Uber was supposed to help traffic. It didn’t. Robotaxis will be even worse::px-captcha

  • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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    2 years ago

    I’ve never heard this argument. I’ve heard car share apps could reduce parking issues but how traffic? It’s still a car that can hold generally 4, same as anyone has

    • JoBo@feddit.uk
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      2 years ago

      I don’t understand how anyone ever thought they could reduce traffic. Even if they only served people who would otherwise have driven, a cab replacing an A to B and a C to D journey has to do three journeys to replace those two (A to B, B to C, and C to D). It was always going to increase traffic.

    • OfficerBribe@lemm.ee
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      2 years ago

      Idea is that instead of 4 cars containing 1 person in each of them you get 1 car with 4 people in it. No idea how well it works in practice though, I assume most people who already drive will want to keep driving alone even if it is more expensive.

      • xthexder@l.sw0.com
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        2 years ago

        The way I see them get used, the driver is never going anywhere themselves, they’re just working as a taxi. I’ve never seen Uber reduce the number of cars required, but I have been in situations where we needed to call 2 Ubers when everyone would have fit if the driver’s seat was available.

        • OfficerBribe@lemm.ee
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          2 years ago

          If that’s the primary use case then it indeed does not help anyone. Have never used it so I assumed passengers use it to get a lift when going to work or some event like concert by someone who would travel there anyway.

          • xthexder@l.sw0.com
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            2 years ago

            That’s definitely what the term ride-share used to mean, but companies like Uber and Lyft call themselves ride-share services now when really it’s just a taxi service where drivers use their own cars.
            I don’t think the drivers have any control over which direction their next fare will take them. I’ve never met a driver that wasn’t driving either full or part-time as a second job.

  • red@feddit.de
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    2 years ago

    How the fuck was Uber supposed to help traffic? That’s the most American take on solving traffic issues I’ve read in a while.

    • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
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      2 years ago

      Because mainstream media said so!

      Tbf uber pool DID help in theory alleviate a bit of traffic but americans are allergic to sharing rides. And even then buses are several times more efficient.

    • erwan@lemmy.ml
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      2 years ago

      I imagine that the fact that you call cars with an app instead of waiting for an empty taxi to pass by is more efficient, and you can have less cars for the same number of passengers. Basically having less empty taxis on the road.

      I know it’s a stretch, but this is the only way I can see Uber reducing traffic.

      • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.ml
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        2 years ago

        You used to call taxis to pick you up not just wait for one to randomly pass LMAO, that was solved by cellphones. Individual Uber drives do not solve anything, it is still one car to take one person somewhere, it does reduce parked cars tho. Uber pool did help alleviate traffic but its hard for americans to share rides for some stupid reason, and even then a bus would be more efficient.

    • traches@sh.itjust.works
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      2 years ago

      The correct way to fix traffic is to stop designing the world around cars to the exclusion of absolutely everything the fuck else including humans.

      • realharo@lemm.ee
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        2 years ago

        Definitely needs to be solved where it exists, but there are many places in the world that don’t have this problem.

        • luciferofastora@lemmy.zip
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          2 years ago

          Fair, but where I am it certainly is an argument I hear from many people - particularly women - that refuse to use public transport alone, particularly at night. There’s only so many reports you can read about people being groped, sexually harassed or hurt, see the security being buddies with the loudest and rowdiest pack of gangsters in the section and look a female friend in the eye as they recount someone whipping our their wiener in front of them, then walking away like nothing happened. Eventually, “that won’t happen to me” turns into “shit, it just might”.

          This may be an issue of selection bias, but downplaying it does the progress of public transport a disservice - infrastructural improvements need to go hand in hand with service improvements, if we want them to become a viable alternative.

          Oh, by the way, this is a big city in southern Germany. We’re not even the worst place.

  • scarabic@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Ridesharing apps could try to reduce the number of cars in the road but that would slow down their service. They can optimize anything they choose to, but right now they have been trying to flood the market with many drivers so rides are available quick with low prices. They don’t care about congestion or drivers. This is what you get.

    The fact that more car rides happen with ridesharing should have been predictable, I guess. Suddenly car transport is available to people who can’t afford the high costs of keeping their own car in NYC. And it eliminates the parking problem.

  • credit crazy@lemmy.world
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    2 years ago

    Maybe because Im a car guy who enjoys driving but a self driving car is not only at best not even fixing car dependency but at least with a conventional car I can shift self driving cars I see being extremely boring to use there’s a reason why I always use my bike for my daily commute and my car as a weekly whip and the country side