@marcprecipice@MLNow I’m a software engineer employed by a robot taxi company and I’m intimately familiar with the tech. If there is something about it that makes it unsuitable for use in a public transit system, then I’d really like somebody to explain it to me. I cannot see it.
@janxdevil@MLNow Sure. Cars, self-driving or otherwise, are space- and resource-inefficient. A vehicle transporting a single person (the most common car use) takes up much more space, is much harder on roads, creates much more traffic danger, and requires more infrastructure than a bus or train carrying many people. Investment in public transport also lessens storage cost for cars, which helps improve density in cities, reducing climate harms.
@janxdevil@MLNow I would much rather see huge investment in public transit for longer trips, paired with extensive support for active transportation (walking/biking/scooters) for shorter trips. The amount of public space and tax dollars we invest in cars could be reclaimed for much better and more climate-friendly uses.
@janxdevil@MLNow I imagine you might have seen pictures like this before, showing space utilization for equivalent groups of people by transit method. I think this is a big part of the argument. Self-driving cars arguably worsen the situation by making driving easier and offloading parking responsibility to the cab company, as argued in the ML piece.
Rail can also move a higher volume of people faster than any form of road transport, including buses, because trains can travel much faster, carry many more passengers per vehicle, and aren't slowed down by road traffic (J.H. Crawford, Carfree Cities, 2002).
@CelloMomOnCars I haven't seen any, and I think it's difficult to film the street in France, because of privacy legislation. Either you have to film from a great height, or you need software that blurs people's faces.
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