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by dashundchen 3603 days ago
Because it doesn't address the ridiculous amount of energy and resources spent on private transportation to begin with.

I see many people excited about the fact that electric cars can be powered by renewables, and efficiency gains automation can bring, without acknowledging the downsides of an auto-dominated society.

What it does not solve is:

* The energy spent producing a 2000kg+ car (there's 255 million cars in the US alone, 797 for every 1000 people) [1]

* That that 2000kg+ car in the US is moving on average less than 2 people per trip [2]

* The energy spent moving single commuters on hour long commutes (average of 25minutes each way [3]). I see many comments discussing how drivers will be productive on long automated commutes, while not addressing the inefficiency of that commute to begin with

* The destructive and wasteful development patterns of auto-oriented cities - (sprawl, destroyed agricultural lands, the enormous health costs of sedentary lifestyles)

* The resources required and pollution generated for the production/maintenance/powering of all these vehicles, renewable or not - renewables only produced ~13% of all electricity in 2015 [4]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passenger_vehicles_in_the_Unit...

[2] http://energy.gov/eere/vehicles/fact-613-march-8-2010-vehicl...

[3] https://www.google.com/search?q=number+of+cars+in+the+us&ie=...

[4] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renewable_energy_in_the_United...

1 comments

I totally agree that it's be nicer if we could eliminate cars and build more pedestrian friendly cities. A cultural shift like that is much harder to pull off than a simpler technical solution. Don't let your idealism blind you to the fact that this is a large improvement to the status quo.