LogFAQs > #954553416

LinkPizza posted...

And 11 years ago was still after the great recession ended.

The effects of widespread unemployment and a stagnant economy were still absolutely in full force in 2010. Hell, unemployment was at its highest point in most western countries in that year.

LinkPizza posted...

And I know you hate personal anecdotes because they always go against you, but maybe read it before discounting it.

No need - personal anecdotes are not statistically significant.

And no, personal anecdotes don't always go against me, because I can easily put forward my own for every one you give. You say that you've never met a single person who would ride a self-driving car? I've met dozens. Hundreds. Nah, fuck it, I'll say I've met millions and every single one of them said they would use a self-driving car as soon as they could.

Hey, my personal anecdote looks a lot more impressive than yours! Do you see why they're not exactly things you want being treated seriously in a debate yet?

Your anecdotes are not relevant to this discussion, no matter how much you try and deny that truth.

LinkPizza posted...

But I'm sure you know that since you've been wrong a lot in out discussion...

I will say that I don't have trouble spelling the word "our", so that apparently puts me ahead of you...

LinkPizza posted...

You assume self-driving car will be cheaper, but there's no basis for that.

Sure there is - it's called basic economics.

First of all, let's clarify that you once again deliberately misconstrued my argument here, because I said self driving cars were cheaper for transit/car-for-hire applications. Not that they were cheaper for ownership simply on the basis of the car itself.

Yes, a self-driving car is almost assuredly going to be more expensive than a manual car to purchase and that will be true for a long time to come. However, while the self-driving car costs more up-front, it also replaces a driver that costs tens of thousands of dollars a year to employ. When comparing a self-driving car to a manual car, the self-driving model will pay for the difference in a commercial application in a couple of years. Add in an increase in service times (self-driving cars can work 24/7, 365 days a year with no breaks aside for fuelling and maintenance) and a reduction in accident rate and insurance costs and the cars are a net benefit to the company's bottom line.

This is exactly what happened with factory automation. Yes, things like car-building robots are very expensive up front (to the tune of millions of dollars per unit) while replacing workers that don't have any up-front costs, but in the long run they are cost effective because the annual costs of maintenance/power/upkeep/depreciation are less than the wages of the worker it replaced over the life of the unit. If this were not the case, automation would not be done because it would be cheaper just to hire humans. Yet we know that modern manufacturing factories employ less than 10% of the workers they once did before robotic automation became widespread.

LinkPizza posted...

And if it's that expensive for a company to get them (and probably cost a pretty penny to maintain them

"Probably", meaning you don't know.

As self-driving cars are electric, they actually have lower maintenance costs than traditional vehicles because of fewer moving parts.

LinkPizza posted...

And before you say something weird like

Nice strawman.

Can you use a few more logical fallacies in your posts? I've almost got a double bingo on my card.

LinkPizza posted...

Getting a car mean payments, but eventually those payments stop normally after a few years. Using self-driving Uber for 15 years can end up costing a lot more. Same with Zipcar. Because you never stop paying.

You never stop paying for a car period, regardless of whether you're renting or owning.

I already covered this above. The bill for a car is never zero, because fuel and upkeep are always a thing.

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