I need to know when driverless taxis will roam the streets of Edinburgh

[andrewducker]

Context.

Poll #26807

Open to: Registered Users, detailed results viewable to: All, participants: 32

View Respondents

I'll be able to hail a driverless taxi in Edinburgh...

View Answers

in 2022
0 (0.0%)

in 2025
1 (3.1%)

in 2027
1 (3.1%)

in 2030
9 (28.1%)

in 2035
3 (9.4%)

in 2050
6 (18.8%)

in 2100
2 (6.2%)

never
10 (31.2%)

Comments

[qilora]

in *Edinburgh*??? i don't know... the Scots in my family are VERY resistant to change hahaahahha

[channelpenguin]

I don't understand why we, as punters should care or want driverless taxis (or vehicles in general).

I TOTALLY get why taxi/trucking/etc firms want this, but to normal folks what's the gain?

(In fact, loss - as in fewer jobs ...)

If you do look forward to this, please explain!

[andrewducker]

I wish to travel to places that public transport doesn't go to, with a vehicle for exploring it. I can't afford a driver for a week, but I could afford to rent a car for a week.

[channelpenguin]

Ah. A definite use case - but pretty rare, I would think? Most people have driving licenses and just hire cars for that requirement. (As I did until I moved to the back of beyond).

It also helped me that here in Germany (as in Denmark and the Netherlands) it's pretty easy to take bicycles on trains, buses and trams, with plenty of room for them, which is handy to extend the reachable / exploring range once you. Esp. now with e-bikes so you don't have to be so fit or committed to go reasonable distances. I'm happy to do 20km + round trips and call it fun but not everyone can do that on a non-e-bike!

[anna_wing]

I would love to be able to do that, since I prefer not to drive on my own in a strange country, and possibly on what I consider the wrong side of the road. Not to mention other culture-shock-type things, like discovering that in some countries one has to fill up one's own petrol tank, by oneself (!!!) rather than leaving it to the attendant. I have still never actually done it, nor wish to (at the time, I was being driven by a friend; she did it, while I observed nervously).

[channelpenguin]

Wow. We live in different worlds. Literally none of your concerns have ever occurred to me. :-). I grew up riding a motorbike on the left - happily rode on the right on holidays. I later drove a car and then very many hire cars and vans on either side of the road.

I grew up filling my own tanks - like ... oooh I dunno how many million UK and EU drivers. It would never occur to me that that could occasion any nervousness. The worst you can do is drip some. No sorry, the worst you can do is get diesel on your hands - but they have disposable gloves to prevent that (it's not fatal or anything, but it's really really not good for your skin which may well react badly). And tissues to wipe up if you do drip diesel. ALL MOTORCYCLISTS BEG YOU PLEASE DO WIPE UP DIESEL SPILLS (very slippy).

Like my dad, I've never minded driving itself either, no matter what vehicle or where. :-).

Now, filling a boat with diesel when it's wavy and you're on your own and it's about to run out? That's a tad nerve-wracking :-). [I once went aground and had to haul the boat off using the anchor and my own not-so-huge strength!]. So I'll assume that's how filling your own car would feel to you :-)

[drplokta]

The gain for you is very simple; they will be cheaper. If one company had a monopoly on driverless taxis then they could exploit it to make enormous profit margins at prices similar to current taxis. But that’s very unlikely, and as soon as there are two companies competing, prices will fall.

[channelpenguin]

I find that a bit naive. The cost savings will not be passed on in full to the customer, except in the "undercutting all competitors out of business" phase that will precede the monopoly (or duo / tri opoly with mutual price fixing / turf division). At which point the price gouging will resume.

Going on past performance...

[danieldwilliam]

About 2/3rds of the cost of the cost per mile of a taxi is the driver.

In Edinburgh that would make a taxi to take me and my son door to door from our flat to the rugby club for training in our own vehicle with room for 3 kit bags cheaper than going on the bus from *nearly* our door to *nearly* the door of the rugby club.

Of course the bus would be cheaper too if autonomous vehicles were a thing.

Secondly, over night travel from Edinburgh to London. I get my own cabin on a sleeper service for £50, door to door, instead of £200 for the actual sleeper train.

Also, no having to talk to taxi drivers.

[channelpenguin]

See my other comment.

If you don't want to talk to a taxi driver, (beyond the necessary to do business with a bare minimum of respect for the fact that they are a fellow human being and not a servant) then just don't? :-)

[naath]

I don't (can't) drive, I would like cheap options for travel.

[channelpenguin]

I never realised how many people in the UK can't drive! (In Germany it's FAR more expensive and difficult to learn, and trains are cheaper so I expect it more).

But as I've said above, I'm pretty sure that (except perhaps in an initial phase) driverless will NOT equal cheap.

I'm not sure why so many people think the transport companies will (longterm) have any interest in making it cheap.There's only so many taxis the roads
can handle and unless it means MASSIVELY fewer private cars, not so much chance to increase numbers. So they will want as much profit as possible. (See my prev comment on monopoly / cartel).

[naath]

I never really bothered todrive, but now I physically can't, so. I guess you may be right aboutthe non cheapness. I mostly prefer the bus, but that is not always possible.

[benwerd]

I’m really skeptical of driverless cars. On freeways / motorways: yes. On winding city streets: a looooong time to come.

[andrewducker]

Are they not doing winding roads in San Francisco?

[autopope]

I've driven in San Francisco. San Francisco is wildly well-designed for autonomous vehicles compared to Edinburgh.

(Grid system, roads are mostly straight, lanes are wide by British standards, no cobblestones, no happy-fun "this street is a staircase" experiences, etc. Short of trying self-driving cars in the developing world with dirt tracks and no convention to drive on one side or t'other of the road, Edinburgh is close to a worst case.)

[mellowtigger]

They tested out A.I. shuttles here in downtown Minneapolis a few years ago. The "Key findings" summary is a good laundry list of problems with operating in cold/snowy climates like ours. Not just visual but also mechanical. :( It makes me sad that we'll have it later than other people.
https://www.itskrs.its.dot.gov/its/benecost.nsf/ID/5cad4dad7b5a44408525842b005f5c25