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by mandeepj 3146 days ago
> Wouldn’t Running your own cars would mean incredible capital costs and marketing costs to get people to switch from uber? > Additionally you need people maintaining them.

This is why I think Tesla is a bigger threat to Uber in long term. If you are not sure then refer to Tesla's plan 2 but Uber also have a counter plan - UberAir

https://www.tesla.com/blog/master-plan-part-deux
1 comments
timewarrior 3146 days ago
I somehow feel that Autonomous drones would be easier to build than Autonomous cars.

Benefits of Autonomous drones:

1. Do not need to deal other non autonomous devices while in flight. Cars needs to deal with human, other cars driven by humans.

2. Do not need to follow existing road traffic rules.

3. Lot of paths available. Cars are limited to existing roads. Drones can have a lot of flight paths.

I understand that there are other challenges - more energy required, less safe in case of an accident, flight regulations.

But still. It seems like if the technology is there, it would be an easier transition with Drones vs Cars.

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nickserv 3145 days ago
> Do not need to deal other non autonomous devices while in flight.

In a decent-sized city, there will be low-flying helicopters for police, fire and medical emergencies. Admittedly, this is much less common than for autonomous cars, but any slight problem could easily become catastrophic (no such thing as a fender bender in mid-air).

> Do not need to follow existing road traffic rules.

But do need to follow existing air traffic rules. New regulation would also certainly be drafted (one would hope anyway).

> Lot of paths available.

Maybe, again depends on regulation. Commercial airplanes do have certain "lanes" they are supposed to stay in, and are not allowed over certain areas.

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mathgeek 3145 days ago
> Do not need to deal other non autonomous devices while in flight. Cars needs to deal with human, other cars driven by humans.

Birds and power lines both come to mind as obvious things to deal with while flying in urban areas.

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malandrew 3145 days ago
> Do not need to deal other non autonomous devices while in flight.

They may also have to deal with hobbyist drones.

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