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[freeformschooler]

Can I just say freeformschooler, for all that was bad in the picture you painted, I'm struggling to see that a world where everyone (or at least everyone in this country that apparently is both the USA and China, which is something I don't think you will see happen until there is actually a one world government) has a minimum of income that allows for not only them, but at least a baby and possibly a spouse, to live in cartoon levels of excess, as worse then a world where people are actually dying of want of basic necessities. Basically, it's bad, but actually better then the real world.

Oh, definitely. In fact, even Idiocracy's future sounded better than what it looks like we're headed toward right now.

[forsaken1111]

I also imagine automated cars wouldn't be able to deal with off road conditions, such as driving on property, four wheel driving etc.

Why? If humans can operate machinery in any situation, robots can operate it better.

Robots will have tools to map the ground ahead of them, unlike humans who can't see through foliage and grass. Conceivably a robot car could indeed navigate on offroad terrain better than a human.

[Sergarr]

But anyway, there's nothing that can take out an inactive car that wouldn't also cause a thousand other, much worse problems.

4chan hacker assault?

[10ebbor10]

But anyway, there's nothing that can take out an inactive car that wouldn't also cause a thousand other, much worse problems.

4chan hacker assault?

A decently designed car is not connected to the internet. Or at least, doesn't have it's driving systems connected to the internet.

GPS is all it needs, and it can skim the radio for traffic reports.

[Sergarr]

Radio based virus? 

[forsaken1111]

Radio based virus? 

Oh noes it might infect your speakers?

[i2amroy]

Alternatively even if they were connected to each other in some way, say for sharing immediate road condition data (which would require your hacker to be in a nearby car), it's fully possible to sanitize things so that they can't take over your car, and it's also fully possible to implement some things which would cause a source to be flagged as "hacked" and then ignored from then on (possibly when they try to drive you off the road/report problems that are confirmed to not exist by other cars [which would mean that said system could temporarily cause problems, but no lasting ones]). Link it to a hardware-linked ID and you couldn't even proxy your way around something like that easily (and would allow for potential identification of the hacker by law enforcement).

I'm not going to say that it's infallible, but I'd be willing to bet that even if you added the total number of crashes due to potential hacks the number would still be much lower than that of human crashes. And hey, maybe that becomes just like oil changes, where every X thousand miles they suggest that you upgrade your software at the mechanics shop.

[Frumple]

Radio based virus? 

Or someone would jack the radio signal and give false info, more likely. It's not like the tech's hard to find... you can buy short-ranged ones in like walmart and junk.

Which is probably why you wouldn't have them skim radio. Something internet-based would be considerably more likely. Alternately, some kind of intermittent pulse system or confirmation signal or somethin', to make things more difficult for aspiring troublemakers/make sure the information's coming from a trusted source. Plenty of things you could do to make it more trouble than it's worth.

[Sergarr]

Alternatively even if they were connected to each other in some way, say for sharing immediate road condition data (which would require your hacker to be in a nearby car), it's fully possible to sanitize things so that they can't take over your car, and it's also fully possible to implement some things which would cause a source to be flagged as "hacked" and then ignored from then on (possibly when they try to drive you off the road/report problems that are confirmed to not exist by other cars [which would mean that said system could temporarily cause problems, but no lasting ones]). Link it to a hardware-linked ID and you couldn't even proxy your way around something like that easily (and would allow for potential identification of the hacker by law enforcement).

I'm not going to say that it's infallible, but I'd be willing to bet that even if you added the total number of crashes due to potential hacks the number would still be much lower than that of human crashes. And hey, maybe that becomes just like oil changes, where every X thousand miles they suggest that you upgrade your software at the mechanics shop.

False "upgrade software" stations, then?

[10ebbor10]

Probably hard to pull of, and won't be a problem on a major scale.

[i2amroy]

Yeah, if the only places you can get it upgraded at are registered mechanics shops it would probably have the same risk as losing your credit card numbers to a hacked ATM/gas pump. Less actually, since you would very easily be able to track a car hacking like that back to the mechanics it was serviced at (just like they give you documentation for where you last had your oil changed), while you can't track a credit card number back to the gas station)

[Sergarr]

Yeah, if the only places you can get it upgraded at are registered mechanics shops it would probably have the same risk as losing your credit card numbers to a hacked ATM/gas pump. Less actually, since you would very easily be able to track a car hacking like that back to the mechanics it was serviced at (just like they give you documentation for where you last had your oil changed), while you can't track a credit card number back to the gas station)

If that information is stored electronically, then it can be easily faked.

[i2amroy]

What information? I'm talking about the physical slip of paper that mechanics shops give you after you get your car worked on that states that they worked on it, how long any sort of warranty covers them, and when you should next come in for things like oil changes. (And that many people stuff into their glove compartment and then promptly forget about ).

[RedKing]

One wonders if the Google taxis will come with a Google Translate applet that will talk to you in a different language just to keep the flavor of original taxicabs. 

I'm cautiously optimistic about this concept but I think that, similar to the Amazon "Drone-A-Gram" thing, it only really lends itself to high-density areas. For a place like Montana, people are going to keep their trucks because a "drive into town" could be 50 miles or more.

The other issues are price-point and accessibility. Someone made the analogy to cell phones and how widespread adoption was 15-20 years behind introduction.

Spoiler: Charty chart. (click to show/hide)

Things really start to accelerate around 1994 and begin flattening out in 2006 (probably more due to market saturation than pricepoint).

In 1994, the biggest seller was the Motorola StarTAC which was $1,000 a pop but was also a mere 3.1 ounces, unlike its predecessors which had been in the range of 1-2 POUNDS. So there's the accessibility part.

By 2001-2002, when you hit that 50/50 split between landlines and mobiles, you could snag a Palm Treo or a Nokia for about $180. That's where the pricepoint is hit, I think. Of course, calculating a true pricepoint is tough because of the varying prices for plans (where most of the cost has been offloaded over time). People drop their landlines for mobiles when the cost of the phone (prorated over expected life of the phone) + monthly plan + perceived utility cost >= monthly cost of landline. In other words, you might wind up paying $10 more a month in actual cost, but the utility cost of being able to have your phone with you anywhere is greater than $10/month to you, so you switch.


I think the accessibility part is going to be pretty damn high initially for these. There's a large base of Google users and a large base of mobile phone users, and they overlap pretty well. So the early adopter portion of the curve might be pretty sharp. It's getting the price point down for everyone else that will take some time. People in San Fran, NYC, Los Angeles.....they might be willing to pay $2.50 a mile or $20 a ride or what have you -- still beats the price of car ownership in big cities like that (especially New York, where travel distances are relatively short and garage/parking space is super-expensive).

[Loud Whispers]

I've been looking into that, and nobody seems to know yet. But I can think of a lot of reasons why it would be cheap. In fact, apparently google is looking into making it a free service

The future freaks me out.

Sure is terrifying.
They'll probably track where users travel, where they leave and sell that information [this is already done with most electronic cards that track some form of currency/"loyalty"] to build customer profiles and

to users who are willing to watch ads during their trip

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH