Uber was supposed to help traffic. It didn’t. Robotaxis will be even worse::px-captcha

  • bob_wiley@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    The only thing that will help traffic is reducing the need for cars… the things that cause traffic.

    Actually good trains and bus systems, actually good bike infrastructure, mixed use spaces that allow people to walk to stuff.

    Reduce the need for cars, reduce the volume of traffic. It’s not easy politically, but probably easier than making a robotaxi.

    Maybe this is what the article said, it was behind some kind of paywall, so I don’t know.

    • grue@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      Actually good trains and bus systems, actually good bike infrastructure, mixed use spaces that allow people to walk to stuff.

      You forgot the single biggest factor: quit mandating low density. In order for walkability to happen, more trip origins and destinations need to be closer together.

      • Eager Eagle@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Exactly. In my first time in the US I would spend weeks astonished by the terrible use of land they make of it. Then I discovered businesses were forced by law to build these stupidly large parking lots.

  • NarrativeBear@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    It’s almost like we need to prioritize a better form of interconnected transportation that’s more efficient at moving larger amounts of people with a small foot print.

    1000005111

    To clarify, it does not have to be a bus, but it can be a tram, train, subway, elevated rail, cable car, bike, scooter.

    • sugartits@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      It’s almost like people don’t enjoy sharing rides with crackheads that don’t really reach their destination…

      • Mdotaut801@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        Agree. I literally have to drive to work. There’s a public transit stop right by my house but then I’d have to take 1 more train, and 2 busses to get within 10 ish blocks of my office. No thanks. Especially in the winter when the homeless chill in the trains and busses taking rips off their crack pipes thinking they’re being sneaky. It smells like burnt plastic. I know what you’re doing. I’m not going to put myself around that.

        • 1847953620@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          No idea why you’re getting down voted. Ignoring issues with public transportation is only going to repel people who could otherwise be convinced it’s viable and also more likely that those issues are never addressed in the first place.

      • NarrativeBear@lemmy.world
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        1 year ago

        As valid you point is, it also holds true for taking a Uber Pool or Robo taxi where a drunk or crackhead decided to jump in and join you, or you them.

        The only difference being if it happens on a Uber Pool ride you don’t have the option of “jumping on the next one” without forking over a sum of money or canceling your trip.

        Not to mention at the same time you are stuck in the same congestion caused by a inefficient (though comfortable?) mode of transportation.

  • malloc@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Can’t read the article since it’s behind a paywall.

    Uber/Lyft and ride share companies in general put more cars on the road. Even worse, most of them just sitting idle waiting for the app to send them a fare (idling vehicles bad for environment).

    Robotaxis are no different. Most of them will just sit idle or drive around aimlessly until a rider(s) are assigned. If conditions are less than ideal, then they are often just found sitting until the conflict can be resolved.

    Witnessed multiple times where an automated car just sits at a light with hazards on because the light was broken due to recent power surge. Just 1 downed vehicle in a 3 lane road in downtown area caused significant traffic to pile up.

    I just want sane non-car centric infrastructure. Why is that so hard for this country to do? Need to undo this 1950s era of urban planning and transportation.

  • NeoNachtwaechter@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Uber was supposed

    Uber was never supposed to do anything good.

    In their beginning, Uber was a special purpose vehicle for Big Tech (=their investors) to perform political changes in all kinds of foreign countries, making them compliant, using methods that the others couldn’t use openly.

    After their evil head has left, they are just another startup that has become big and fat and brainless.

  • aesthelete@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Being stuck in “traffic” surrounded by empty cars would make me want to walk into the ocean.

  • DarienGS@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Robotaxis could potentially help traffic by being smaller than current cars. The vast majority of journeys shouldn’t require anything bigger than a Renault Twizy.

  • scarabic@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Ridesharing apps could try to reduce the number of cars in the road but that would slow down their service. They can optimize anything they choose to, but right now they have been trying to flood the market with many drivers so rides are available quick with low prices. They don’t care about congestion or drivers. This is what you get.

    The fact that more car rides happen with ridesharing should have been predictable, I guess. Suddenly car transport is available to people who can’t afford the high costs of keeping their own car in NYC. And it eliminates the parking problem.

  • credit crazy@lemmy.world
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    1 year ago

    Maybe because Im a car guy who enjoys driving but a self driving car is not only at best not even fixing car dependency but at least with a conventional car I can shift self driving cars I see being extremely boring to use there’s a reason why I always use my bike for my daily commute and my car as a weekly whip and the country side