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And I have no doubt that your hard work, dedication, and diligence contributed (if not led entirely) to your current success. I'm no social justice warrior myself, but I have a hard time reconciling the fact that many of my peers, who work long hours framing houses or laying brick or wiring commercial real estate earn a tiny fraction of my salary. Ive happened upon great opportunities in the IT industry and I'm grateful for that fact, but I bear no illusion that because my industry pays a substantially better wage that it somehow makes me a better citizen, friend, or human being.
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There are way too many factors to consider to figure out one way or the other.
No one said that people who make more money are better people. There are terrible people and good people within every level of the economic hierarchy.
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Wow, having read the entire thread, this one paints the picture.
First, understand that how much we get paid = Salary + Rent.
Michael Jordan, for example, made a normal Salary, but a huge RENT.
Rent in this economic sense is the "additional" you pay for a particular piece of property.
In Jordans case, it is how much more you are willing to pay to have his name attached.
The same thing works in every career. There is a base amount of salary it takes to put someone in the chair. The additional amount a company is willing to pay is to get the Specific Features and Benefits that a particular PERSON, DEGREE or SKILL SET brings to the table. This is the RENT side of the equation.
Everyone's goal should be to make the rent side over the salary side. Big Data, right now, pays a bigger rent! Salary is what you make to show up.
Now, your friend, who is a hard working "hard working construction worker" is working a LOW RENT Job.
And a series of them. And with PERSPECTIVE, working TOO HARD at it.
The challenge is that the Salary portion is beat down from competition, and then there is little left to pay RENT on. Either the framing of the house is decent or not. It is not making/breaking the builder.
My father is a Master Electrician. We grew up quite poor. And over time, I realized because he was more interested in being busy, than making a good RENT, and charging more. He would do work so reasonably, he would often lose money on a job, but felt good about it. (He grew up on a farm, and valued hard work over cash. I grew up pretty poor, and valued hard work + cash. I have plenty of both now, LOL).
You friend is choosing to do work that does not pay well. Then he is choosing to work harder at it.
He needs to change how he charges, or who he works for, or what he wants to do. But I bet he loves what he does, and he is happy probably doing it.
But make no mistake about it. You are getting paid RENT for your ability to work with computers. I can't hit a baseball, or shoot a basketball very well. We all have our own talents. Some talents can get paid well, some cannot (think babysitter).
But the caveat to your last sentence is that your friend is a good friend, citizen, etc. He probably just wants for money.
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I agree on the problem statement[^], but I don't necessary agree on the solution as it's just the standard reaction worthy of politicians.
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The vast benefits of robot cars are greater than the negatives.
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Only within a closed system. And it will never be a closed system.
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The first stage will be autonomous cars. And the benefits will vastly outweigh the disadvantages. No more DUIs. Old people will be mobile. Valet parking everywhere. Sleep in the back seat while driving to California. However, airlines will probably suffer.
The second stage will be cooperative systems. When a robot car merges onto a freeway, where other robot cars are driving bumper-to-bumper at 100 mph safely, they will create a gap to let the new car in.
I wish I could live long enough to enjoy it.
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That doesn't refute my comment; it supports it.
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I believe that the problem of circling cars will be self-limiting:
1. The cost of petrol (gas) will eventually outweigh the savings in time
2. If the congestion is high enough, the time waiting for the car to finish its circle will also outweigh the savings achieved by not parking
Furthermore, the congestion argument is partly bogus, too:
Once the car has deposited Dad at work, it will be travelling back to the suburbs against traffic. This will increase congestion leaving the city, but will not affect those entering it.
The only part of the thesis that may be true is the increased petrol consumption due to having to make two trips/day into the city. The cost of this will be offset by only needing one car, as opposed to two or more, per family.
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.
--Winston Churchill
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Daniel Pfeffer wrote: 1. The cost of petrol (gas) will eventually outweigh the savings in time
I believe the vast majority of self driving cars will be electric or at least hybrid. And then you need to define what your time is worth.
Daniel Pfeffer wrote: 2. If the congestion is high enough, the time waiting for the car to finish its circle will also outweigh the savings achieved by not parking
If the congestion is high enough it won't matter at all, will it? So people will save the money of parking.
Daniel Pfeffer wrote: This will increase congestion leaving the city, but will not affect those entering it.
That would depend on where you live, if you live in the outskirts of a singular town that would be mostly true, but if you live in a metropolitan area it could be quite different.
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The problem with many (most?) of these analyses is that they focus on one variable (congestion, in this case), and ignore the many other variables that can affect people's choices.
For example:
1. Given that electric cars are more expensive to manufacture than gasoline cars, how do the economics of a dumb gasoline car compare to those of a smart electric car? What, if any, is the crossover point?
2. At what stage does it become more economical for the individual to have one smart car, rather than two dumb cars?
3. At present only a small percentage of cars are electric. What happens to the demand for electricity (and therefore - to its price) when most cars are electric?
...
I submit that these "side issues" will tend to dominate people's choices at least as much as congestion.
If you have an important point to make, don't try to be subtle or clever. Use a pile driver. Hit the point once. Then come back and hit it again. Then hit it a third time - a tremendous whack.
--Winston Churchill
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Re 2 : Will dumb cars continue to have more prestige than smart cars?
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PIEBALDconsult wrote: Will dumb cars continue to have more prestige than smart cars?
Well it works for celebrities... 
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Daniel Pfeffer wrote: 1. Given that electric cars are more expensive to manufacture than gasoline cars, how do the economics of a dumb gasoline car compare to those of a smart electric car? What, if any, is the crossover point?
Depending on how you compare you'll get a breakeven at around 5-10 years (give or take depending on whether you're pro or against  ). The problem with the electric car is that the second hand value will be crap since the battery pack will need to be exchanged after that.
Daniel Pfeffer wrote: 2. At what stage does it become more economical for the individual to have one smart car, rather than two dumb cars?
Here you have serious economy in numbers. Smart cars cost a lot to develop, but not much extra to produce.
Daniel Pfeffer wrote: 3. At present only a small percentage of cars are electric. What happens to the demand for electricity (and therefore - to its price) when most cars are electric?
This is an interesting one. People are of the general belief that electric cars are efficient, and the answer is: it depends on how you calculate it.
A synchronous electric engine has an efficiency above 90%, LiIon batteries 86% according to Tesla, the grid is at 92%.
So far all is well, but then comes the problem. Electric cars would be an additional drain the electric grid. And since all efficient power sources such as hydro power is more or less already built out.
So the most probable power source would actually be coal power at an efficiency of about 33%. All in all an efficiency of around 24%. Still better than petrol, but not at all by as much as some people claim.
I'm fully aware that there will be people that claim that all added electric power will come from wind and sun, but it's not overly probable in most countries.
Daniel Pfeffer wrote: I submit that these "side issues" will tend to dominate people's choices at least as much as congestion.
Personally I think the vast majority will make their choices purely on economy and comfort.
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It's a stupid idea. I'd rather focus on telecommuting and innovative ways of connecting people.
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Great for work, but what about going to the store? The bar? The Theater? The Mall? Going to a friend's place? Going on a date?
The real world isn't a Turn Based Strategy Game. You don't have to decide on one course of research for the entire nation at the cost of all others. There's plenty of people working on telecommuting and other communication technologies, and the skills needed for making a self driving car are different from the skills needed for those technologies. Self driving cars are far from a "stupid idea". Any problems with them are offset by the problems of the other options. Everything will have problems. Nothing is perfect.
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When someone can demonstrate a self driving car that can get round some of the cities in the far east, despite the random nature of motor cycle riders and other "drivers" then I might consider trying one out.
When it can safely navigate through fast moving, i.e. twice the speed limit, traffic with cars crossing two or more lanes without signalling or checking mirrors, the autonomous car will have matured into a usable device.
I may not last forever but the mess I leave behind certainly will.
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Why not simply make cars that are immobilised if there's nobody in them? It is after all what happens now!
Technologically it cannot be that difficult. Exceptions could be made for registered public transport vehicles (taxi and bus equivalents) if that's thought desirable.
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Partly because you can park'em better, and more densely, if there is no-one in 'em! No need for enough space for humans to get in and out.
So you could have large underground automated car parks in strategic locations instead of parking randomly all over the city (and having to find a place first).
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Not sure that would save as much space as you think; maybe 12 cars where now you get 10? You'd still need room for them to manoeuvre into and out of the spaces and you'd still need 'parking' spots on all the streets so that people could get out when they arrive and in the when they summon the car (I assume you're not expecting people to run behind the moving vehicle and enter when they've caught it up?) Most cities where congestion is truly a problem already have a gamut of good old multi-story car parks, park and ride schemes, and limited street waiting times already. I can't see them forking out extra just to squeeze a few more in.
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Car parks are very inefficient: For every parking bay there is another full bay area for the manoeuvring lane between facing rows (any less than 1 1/2 car lengths is too tight for most people, and 2 times is normal) If you don't have to get people in and out then cars can not only be parked far closer to each other side-to-side, but they can also be parked end to end in short (say 10 cars deep) queues. When a car is needed, up to nine others also drive out, and then re-enter the queuing system to park again.
We aren't talking about squeezing a few more in, we are talking about double or treble the density, which with the price of land in modern cities being astronomical is a major incentive to the parking companies.
The car drives you to a drop off point very close to your destination, then heads off to a queuing storage facility until it's needed. There may be a short delay in getting to the drop off point at busy times, but that will be a lot less than the time to find a parking space or walk from the car park today.
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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So who manages this queuing system? Who's going to buy a car that can be controlled by any Tom, Dick, or Hal? One that's going to be started and driven round the block ten, twenty, or more times a day without your knowledge or involvement? All the fuss about MS monitoring W10 and you think the public's going to just hand over the keys to their brand spanking new cutting edge babies to some oik or computer at the parking facility? You really think that human beings are going to suddenly learn to play well with others?
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That's a whole other question, but basically you won't get a choice in the matter.
As soon as self driving cars are mass market, the choice of "who drives?" will be legislated out of your hands on safety grounds (the same way we are forced to wear seatbelts, have airbags, and not text while driving). Once cars decide, it will not be long at all until they coordinate via a civic system which tells them where to go for maximum efficiency (and minimum energy consumption - even electric vehicles contribute to emissions when the electricity is produced). And that will tell them which park to go to, which queue to join, and so forth, in concert with the parking company systems - and probably partly paid for from the parking fees and/or civic car tax.
The kids born now will probably be horrified to think that you were allowed to drive your own car in traffic when they are old enough to "drive"!
Bad command or file name. Bad, bad command! Sit! Stay! Staaaay...
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Why in the world would you want to own a car that drives itself? Just pick me up, take me to work, drop me off and then go pick up someone else that wants to go somewhere. If you're not busy drive to a maintenance facility or to a parking lot that is not in a crowded urban area. After work take me to my favorite bar and again drop me off. After a few drinks come and get me and take me home. Did I mention that I'm blind, old, hearing impaired, young, lost my license, sleepy, a terrible driver, etc.
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