Hey bro I’m THE RACE AND SELF-DRIVING CARS

In Going  back a couple entries  or so,  this  blog offerred  some questions about  predicting  dates of launch, who was  at the table in making decisions?—why sociologists should  be studying this?  Particularly for this blog—is this new  evolution  going to have the full benefit it might for people who  have been largely failed by the current  combinations of transportation systems and vehicles?

In the  entry  just prior to this  the topic of Ford unpredicting something and  expressing  uncertainty was  discussed at least at a primary  level.  Some of the statistics about self-driving and the public’s opinion were brought under some scrutiny.   Well that’s as  good as any  place to resume the discussion today.

A recent study of what cars do when they are  not driving around—-yes staying parked—was  done both in the United states and in a couple of european countries.  Well it may  surprise  most people that these cars we value  so much and pay so much attention to how they  drive spend  over 90% of their  lifetime not moving around  at all.  In Europe it was estimated that a car spends  92% of its  time parked and in the U.S.  cars spend about 95% of their time parked.  

So I guess the first question to be answered is  really how do we  use these valuable tools for moving people around to actually  move people around?  This has nothing do with who is driving, whether  or not  these cars burn  gas or  battery power, it has to do with how do we get  people who are  stuck in their homes and can’t  get to work or the doctor  into some  vehicles  that  are just sitting around rusting, rotting, and otherwise losing their  value? 

SO RIGHT  NOW WE HAVE SELF-NON-DRIVING CARS— how do we  bend the curve on that and have less waste in that  area?

Well there is no doubt we have tried some forms of mass transit such as  subways, light rail, busses, paratransit  etc.  a few  states in a few places  have adopted “car pooling”  lanes and a few employers have  provided  vans that pick up workers  in nearby  localities so that these workers don’t  bring their  own car and park it  in the employers property space.  However, have we ever really studied the actual  transportation (moving around) and vehicle  needs of communities ?  Wouldn’t it be a good time to do this as we  are about to bring a different  combination of  transportation online?   Nay sayers  of self0driving  cars  have made it clear that they believe these vehicles will roam the streets during the day leading to more congestion.  This type of thinking is  logical except for the fact that maybe these vehicles  could be taking children back and forth from day care  or elderly people  out to socialize or to  do a little shopping instead of  what happens now.  Maybe  employers could stagger  work shift  start times  so that  their workforce  shows up  in six shifts a day  instead of 3.  Maybe  a city could  develop a reasonable rate truck rental system so that  people who  now use their  truck  for hauling things about  once every five trips  could  use a communal  truck?  

Maybe big box stores and  big retailers  like Walmart could use the coming  self-drivers  to deliver  prescriptions  to the nursing  home or the homes of patients recently home from the hospital or who could no longer drive a traditional  vehicle.    But if we want to just have cars sitting around doing  nothing for the vast majority  of their life span so be it.  In so many ways this  is a hidden  case of  the “grandma’s  fany china syndrome.—you know we get them out for  Easter, Thanksgiving, and Christmas and Maybe  an anniversary or something otherwise  it’s great value  paper plates.  

Okay let’s move on to  another question and then  taht’s about enough  for today….

What  other questions are being addressed…at what tables… and who is in  and not in the room?  and should we have some social scientists  studying this? 

Well the next entry is really going  to dive into these questions ankle deep but head first.  For now Ihere are some things to think abut.  Are the traditional players (car makers, city planners,  state DOT  officials, City Planners, and  elected officials  the  only people who should be at the table….??? Aren’t these the people who  have brought  us here?  What’s the definition of insanity?   Doing  the same thing over and over again and expecting a different outcome.  Let’s think  about  this and then think  about who else should be at the table.  More tomorrow.