re: Elon Musk:: Tesla cars to be fully autonomous by 2018

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And if you really, really like to drive, there will always be room for hobbyists. You may just have to do it during off-peak hours or on a closed course.

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Realistically, I don't think there's any chance traditional vehicles will be going away anytime soon.

I do see a future where there are dedicated lanes for autonomous vehicles on interstate highways though, where they drive closer together and accelerate/brake as a group. Will be neat to have Lyft cars pick people up with no driver. I guess that opens up another potential seat in those cars.

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If it means getting from one place to another while doing something else productive

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You can sleep in your car or do work.

Autonomous cars may end up being a huge enabler of urban sprawl if you think about it. I can drink my coffee, answer emails, and make a few phone calls in car while it spends an hour fighting traffic to get me to work. It would significantly cut back on the stress of driving to work.

If we can get Autonomous cars to communicate with each other, they can collectively optimize the available capacity of our highway grid by cutting back on sudden changes in direction or speed and reducing the spacing between cars.

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It'll probably be a minimum of 30-40 years before the majority of cars on the road are autonomous. Probably another 10-20 years after that nearly every car on the road will be autonomous.

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If I could give up vehicle ownership and choose a plan with a pay as you go autonomous vehicle, I'd do it right now.

Wonder how they'll handle ice and snow?

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If I could give up vehicle ownership and choose a plan with a pay as you go autonomous vehicle, I'd do it right now.

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Like autonomous ride-shares on a grand scale? Companies like Lyft, Google, General Motors, Uber, and Mercedes-Benz are working on that now for you.

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Wonder how they'll handle ice and snow?

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I'm sure they'll have sensors that will read and detect road conditions, construction, etc.....but yeah, that's a concern.

This technology didn't work out at all on Silicon Valley, BTW:
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Id be interested to see if they come up with pricing schemes that aren't just x dollars per mile. Surely the person who commutes 25 miles each way every day isn't paying 10x the amount that the person who lives 2.5miles away from work is.

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May not be a bad thing overall for Tesla in the grand scheme of things. This could mean that by the time the Model 3 is out in a few years, there could be a lot more electric vehicle infrastructure and support systems out there to help buyers adopt these new products.

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It's a network effect thing, and I actually wouldn't be surprised at all if Musk intentionally delayed R&D and then production on the 3. They were giving away some of their technology (for free) quite recently, actually, for this express purpose.

Would you rather have 50% of a $1 billion market or 10% of a $100 billion market? I think that's how Tesla is looking at this at the moment.

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Tesla will be late to the game with their new Model 3, and they'll be facing competition from real car companies (that earn money) with vast dealership networks and very sophisticated supply chains.

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This isn't against the Tesla game plan though. They've shared a lot of their parents in order to help advance it too.