Ford, Walmart and Postmates Team Up for Self-Driving Goods Delivery

[akirby]

This is the future of AVs, not replacing personal vehicles.

[rperez817]

57 minutes ago, akirby said:

This is the future of AVs, not replacing personal vehicles.

In due time, shared autonomous vehicles will replace a significant number of personal use cars and light trucks. Especially in dense urban environments. But in terms of large scale deployment, delivery services with AVs and things like that will come first.

Very smart move on Ford's part to collaborate with Walmart and Postmates.

[akirby]

20 minutes ago, rperez817 said:

In due time, shared autonomous vehicles will replace a significant number of personal use cars and light trucks. Especially in dense urban environments.

Nope.  It will potentially replace Uber, Lyft and Taxis and maybe some public transportation but people are not going to give up their existing vehicles and rent AVs.  If they wanted to do that they would already be using Lyft or Uber today.  It's exactly the same business model so there is no reason to think adoption will be any different.

[Ford Super News Ticker]

Through this collaboration Walmart, Ford is exploring how self-driving vehicles can deliver many everyday goods such as groceries, diapers, pet food and personal care items.

View the full article

[rperez817]

2 hours ago, akirby said:

Nope.  It will potentially replace Uber, Lyft and Taxis and maybe some public transportation but people are not going to give up their existing vehicles and rent AVs.  If they wanted to do that they would already be using Lyft or Uber today.  It's exactly the same business model so there is no reason to think adoption will be any different.

The current business model for Uber and Lyft has a big issue. The high cost of hiring drivers (independent contractors) to provide the actual transportation to those companies' customers. This cost makes the services expensive for customers. Also both Uber and Lyft have incurred losses year after year due in large part to the cost of human drivers.

Shared, autonomous vehicles have the potential to lower this cost dramatically. If that happens, a lot of people who don't use Uber and Lyft extensively now will in the future.

[akirby]

That's possible but I don't know anybody who owns and drives their own car just because uber and Lyft are too expensive. If you factor in insurance, gas and parking (especially in dense urban areas) you're looking at $600-$1000/month or more to own a car.  Lyft and public transportation are still cheaper.

[rperez817]

1 hour ago, akirby said:

That's possible but I don't know anybody who owns and drives their own car just because uber and Lyft are too expensive. If you factor in insurance, gas and parking (especially in dense urban areas) you're looking at $600-$1000/month or more to own a car.  Lyft and public transportation are still cheaper.

Great points akirby. I think a truly high quality, cost effective, multi mode transportation network will get urban folks to at least reduce the number of personal vehicles they own.

• Combination of autonomous shared vehicles and GOOD public transit options for longer distance travel within a metro area
• Scooters, e-bikes, etc., for "last mile" transportation
• Autonomous vehicles for delivery services
• Autonomous shuttles/buses for city to city travel

I think Ford is involved in all of these areas except public transit. If Ford's and its partners' efforts can ensure both a good quality experience and competitive pricing for customers, they should do very well gaining customers who give up or reduce personal car ownership. 

Improving public transit may be hopeless though. I don't think there's much Ford or any private business can do to make it truly good. I use WMATA buses and Metrorail regularly in the Washington, D.C. area when I work there and set aside an extra 30 minutes to 1 hour on every trip so that I'm not late. There always seems to be something going wrong at WMATA. 

Edited November 14, 2018 by rperez817

[akirby]

Again I could be wrong but my opinion is the folks who are willing to eschew vehicle ownership and use public transportation including uber or lyft are already doing it.  Maybe making it a bit cheaper and a bit more widely available will get a few converts but I just don't see this making a big change in private vehicle ownership unless something else changes.

 

My son lives in Seattle and did not own a vehicle for several years and this was before uber and lyft.

[silvrsvt]

33 minutes ago, rperez817 said:

Improving public transit may be hopeless though. I don't think there's much Ford or any private business can do to make it truly good. I use WMATA buses and Metrorail regularly in the Washington, D.C. area when I work there and set aside an extra 30 minutes to 1 hour on every trip so that I'm not late. There always seems to be something going wrong at WMATA. 

That is going to be a driving factor in many people's choices-they don't want to be at the mercy of someone else's scehule to get to work. 

I know a decent amount of people who live in my area and commute to NYC or even Maryland (Military base shut down in the area and moved 2 hours south of me to MD) that using lyft/uber etc impractical-Personally I don't see the point of pissing away 2-4 hours of my life on a bus/train/etc if I don't have to every day getting to work every day.

I looked into uber at my last job-I was only 17 miles from work at the time and taking it every day to and fro to work would have cost more then my car payment did at the time. Unless its going to save me a signifiant amount of money, its not worth giving up the keys (unless age in the distant future forces me too) and flexaibitly of owning my own car. 

I'm not interested in living in a city either-which also means more expesive rent/living expenses/etc that just doesn't make it worth it. I'm happy with the $$$ I make and my now 13 mile commute to work.