[higherpurpose]

Not everyone wants to ride in a bus. In fact, in my country people are stopping using buses, and doing some kind of car sharing, because it's much more convenient (available when you need it), they charge the same, and even though it's not much better space wise, a lot of people prefer riding with 3 others, than 20 others. This has been a growing trend, and I think it's inevitable that it will happen everywhere in the world.

Also, this is exactly the kind of service self-driving cars would offer in the future.

[couchand]

The funny thing is opinions like this are basically just fashion, they tend to change pretty quickly. For example, just fifty years ago in the US the new buses were viewed as a high-class affair and train travel was left for the lower classes. That position is basically completely reversed now.

Also, I find it hard to believe that a vehicle for hire could possibly charge the same as mass transit for a comparable journey. I don't know which country you live in but that's certainly not the case anywhere I've been.

[hershel]

Not as same, but relatively close:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7888339

[eevilspock]

> Not everyone wants to ride in a bus.

Is this an example of society finding the Nash Equilibrium at the expense of finding the "Pareto optimal" solution?

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=7888721

[punee]

Terminology quibble, but not all Nash equilibria are prisoner's dilemmas. Indeed, some Nash equilibria are also Pareto efficient (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strong_Nash_equilibrium).

[eevilspock]

Agreed. My statement ("at the expense of") assumes this not to be the case with respect to cars vs mass transit, at least if use of the former undermines development of the latter. I'm sure the ideal global solution is some hybrid, but I'm pretty sure the dynamics of individuals making locally optimal decisions results at best in a hybrid solution sub-optimally skewed toward cars. And that's only considering the economy and the environment. It best worse if you consider society and consider it a cost if it increases social stratification of the haves and have nots.

[guard-of-terra]

Car sharing is not always convenient. what if nobody wants to drive where you want right now? Buses have schedule where you can be fairly sure it will show up.

(If it doesn't, just raise your hand, gets you ad-hoc car sharihg :)

[hershel]

> in my country people are stopping using buses, and doing some kind of car sharing

can you share more details? it's interesting.