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self driving Car ride share Monopoly
I think someone will come up with cheaper cars, like Elio Motors is/was trying to do
Tenpoundbass saysself driving Car ride share Monopoly
Don't worry, not gonna happen. This is tied in with Robot Deployment: Artificial Perception is the barrier. For Cars it's even tougher, to analyze in real time not only traffic, but at speed and surrounded by other vehicles.
OccasionalCortex saysI think someone will come up with cheaper cars, like Elio Motors is/was trying to do
I agree. Tesla is too expensive for it to be Bernie Cars.
I think Elio Motors is more like what the Bernie Revolution would promote.
Volkswagon means 'people's car' in German. One of Hitler's pet projects.
For instance, initially only geo-fenced, 3D mapped interstate routes in acceptable visibility.
Today, maybe an expert human driver leading a convoy of 6 AV trucks across the country.
kt1652 saysFor instance, initially only geo-fenced, 3D mapped interstate routes in acceptable visibility.
Meaning what exactly? This sounds like the fleet of "self-driving 18-wheelers" will be pretty much idling half of the year in most states along the backbone of commercial trucking a.k.a I-80. Nobody can guarantee that a self-driving truck starting in Chicago and bound for Denver some time in November-March won't encounter conditions which are not exactly hampering for a human-operated truck, but will cause hours (or even days) of delay for the self-driving thing. How is this economical? Will it need to be subsidized? To what end? While the argument can be made for govenment subsidies needed to avert "AGW catastrophe", what argument can be made for govenment subsidizing self-driving trucks?
kt1652 saysToday, maybe an expert human driver leading a convoy of 6 AV trucks across the country.
This is basically like putting a freight train on rubber wheels and letting it loose on a freeway: the thing that long won't be able to pass, so it will be forewer stuck in the right lane behind whatever is the slowest-moving vehicle there. There is a reason "road trains" are used only in desolated areas of Australia and these are limited to quads max. And what happens again when cameras and sensros become compromised with sleet/snow/ice? The whole caravan would stop on the shoulder and the poor "expert" will be running around cleaning everything? Rinse, repeat every 20 minutes?
Have you ever been drive in Germany autobahn, esp at night, when trucks are out in force?
HeadSet saysYes, but the VW was a product of a private enterprise. The Socialist "people's car" is more like a Trabant.
Socialist economics: Where the means of production is just outright in the State's hands.
Fascist economics: Where the means of production remain in private hands but are so directed by the State as to make the distinction almost meaningless. Sometimes called 'corporatism'.
kt1652 saystime stamp this quote. Keep thoughts delineated, ok? All I'm saying is USA vast distances, intestate sys is perfect for AV trucking. People don't know how to drive, that is a US handicap, it is not technical.Have you ever been drive in Germany autobahn, esp at night, when trucks are out in force?
And yet, no "road trains" even in Germany with all their "ubermensch" drivers. Even worse, their restriction on the length of tractor-trailer combination is much stricter than in US (ever wondered why all their tractors are COE design?). And here we are, proposing putting what is basically 12-trailer-long road train on the road. Not gonna happen any time soon (if ever).
Hugolas_Madurez saysFeb 20, 2019 - Amazon's strategy for driverless technologies — whether for drones, trucks or ... a self-driving semitruck emblazoned with the Amazon Prime logo was spotted on ...kt1652 saystime stamp this quote. Keep thoughts delineated, ok? All I'm saying is USA vast distances, intestate sys is perfect for AV trucking. People don't know how to drive, that is a US handicap, it is not technical.Have you ever been drive in Germany autobahn, esp at night, when trucks are out in force?
And yet, no "road trains" even in Germany with all their "ubermensch" drivers. Even worse, their restriction on the length of tractor-trailer combination is much stricter than in US (ever wondered why all their tractors are COE design?). And here we are, proposing putting what is basically 12-trailer-long road train on the road. Not gonna happen any time soon (if ever).
"%Utilization" as in 24-7, no rest time, will beat everything. A rig is not earning, in fact ...
Those days, however, seem to be over, according to the latest, February U.S. auto sales data. Fiat Chrysler posted its first monthly sales decline in a year, according to Bloomberg. The kicker? Jeep, the company's driving force for the past several years, showed a rare back-to-back drop in deliveries. Charlie Chesbrough, senior economist of Cox Automotive said: “The results today suggest a much bigger story: The sales pace has finally shifted into a lower gear.”
The fact that Jeep sales have slowed is a warning indicator that the SUV "boom" in the U.S. could be coming to an end. Mired by higher interest rates and continued tightening of credit, buyers are forcing once record high SUV sales and prices back down again. As a result, Fiat's Jeep Wrangler sales fell 5.9% in the month, as inventory continued to pile up at dealerships. Fiat joined companies like Toyota, Honda and Nissan, as virtually every OEM both missed analyst estimates for the month and posted an annual sales decline.
Some more details:
Ford sales, which are now only reported on a quarterly basis, were estimated to have fallen 4.4% in February as a result of the company's F-Series sales falling. The Ford brand's total sales were down 5.1% with Lincoln sales helping cushion some of the blow, rising 15%.
GM sales are also estimated to have fallen 5.3% in the month, following a 6.9% drop in January.
Toyota sales were weighed upon by weak demand for its RAV4 compact SUV. Deliveries fell 12.5% for the model as overall sales fell 5.2% in February. Honda saw sales of its Pilot SUV fall 8.8%. Nissan saw deliveries of its Rogue crossover SUV plunge 16%.
In total, the annualized February sales rate slowed to 16.6 million, the worst reading in 18 months, according to researcher Autodata Corp., also missing expectations.
Yet even as SUV sales slump, there does not appear to be a recovery in sight for sedans as demand for the Toyota Camry and Nissan Altima declined by double digits from the year prior. Michelle Krebs, senior analyst for car-shopping researcher Autotrader, told Bloomberg: “Affordability is going to be a challenge for consumers going forward, and we’re beginning to see that.”
As we reported earlier this week, new car prices hit a record high in Q4 2018, with Edmunds reporting that the average transaction price for a new vehicle in December hit an all-time high of $37,260, an increase of $6,598 from December 2010 largely thanks to record high average loan amounts for both new and used cars.
Record high loan balances and rising interest rates, also mean that US consumers are now paying record high monthly payments for both new and used cars.
Despite high prices resulting in slowing sales, dealers were at least disciplined about incentives. February incentives were, on average, $3,721 per vehicle, down $161 from last year. Expect this to change.
Brian Irwin, who leads the automotive practice at consultant Accenture, said: “We’ve seen the average level of incentive spending pulled back from what it was at the end of last year. Carmakers are pulling back now so they can be more bold when there are more people in the marketplace. It’s really about fishing when the fish are biting.”
Reid Bigland, Fiat Chrysler’s head of U.S. sales, said: “The overall industry is starting off slower due in part to weather, the U.S. government shutdown, and concern over tax refunds.”
We noted at the beginning of February that 2019 had started off in abysmal fashion for U.S. auto sales. Last month, on the heels of Nissan seeing a 40% plunge in sales of its Altima sedan, we guessed that the bottom of the plunge for sedans – a result of the popularity of SUVs - wasn't quite in just yet. Now, it looks as though SUV sales are facing a similar fate.
Bigland had also blamed the weather in early February, saying that: "In spite of some frigid January weather, we remain bullish on 2019 given the continued underlying strength of the U.S. economy."
So far, his prognostication looks to be dead wrong. The National Automobile Dealers Association now forecasts 16.8 million deliveries in 2019, down from about 17.3 million last year.
Henio Arcangeli, senior vice president of automotive ops for Honda's U.S. unit also blamed January's sales on the cold weather. So far, no update on what excuse he has made for February. Perhaps March's sales drop will be a result of global warming?
https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2019-03-02/us-auto-sales-tumble-18-month-low-suv-demand-hits-brick-wall