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

  • red@feddit.de
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    1 year 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.

    • bob_wiley@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      In theory it could reduce the number of cars required for a population, but not traffic. Whoever is throwing this stuff out there seems to forget that cars spend most of their time parked, not on the road. If there are fewer cars, but those cars spend a significantly higher percentage of time driving, traffic will be the same.

      Uber may actually make it worse, as there are people trying to go places, and drivers simply driving around waiting to get a fare, and then driving to get them (a new leg of the trip that didn’t exist before).

      • 小莱卡
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        1 year ago

        In theory it just reduced parked cars. If 100 people need to go somewhere at the same time, you still need 100 ubers to do it.

        Uber pool would actually reduce cars in circulation but for some reason americans can’t share rides and even then buses are just a better way to do it.

        • bob_wiley@lemmy.world
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          1 year ago

          I’ve taken Uber pools in the US before. I’m guessing a lot of people wouldn’t because it’s not that much extra to get your own car, and it avoids any unknowns. For example, I booked an Uber pool, I was first to be picked up… just me. We stop to get someone else and it was a couple. They were nice and seemed clean, but we were pretty cozy in the backseat with 3 of us. Most people, at least in the US, don’t want that much skin to skin contact with a complete stranger for 20 minutes.

          With another Uber pool I took, the driver didn’t even know what was going on. I assume this is some kind of training issue. He seemed really overwhelmed, because he had picked someone up, but the app kept telling him to pick up more people. I ended up explaining it to him. The girl who was in the car already didn’t seem to speak English, so she wasn’t able to offer him much help.

    • GamingChairModel@lemmy.world
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      1 year ago

      The actual study modeled a 40% reduction in number of taxis on the road when hailing was made more efficient, with carpooling passengers, and a re-purposing of parking space:

      In the 2010s, the Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where one of us serves as the director, was at the forefront of using Big Data to study how ride-hailing and ride-sharing could make our streets cleaner and more efficient. The findings appeared to be astonishing: With minimal delays to passengers, we could match riders and reduce the size of New York City taxi fleets by 40%. More people could get around in fewer cars for less money. We could reduce car ownership, and free up curbs and parking lots for new uses.

      But it turns out that just like with widening highways, human behavior responds to the increased efficiency by stepping up the demand to reach the previous equilibrium again.

    • erwan@lemmy.ml
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      1 year 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
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        1 year 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.

    • 小莱卡
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      1 year 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.