I have blatantly stolen that headline from Keith Jones over at Ace Parking and his Power 2 Go blog. You can read it all here.
Keith is much more kind to the AV industry than I have been over the years. I think it’s simple. They have overhyped their product and, in many cases, simply lied about it. As I have said time and again, privately owned level 5 vehicles simply aren’t in the foreseeable future. However, if you think about buses, long range freighters, taxis and the like, yes they are just around the corner.
It’s all based on economics, not technology. If you can take the driver out of the vehicle, you save a huge amount of money but really only if the vehicle’s purpose is to generate money. Like a semi hauling freight to Chicago, or an Uber of Lyft hauling you to the local watering hole.
Taking the driver out of a privately owned vehicle doesn’t really make economic sense. You aren’t being paid to drive. In fact, you might even enjoy sitting behind the wheel (Ok as long as it’s not parked on the 405.)
Keith takes a more academic approach than I do. He actually quotes people who know something about the topic. That probably comes of being a philosophy major from NYU. I have a tendency to look out the window and report what I see. Keith studies the topic and quotes experts. You may find me quoting Keith more often here in the future.
JVH
