[Hytosys]

Judging by the article, "under optimal conditions" is an exaggeration. There was no citation of problems during traffic conditions.

My father sits through 2-4 hours of Los Angeles rush hour each day, and this is absolutely a game changer for someone like him. This is stellar.

[rimantas]

This is solving the wrong problem. Car self-driving through 2-4 rush hours does not solve the problem. Not having 2-4 rush hours would.

[tro2102]

This is the first step to that solution, though - if all cars are self-driving optimally, that 2-4 hours rush becomes much shorter.

[JulianMorrison]

Automated cars can in principle make subtle, shockwave-damping decisions in high density flow, zip together neatly at on ramps and make space for lane crossers at off ramps. And bonus, they can also in principle be doing useful things rather than occupying parking lots.

I expect a slow phase change to car-as-public-transport that never stops rolling when it isn't in maintenance.

[im3w1l]

Way more cars are needed during rush hour than other times, so I think even in the future cars will stop rolling.

[nulltype]

I think it is likely that the rush becomes longer

[imranq]

the biggest change would come from carpool adoption

[draugadrotten]

Perhaps make huge autonomous drones that can airlift your tesla from one spot to another, bypassing congested areas.

[danielbln]

A drone with that kind of lift sounds hugely expensive to build and operate.

[Hytosys]

How is my use case a "wrong problem"? I'm providing a legitimate application of this limited technology and you're dismissing it with a distracting, unfounded argument.

[mikeash]

I don't know how to solve the problem of having 2-4 rush hours. I do know how to solve the problem of having to manually manage my speed in traffic. It may be "the wrong problem" but it's a problem I face routinely, and a problem I'm delighted to solve for myself.

[waterlesscloud]

Get your job to let you work from the car on the way into the office for whatever face time you need, and you're on your way to cutting down the total time devoted to your job/commute.

[zanny]

But we are in a community currently in recoil from remote workers. On HN in the past week I have seen at least half a dozen front page articles about how remote doesn't work or how to do work life balance when remote. If people just cannot function without having their molecules in physical proximity to their bosses molecules you still get stuck with the dumb commutes.

[Retric]

Currently, most offices only need face time ~10-4 most days, but if your driving your out of touch with coworkers in normal business hours which is a hard sell. So often people only get to miss one of those segments either the show up ~10 most days or leave by 4pm most days but not both. Or, they might miss 1-3 days a week depending on meetings etc.

Now, suppose your self driving car let's you work while in the car. So, your still in the office from ~10-4 and get daily face time, but your only working 8-6. From a work life balance that's effectively zero commute time vs a killer 2h each way, with the added benefit that you get to avoid some of the peak traffic times.

The upside is it makes vary long commutes viable, the downside is it's it's vary energy expensive but with electric cars that's far less of an issue.

No to mention things like effective valet parking everywhere.

[lucaspiller]

How much does a driver cost in the US? For well paid tech workers I'm wondering if it would be worth it to have a driver rather than spending X hours driving themselves.

[mblakele]

I thought http://ideas.4brad.com/uber-price-la-approaches-robocar-chea... was interesting in that light. In short: as the cost of a ride approaches the cost of operating a privately-owned vehicle, it approximates owning a driverless car.

[Daishiman]

You're seeing the recoil because it's expanding to place we haven't seen before. The outsourcing and remote trends gained traction in 2002, and despite a lot of failures and false starts, it's growing and reaching places and industries it hasn't been to before, hence the backlash by people and teams that aren't competent with them.

[waterlesscloud]

You wouldn't be a remote worker if you're still going in for daily face time.

[vvanders]

Tesla already does this to some extent. TACC will go down to a full stop in traffic today, you just don't get the steering part(which isn't hard in stop & go).

It's incredible how less mentally wore down I feel after a long commute when using TACC. Still paying attention but at lot less effort required.

[Cookingboy]

There are already cars that have this feature, he should look into them.

What Tesla is releasing at this stage brings absolutely nothing new to the table.

[threeseed]

Absolutely. It's been around for at least a year or two.

My Landrover has this technology as an option as do most brands e.g. BMW, Mercedes.

Tesla is merely playing catch up this in regard.

[martin_bech]

Did it come as and over the air upgrade for all exisisting vehicles, with a promise of more upgrades along the way, and an even better upgrade of free long distance fueling?

[CyberDildonics]

That's probably why he is promising such a short timeframe to release.

[mikeash]

And it's also why I'm baffled at all the people talking about how crazy Musk is and how they wish he'd stop promising the moon. This is cool stuff but it is not a moon shot.