[hwillis]

> I guess all those sensors are actually more expensive than the cost of a human driver at this point?

Waymo inhoused their sensors and claimed a 90% cost reduction, but before that they were at $200k+.

Still, even at $200k+ that's not terribly high compared to a human driver once you amortize it over 8+ years. Higher than minimum wage, but really it's probably a matter of the upfront cost more than anything.

I'll also point out that even if they 100% solved self driving... somebody has to fill the things up with gas in most states, lol.

[vilhelm_s]

The New Jersey and Oregon policy of not allowing self-service gas turns out to be the visionary policy for the future of transportation!

[tomjakubowski]

Getting off topic now but Oregon does allow self-serve gas in some places now. I've pumped my own gas at the Chevron on Tomahawk Island, Portland.

[voxadam]

Oregon altered or suspended some rules regarding self-service early during the pandemic.

https://www.oregon.gov/osp/programs/sfm/Pages/Self-Service-R...

[ugh123]

Or they use electric vehicles and the cars just park on top of charging pads. But there's always some kind of maintenance in involved

[hwillis]

I don't think wireless EV charging will really take off- it's always going to be MUCH slower because of the I^2 losses. It's always going to be much more expensive and heavier than a plug. Solutions like battery swaps[1] or even just automatic plugs will win out at the large scale.

It really only has anything to offer to individual consumers, specifically saving the seconds it takes to just plug in your car. That seems like an insane trade to make, to me. Maybe in theory some city could invest in embedding them into street parking, but I just don't think that will happen. Even if vandals started cutting plugs or something, you can buy a LOT of replacement cables for the price of one wireless charging pad.

[1] https://www.wired.com/story/china-ev-infrastructure-charging...