On 10/11/2017 1:40 AM, John B. wrote:

I was thinking about the subject last night before I dozed off and the
question popped up. At the moment (from what I read) people drive as
much as 20 mph faster then the posted speed limit. How is that going
to work in the robot car? Will it be possible to order the robot to
break the law or will traffic move at the legal speed?

Yesterday when I was in SF I was again amazed at the huge number of Uber
& Lyft vehicles. I thought "how could self-driving ever work?" This was
because the Uber & Lyft drivers tend to be notorious law-breakers, but
there's no way that Uber & Lyft could get away with programming the
self-driving cars to break the law in the same way.

What I witnessed:
1. Parking & waiting in bicycle lanes
2. Parking & waiting at bus stops
3. Picking up and dropping off in bicycle lanes
4. Picking up and dropping off at bus stops

Speeding was not an issue in the downtown area.

In San Francisco and other major cities another issue with Uber/Lyft is
that they have made it a nightmare to drive into the downtown area. I
used to drive to downtown SF and park in a public garage and the fee was
not too bad considering the high cost of public transit and the time
that was saved. In the middle of the day the traffic was not bad. But
Uber/Lfyt have greatly increased congestion as people have abandoned
public transit for shorter trips since Uber/Lyft are not appreciably
more when you have a few riders.

Yesterday I parked for free near a Muni metro station and rode downtown
for $2.75 (round-trip because I didn't stay long). But soon that fare
will be $5.50 round-trip because it will be $2.75 for 90 minutes rather
than for 3-4 hours. When I moved to the Bay Area the Muni fare was $0.25
Based on the Consumer Price Index from 1979 to 2017 that fare should now
be $0.89, not $2.75. The fares have increased at 3x the rate of
inflation. At least in SF they issue transfers. The VTA in Silicon
Valley charges per bus so if you go 5 miles and it takes two buses then
you pay twice, but a 20 mile ride on one bus you pay once (a day pass
costs the equivalent of three single rides). The high fares at each end
of the commuter train line (Caltrain) have resulted in a huge increase
in demand for bicycle space on the trains. Each train can now carry
72-80 bikes, and even that is not enough at peak times.

The other issue with self-driving cars in cities is that since parking
is so limited and expensive that the cars will simply drive around while
waiting to pick up the owner or the next fare. You need something
similar to cell phone waiting lots at airports so the cars don't drive
around in circles while waiting.