks will continue to own them.
There is another factor. While one might be able to take a car to the parks a bit easier if they were self-driving, what would be the fun in that? One of the big "adventures" of Disney *is* being able to ride the monorail...because it's a monorail! Who wants to take a boring old car when there is a monorail!
This brings up the point that, to a large extent, the utility of a vehicle is as a mobile equipment locker. Unless folks can address this separately, I suspect at least some folks will continue to own them.
Do most people really need mobile equipment lockers though? Or do they just use them as such because the space exists, similar to how a lot of people use their garages and yet never seem to be able to fit their cars inside? (Obviously people who need mobile offices or specialized work vehicles would have different needs than the person whose primary vehicle need is simply transportation.)
For me, I only keep car registration, ice scraper, jumper cables, first aid kit, water, car manual, and reusable grocery bags in mine. Oh and an umbrella. But I think a rental self-driving car would eliminate the need for most if not all of those things.
bekkilyn wrote:There is another factor. While one might be able to take a car to the parks a bit easier if they were self-driving, what would be the fun in that? One of the big "adventures" of Disney *is* being able to ride the monorail...because it's a monorail! Who wants to take a boring old car when there is a monorail!
HAH! I was WAITING for someone to post that! 
There is another factor. While one might be able to take a car to the parks a bit easier if they were self-driving, what would be the fun in that? One of the big "adventures" of Disney *is* being able to ride the monorail...because it's a monorail! Who wants to take a boring old car when there is a monorail!
My mom just took a monorail to take a bus to take a bus. I took an uber and got here before she did despite leaving a half hour after her. The monorail is cool but at a certain point you have to ask how much your vacation time is worth.
jrralls wrote:Have we discussed how self driving cars will affect vacations and vacationing? I'm currently at DisneyWorld and staying at the Polynesian resort, and a large reason of that is the convienve of being able to get on the monorail and go directly to the parks.
But. If self driving cars were super common would I do so? I'm not sure. Taking a 20 minute self-driving car from an off site hotel to the park wouldn't be that different, time wise, then monorailing it and it would actually be easier logistics wise.
Cheaper vacations as people won't care as much if they are super close to the object of the vacation, be it beach or theme park or whatever?
You're not wrong, but it's statistically insignificant..
Eh. If the global hotel industry experiences a 20% drop in revenue due to self driving cars (completely plausible) that's a drop that's bigger than the entire global video game industriy's entire world wide revenue.
bekkilyn wrote:There is another factor. While one might be able to take a car to the parks a bit easier if they were self-driving, what would be the fun in that? One of the big "adventures" of Disney *is* being able to ride the monorail...because it's a monorail! Who wants to take a boring old car when there is a monorail!
My mom just took a monorail to take a bus to take a bus. I took an uber and got here before she did despite leaving a half hour after her. The monorail is cool but at a certain point you have to ask how much your vacation time is worth.
I agree that Disney's transportation, though convenient, is not the fastest overall. I typically count on an hour from place to place except for around the monorail loop.
However, I don't know any single destination that requires a monorail -> bus -> bus combo. Where was that? Maybe I can help.
bekkilyn wrote:There is another factor. While one might be able to take a car to the parks a bit easier if they were self-driving, what would be the fun in that? One of the big "adventures" of Disney *is* being able to ride the monorail...because it's a monorail! Who wants to take a boring old car when there is a monorail!
My mom just took a monorail to take a bus to take a bus. I took an uber and got here before she did despite leaving a half hour after her. The monorail is cool but at a certain point you have to ask how much your vacation time is worth.
But it's not the monorail's fault that multiple buses were also added into the mix! Even just leaving the monorail out, dealing with the buses would make everything slower.
jrralls wrote:bekkilyn wrote:There is another factor. While one might be able to take a car to the parks a bit easier if they were self-driving, what would be the fun in that? One of the big "adventures" of Disney *is* being able to ride the monorail...because it's a monorail! Who wants to take a boring old car when there is a monorail!
My mom just took a monorail to take a bus to take a bus. I took an uber and got here before she did despite leaving a half hour after her. The monorail is cool but at a certain point you have to ask how much your vacation time is worth.
I agree that Disney's transportation, though convenient, is not the fastest overall. I typically count on an hour from place to place except for around the monorail loop.
However, I don't know any single destination that requires a monorail -> bus -> bus combo. Where was that? Maybe I can help.
Epcot to Wilderness Lodge to Hoopdee doo rveiew.
Epcot to Wilderness Lodge to Hoopdee doo rveiew.
I'd usually take the bus from Epcot to Fort Wilderness or Wilderness Lodge. No monorail. It'd cut 15-20 minutes off.
Paleocon wrote:This brings up the point that, to a large extent, the utility of a vehicle is as a mobile equipment locker. Unless folks can address this separately, I suspect at least some folks will continue to own them.
Do most people really need mobile equipment lockers though? Or do they just use them as such because the space exists, similar to how a lot of people use their garages and yet never seem to be able to fit their cars inside? (Obviously people who need mobile offices or specialized work vehicles would have different needs than the person whose primary vehicle need is simply transportation.)
For me, I only keep car registration, ice scraper, jumper cables, first aid kit, water, car manual, and reusable grocery bags in mine. Oh and an umbrella. But I think a rental self-driving car would eliminate the need for most if not all of those things.
I don't always, but I often have situations where the self driving cab model wouldn't work for me. If, for instance, I have a cooler full of fish and four rods in my car and want to stop for a sit down dinner on the four hour drive back from the beach, I sure as heck don't want to unload the car and bring all that crap into a restaurant.
But a short term rental would. The only variable is how much time you have the car. There's no reason that can't be covered by the same company and plan.
In Seattle you can grab a Car2Go or ReachNow vehicle. You pay by the minute until a certain point, then the rate flattens out to the hour, then the rate flattens to the day. You can rent a car for a day, in this way, for about $60.
That same model can work for a company that operates an automated fleet of cars.
Sounds like it'd work great for those in the city and suburbs, but be cost-ineffective for anyone in rural areas (much like taxi's and uber-type systems are).
xkcd solved the problem:
"Crowdsourced steering" doesn't sound quite as appealing as "self driving."
There's no reason self-driving cars can't be available in multiple plans - leases, purchases, daily/weekly rentals, timeslot scheduled rentals (for example, ridesharing to work and back), hourly rentals, on-demand or scheduled. And I'm still unclear why self-driving cars would be a hit for hotels...?
My guess is that the cars will be available from various companies, and they will offer them in various ways. Disney picks you up today in fancy propaganda-buses at the airport, but they could offer a self-driving car option for the well-off. A small business could lease several cars and offer them as taxis, with or without drivers (drivers will be the prestige option, helping you with luggage, providing conversation and the "human touch"). Heck, that might be the future of taxi companies (although I'm thinking car manufacturers will still hold the paper, to get as much as they can out of the market). Co-ops could spring up with privately held vehicles scheduled and shared among members. National parks could offer self-driving tours.
It's a wide-open market.
Sounds like it'd work great for those in the city and suburbs, but be cost-ineffective for anyone in rural areas (much like taxi's and uber-type systems are).
Believe it or not, city living has the potential to be more ecological and economical than rural living. We will always have the need for urban, suburban, and rural ways of life, but urban is more efficient, if done right.
if done right.
Sadly many city's core layouts were done a very long time ago , before cars were even imagined, and generally did not think of the massive population growth and transportation changes that would occur in the 20th century.
RawkGWJ wrote:if done right.
Sadly many cities core layouts were done a very long time ago , before cars were even imagined, and generally did not think of the massive population growth and transportation changes that would occur in the 20th century.
Most large (and old) cities are designed as a hub, with a dense center and spokes that radiate out from the core. It's an incredibly efficient layout. By necessity more than design. But incredibly efficient, none the less.
fancy propaganda-buses
This is a great description of Disney's Magical Express.
but they could offer a self-driving car option for the well-off.
I mean, this kind of exists in the form of taxis, Uber, Lyft, etc. I don't see how a self-driving car service is significantly different than the ride services that exist today, except they have no need for a human driver.
They'll be cheaper, cleaner, you won't get assaulted by a driver or listen to their auto-tuned turn by turn navigation instructions (seriously)
...auto-tuned turn by turn navigation instructions (seriously)
I need this.
They'll be cheaper, cleaner, ...
That'll be the day.
I keep referring back to Car2Go because it's a great model for how automated cars will go. You rent a car for a few minutes, hours, maybe a day. They're accessible and clean because they're owned by a company that needs them to be accessible and clean, or their customers will go to ReachNow or a bike share or a bus or Lyft.
A company owned fleet of automated cars will follow the exact same model.
I keep referring back to Car2Go because it's a great model. You rent a car for a few minutes, hours, maybe a day. They're accessible and clean because they're owned by a company that needs them to be accessible and clean, or their customers will go to ReachNow or a bike share or a bus or Lyft.
A company owned fleet of automated cars will follow the exact same model.
I could even see the concept of buying a "car pass" similar to how people buy bus passes for people who use them for regular commutes, but without all the extra hassle and expense of owning and maintaining one's own car + insurance.
polypusher wrote:I keep referring back to Car2Go because it's a great model. You rent a car for a few minutes, hours, maybe a day. They're accessible and clean because they're owned by a company that needs them to be accessible and clean, or their customers will go to ReachNow or a bike share or a bus or Lyft.
A company owned fleet of automated cars will follow the exact same model.
I could even see the concept of buying a "car pass" similar to how people buy bus passes for people who use them for regular commutes, but without all the extra hassle and expense of owning and maintaining one's own car + insurance.
One of the things Columbus is working on with the Smart City grant it got is a unified payment system for transit. So you may be able to eventually rent a driverless car that will get you to the pickup point for a driverless shuttle as well as a vanpool that will get you from the dropoff to your final destination, all with one payment. I think we will see a lot of different models, but the one that will (hopefully) dominate urban areas is shared mobility.
Today I...
Drove kids to school: 30 Minutes
Drove home: 30 Minutes.
Drove to pick up kids: 30 minutes.
Drove to costume shop: 15 minutes
Drove to Trunk or Treat party: 15 minutes
Drove home: 20 minutes.
Drove to social even: 30 minutes.
Drove home.
Total driving time: 170 minutes
Today I also...
Played Mario Odyssey for 28 minutes.
If I had a self-driving car, the amount of time I would have played Mario Odyssey today:
198 minutes.
The future cannot get here fast enough.
PREACH!!!
I also fantasize about all the Hearthstone I would play if an AI was controlling my car.
Today I...
Drove kids to school: 30 Minutes
Drove home: 30 Minutes.
Drove to pick up kids: 30 minutes.
Drove to costume shop: 15 minutes
Drove to Trunk or Treat party: 15 minutes
Drove home: 20 minutes.
Drove to social even: 30 minutes.
Drove home.Total driving time: 170 minutes
Today I also...
Played Mario Odyssey for 28 minutes.If I had a self-driving car, the amount of time I would have played Mario Odyssey today:
198 minutes.
Sorry, but I can't help but have the reaction that the true problem that's limiting your time playing video games is the fact that you have kids. Or maybe that you should have waited a lot longer to have kids, you know, when self-driving cars are common.
For the record, this comment is only partially serious. 
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