<story><title>Google Self-Driving Car Project&apos;s first vehicle prototype</title><url>https://plus.google.com/+GoogleSelfDrivingCars/posts/9WBWP2E4GDu</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wahsd</author><text>Forget your kids... I&amp;#x27;m baffled. I&amp;#x27;m baffled that people are willing to squander so much money on cars, especially people who have relatively little of it. If you think about it I&amp;#x27;m sure you pay tens of thousands of dollars on a thing that moves you around but ultimately, sits around way more than not.&lt;p&gt;I am somewhat anxious to see how this plays out financially and economically otherwise. Will these cars cost the same as a car that every person now buys for themselves with maybe a little higher cost of maintenance and operation (M&amp;amp;O)? Will there essentially be one manufacturer because one vehicle can support 10 people and we don&amp;#x27;t need millions of these things pumped out? And will the collapse of competition mean that there will be a monopoly (dare I say it, Über) that over-charges all of humanity after they have essentially captured the market in the exact way that an evil empire like Über would?&lt;p&gt;An even bigger question I have, will this kind of development essentially mean the doom for anonymous movements? We can all imagine that there will essentially be no way that you will be able to ride in one of these without identifying yourself and at some point manual vehicles will be banned; very likely in most of our lifetimes. At which point you, the guy who rides his bike or walks will be highly suspect if you are even able to at all, since you must be hiding something since you don&amp;#x27;t want to use the government tracker transporter.</text></item><item><author>nichodges</author><text>My initial reaction was dismay that Google seemingly didn&amp;#x27;t consult any decent auto designers on this. But then I wonder if that&amp;#x27;s actually fine.&lt;p&gt;My kids will likely be baffled by the idea that we attached so much of our own identity to our cars. The financial investment in cars to make a statement about ourselves (over and above getting us from A to B) is immensely irrational.&lt;p&gt;With self driving cars ownership will likely disappear, and be replaced with time sharing. At that point the connection between our view of ourselves, and the car we ride in disappears.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not sure that completely excuses the lack of modern car aesthetic here, but it could go some way to explaining it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>brc</author><text>All possessions are fundamentally irrational.  I&amp;#x27;m baffled why people would collect vinyl, buy overpriced designer clothing, pay for expensive tickets to sport, buy expensive kitchen implements - and on and on and on.&lt;p&gt;I like cars.  I like driving.  There are some cars I&amp;#x27;d be happy to own, even if they didn&amp;#x27;t go.  I spend money on buying, maintaining and driving cars because it&amp;#x27;s something I like doing.&lt;p&gt;This is no more or less irrational than any number of other discretionary spends.  So you shouldn&amp;#x27;t be baffled anymore.</text></comment>
<story><title>Google Self-Driving Car Project&apos;s first vehicle prototype</title><url>https://plus.google.com/+GoogleSelfDrivingCars/posts/9WBWP2E4GDu</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>wahsd</author><text>Forget your kids... I&amp;#x27;m baffled. I&amp;#x27;m baffled that people are willing to squander so much money on cars, especially people who have relatively little of it. If you think about it I&amp;#x27;m sure you pay tens of thousands of dollars on a thing that moves you around but ultimately, sits around way more than not.&lt;p&gt;I am somewhat anxious to see how this plays out financially and economically otherwise. Will these cars cost the same as a car that every person now buys for themselves with maybe a little higher cost of maintenance and operation (M&amp;amp;O)? Will there essentially be one manufacturer because one vehicle can support 10 people and we don&amp;#x27;t need millions of these things pumped out? And will the collapse of competition mean that there will be a monopoly (dare I say it, Über) that over-charges all of humanity after they have essentially captured the market in the exact way that an evil empire like Über would?&lt;p&gt;An even bigger question I have, will this kind of development essentially mean the doom for anonymous movements? We can all imagine that there will essentially be no way that you will be able to ride in one of these without identifying yourself and at some point manual vehicles will be banned; very likely in most of our lifetimes. At which point you, the guy who rides his bike or walks will be highly suspect if you are even able to at all, since you must be hiding something since you don&amp;#x27;t want to use the government tracker transporter.</text></item><item><author>nichodges</author><text>My initial reaction was dismay that Google seemingly didn&amp;#x27;t consult any decent auto designers on this. But then I wonder if that&amp;#x27;s actually fine.&lt;p&gt;My kids will likely be baffled by the idea that we attached so much of our own identity to our cars. The financial investment in cars to make a statement about ourselves (over and above getting us from A to B) is immensely irrational.&lt;p&gt;With self driving cars ownership will likely disappear, and be replaced with time sharing. At that point the connection between our view of ourselves, and the car we ride in disappears.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m not sure that completely excuses the lack of modern car aesthetic here, but it could go some way to explaining it.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>krapp</author><text>&amp;gt; I&amp;#x27;m baffled that people are willing to squander so much money on cars, especially people who have relatively little of it.&lt;p&gt;Yes, but if you have to have a car, and some people do (to commute to work, etc) then what a car costs is what you have to pay. It&amp;#x27;s not squandered money if there aren&amp;#x27;t any other options.&lt;p&gt;If you pay too little, chances are you end up with a lemon that will just die on you after a week, and then where are you?</text></comment>