[DizzyEdge]

Originally Posted by jawagord

As I've already annoyed the Nenshiati today I may as well restate my concern the green line will become Calgary's biggest white elephant/financial mistake before it even opens. Self driving ride share vehicles are going to suck ridership away from transit and adding this expensive green line tunnel system will be le coup de grace to the 55% R/C ratio that will no longer be sustainable from ridership fees. The 2020's will be a viscous cycle of transit cuts and falling ridership burdened by the operating costs of the truncated green line.

General Motors is seeking U.S. government approval for a fully autonomous car – one without a steering wheel, brake pedal or accelerator pedal – to enter the automaker's first commercial ride-sharing fleet in 2019, executives said.

GM wants to control its own self-driving fleet partly because of the tremendous revenue potential it sees in selling related services, from e-commerce to infotainment, to consumers riding in those vehicles.

At a Nov. 30 briefing in San Francisco, GM's Ammann told investors the lifetime revenue generation of one of its self-driving cars could eventually be "several hundred thousands of dollars." That compares with the $30,000 (22,141.86 pounds) on average that GM collects today for one of its vehicles, mostly derived from the initial sale.

GM's Cruise AV is equipped with the automaker's fourth-generation self-driving software and hardware, including 21 radars, 16 cameras and five lidars – sensing devices that use laser light to help autonomous cars "see" nearby objects and obstacles.

The Cruise AV will be able to operate in hands-free mode only in premapped urban areas.


https://www.theglobeandmail.com/glob...ticle37588912/

Will this really negate the need for lrt though? Best case scenario these automated vehicles operate in a way to make their use of the roadways as efficient as is possible, but that may still lead to congestion eventually. Worst case is they're used as automated uber, with a sizeable portion of the traffic empty cars on their way to retrieve their owner or client.