Christian, it's so refreshing to see an urbanist with a realistic and level-headed take on this stuff. Too many urbanist spaces go into zealot territory (I'm looking at you r/fuckcars). Trains are obviously amazing. But we're not going to have trains connecting every neighborhood to the extent of our road network, probably ever. Robotaxis are hugely important and should be embraced, especially because they unlock much smarter land use patterns in our cities. Have you ridden Waymo yet? I use it all the time. It's awesome & one great thing it offers is the ability to transfer to light-rail when trains are faster than traffic jams.
I took Waymo in San Francisco a few weeks ago when I went to the full service launch of Caltrain. I was impressed and it changed my mind on a lot of things when it came to autonomous vehicles. However, it couldn't beat the convenience and speed of fast electric trains like BART and Caltrain. I think autonomous vehicles will have their place in the future of transportation. I agree with you that there's a lot of frustrating resistance towards the idea. I think it will help greatly with the last mile problem when it comes to the suburbs. My main concerns with autonomous vehicles are capacity and storage. Considering most people commute and drive within the same few hours in the day, you'll have to store a TON of vehicles in strategic locations in preparation of the massive demand that occurs in a short time period. I agree that we need to factor in autonomous vehicles in the future of our transportation. Especially in the suburban environment. However, I'm cautious to fully embrace it.
The personal, private vehicle ownership model vs the TaaS model is what I’m most excited about for autonomous vehicles. The freedom from having to design in expensive parking off-street & accommodating unused vehicles on-street can be a game changer (a term I use sparingly) for urban design & non-car mobility. Every neighborhood in Denver already has sufficient private parking to accommodate the charging spaces needed for peak demand without having to send empty cars to the burbs to recharge-a common criticism.
@brittanyknudson3729 There was a month when UDOT tested out an autonomous shuttle. I got to ride it twice, it was pretty cool. The lines to get on were around 45 minutes, so walking would have been faster, but everyone wanted to try it! The problem is that the tech for that particular shuttle wasn't as developed as it seemed. The route was hard-coded, so it was basically following an imaginary track. If anything blocked the path (like a parked car) the shuttle didn't know how to go around. So there was always a human monitor on board, able to assist the shuttle with a game controller. Both times I rode the shuttle, the driver had to intervene. My takeaways are 1) Autonomous driving is an AI problem, not a detection problem, and 2) public demand is much higher than experts expect.
@@CSLenhartoh cool! I didn't realize that's how it was running. Cool that UDOT was up for trying that! Technology has definitely moved fast since then. I'd love to see them test it out again!
Robotaxi isnt going to replace car ownership or anything else. It will have a place in the sector just like Uber , Fyft ect. Outside of the major metropolitan areas it's not gonna do much. The elevator comparison is dumb. Parroting Elons nonsence.
@bobbybishop5662 There are certainly many people who will always want to own their personal car. Obviously. But I think many people will be surprised by the amount of people who will give up on car ownership as robo transportation services become more common. And yes, that's just my personal prediction. FYI, the elevator analogy predates Tesla's robotaxi ambitions.
Babe get the popcorn. Christian Lenhart posted a transit video. 🔥🔥🔥
Christian, it's so refreshing to see an urbanist with a realistic and level-headed take on this stuff. Too many urbanist spaces go into zealot territory (I'm looking at you r/fuckcars). Trains are obviously amazing. But we're not going to have trains connecting every neighborhood to the extent of our road network, probably ever. Robotaxis are hugely important and should be embraced, especially because they unlock much smarter land use patterns in our cities.
Have you ridden Waymo yet? I use it all the time. It's awesome & one great thing it offers is the ability to transfer to light-rail when trains are faster than traffic jams.
I took Waymo in San Francisco a few weeks ago when I went to the full service launch of Caltrain. I was impressed and it changed my mind on a lot of things when it came to autonomous vehicles. However, it couldn't beat the convenience and speed of fast electric trains like BART and Caltrain. I think autonomous vehicles will have their place in the future of transportation. I agree with you that there's a lot of frustrating resistance towards the idea. I think it will help greatly with the last mile problem when it comes to the suburbs.
My main concerns with autonomous vehicles are capacity and storage. Considering most people commute and drive within the same few hours in the day, you'll have to store a TON of vehicles in strategic locations in preparation of the massive demand that occurs in a short time period.
I agree that we need to factor in autonomous vehicles in the future of our transportation. Especially in the suburban environment. However, I'm cautious to fully embrace it.
The personal, private vehicle ownership model vs the TaaS model is what I’m most excited about for autonomous vehicles. The freedom from having to design in expensive parking off-street & accommodating unused vehicles on-street can be a game changer (a term I use sparingly) for urban design & non-car mobility. Every neighborhood in Denver already has sufficient private parking to accommodate the charging spaces needed for peak demand without having to send empty cars to the burbs to recharge-a common criticism.
First!
Wasn't there an autonomous bus at Farmington Station a while ago? What happened to that?
@brittanyknudson3729 There was a month when UDOT tested out an autonomous shuttle. I got to ride it twice, it was pretty cool. The lines to get on were around 45 minutes, so walking would have been faster, but everyone wanted to try it!
The problem is that the tech for that particular shuttle wasn't as developed as it seemed. The route was hard-coded, so it was basically following an imaginary track. If anything blocked the path (like a parked car) the shuttle didn't know how to go around.
So there was always a human monitor on board, able to assist the shuttle with a game controller. Both times I rode the shuttle, the driver had to intervene.
My takeaways are 1) Autonomous driving is an AI problem, not a detection problem, and 2) public demand is much higher than experts expect.
@@CSLenhartoh cool! I didn't realize that's how it was running. Cool that UDOT was up for trying that! Technology has definitely moved fast since then. I'd love to see them test it out again!
My fear is that excessive propriety and privatization will center the vision around profit and not a comprehensive solution for everybody.
@nathanstrain2158 Definitely a potential problem. But I doubt it will be worse than transit coverage today.
Robotaxi isnt going to replace car ownership or anything else. It will have a place in the sector just like Uber , Fyft ect. Outside of the major metropolitan areas it's not gonna do much. The elevator comparison is dumb. Parroting Elons nonsence.
@bobbybishop5662 There are certainly many people who will always want to own their personal car. Obviously.
But I think many people will be surprised by the amount of people who will give up on car ownership as robo transportation services become more common. And yes, that's just my personal prediction.
FYI, the elevator analogy predates Tesla's robotaxi ambitions.