Why Self-Driving Taxis are a Terrible Idea

The first 100 people to use code SOMETHING at the link below will get 60% off of Incogni: incogni.com/something
Jeff Bezos will fix traffic for you. As long as you are an upper middle class twat living in a gated community.
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[@AdamSomething]

The first 100 people to use code SOMETHING at the link below will get 60% off of Incogni: incogni.com/something

[@niewazneniewazne1890]

10/10 thumbnail, masterpiece

[@jesipohl6717]

the only way to change how people relate to cars is to ban them, glue ourselves to the streets, and celebrate those who do more.

[@bastiaan7777777]

My robotaxi does not allow me to visit that website....

[@ThunderTheBlackShadowKitty]

ALL SPONSORS ARE SCAMS. Great video Adam.

[@ThunderTheBlackShadowKitty]

@@enoch7685 That's not true, those are among his best videos.

[@Zectifin]

"what if you could have a bus, but didn't have to sit next to the poors?" -amazon

[@EugeneOneguine]

The next Rosa Parks isn't going to be about race, but income...

[@Alina_Schmidt]

I kind of want to forbid car ownership for everyone who whines about sitting next to poor people, homeless people and/pr drug users in a bus.

[@daha1214]

lol there would be a lot people who likes this pitch.

[@ryansauchuk7290]

About time

[@AmericanAdvancement]

@@Alina_SchmidtThat won’t work for people living in rural areas that cannot be connected to each other by public transit.

[@bobmanperson599]

"This is not a car, this is a vehicle" gives off the same energy as "I'm not driving, I'm traveling."

[@Grubiantoll]

or "I am not homeless" "I am not tied down by property"

[@hieronymusbutts7349]

​@@Grubiantollto be fair, speaking as someone who spent several years on the streets, I would 100% go back to living that way and not having to pay insurance, rent, and bills (except that I have multiple animals that depend on me)

[@user-aRb00d3r]

well, I am... in my megataxis...

[@notaspy1227]

Well if I can't program my AI vehicle to speak like a Sovereign Citizen I don't want the future.

[@aprikosenboy1995]

Its not a gun its a firearm

[@carvoloco4229]

If people own stuff, how are corporations going to charge them indefinitely for subscriptions?

[@somone1437]

1. they gonna own the roads 2. put payment system 3. no street lamps just your head lamps because that cost money. If you want that it comes at a premium 4. fine if you get into car accident

[@geostorm8192]

@@somone14375. Autonomous stealth taxis to smash into your car at night with no witnesses to abuse point 4 6. Now you own when people will or won't go out 7. ??? 8. P R O F I T

[@loodog555]

Actually, I think Tesla self driving mode is a premium subscription service, even after you bought the thing.

[@blasiankxng]

​@@loodog555pretty sure its only recently a subscription service. as for right now, if you bought it before the switch you will still have access to the service

[@426baron]

The way they "sell" cars nowadays is a long-term rental. In my country they don't advertise the full price anymore. Just how much per month. It makes a Dacia look only slightly cheaper than for example a BMW. Then you get poor neighbourhoods full of brand new A class, because they can't do math and just won't pay for rent until the car is set on fire to get rid of it.

[@Erritiguei1]

My favorite part of these videos is when he says "I am going to modify these ideas to make them work" then describes a train and/or bicycle. I know it's coming every time and i love it

[@LeftInStone]

I will never not find it funny

[@SkyKing1225]

I agree with his message, but you seen like the type of person to still laugh at "knock knock.... poopoo" jokes

[@user-sl7ie9te5r]

​@@SkyKing1225 ever heard of running gags?

[@SkyKing1225]

@@user-sl7ie9te5r yea, it just hasn't been funny in a while tho

[@marcogenovesi8570]

Everything naturally evolves into a train, no exceptions

[@tonatiuhl.8433]

Nature: everything can evolve to become a crab Adam: Everything can evolve to become a train

[@GEJS02]

Now we need a collaboration between Adam and nature. Crab-trains! :)

[@eric2500]

Everything can evolve to become a crab? I'm ready.

[@Thessalin]

Crab trains crab trains... Good with butter eats the brains.

[@Gelatinocyte2]

Train Bucket!

[@kyanhluong]

*What if we don't supress train

[@FirstLast-cg2nk]

It still amazes me that modern public transit ideas involve transiting as little of the public as possible.

[@BrowncoatGofAZ]

Easier to change the car than to remodel the cities I guess… Dios

[@090giver090]

@@BrowncoatGofAZ You don't need to remodel cities _that much_ to run regular (trolley)busses through it.

[@FirstLast-cg2nk]

@@BrowncoatGofAZ But bulk transport, even with just buses, would be far more profitable. The more people you can transport, the more people are paying for transport. You don't make huge profits be limiting who you sell products or services to, but by making those products and services available to as many people as possible. But modern corporations are less interested in obtaining profits, and more interested in attracting investors.

[@kenkong6386]

Because they want ✨Privacy✨, i.e. not share air with the other, potentially poor, people.

[@Aeduo]

@@FirstLast-cg2nk It's not about just as many as possible, it's about as _few_ as possible at as _high_ a possible price, where ever that sweet spot is that enough people would be willing to pay enough that is the maximum profit, and yeah, like is said in the video, isn't serving poor people at what they can pay. All that would be just about making the actual public services as dysfunctional and unprofitable as possible in the short term to completely kill it off as competition.

[@somegeese]

At the beginning of the pandemic, the city bus where i live became free, and they never went back. Amazon is gonna have a hard time beating "free"

[@tomhejda6450]

These corps try to do it with lawyers. There was an idea for a north-atlantic deal between the US and the EU that would allow big corps to sue a country over making a regulation that's infavourable for the big corp. "In the name of free market." Yeah, what could go wrong with giving big corp even more power than they already have?

[@Parambolumberienriatta]

​@@tomhejda6450 tell me it didn't pass, please.

[@karmakameleon113]

Whaaaa...?? How is that possible? Are your taxes super high or something?

[@Storymaker1316]

It’s pretty easy to beat free with convenient

[@BoisegangGaming]

​@karmakameleon113 Honestly if those taxes are used to create something that in the long run saves money, that's usually worth it.

[@Chairemy]

I hadn’t considered letting my dog shit in a self driving taxi until you said ALL of them. Challenge accepted

[@Chairemy]

I have done the math and yes we will have to create a lineage and create a new dog breed from the German shepherd and name it the German Shitter. Their life purpose will be finding and shitting in self driving taxis and they will love doing it. Believe in your dreams, let’s do this.

[@TheOneWhoSometimesSaysOk]

Hell yeah, let's do this

[@Terrorbrot]

​@@Chairemycount me in

[@solsticepilgrim]

So, your basically saying it will be one big mobile toilet!💩🚽 🚖🤣

[@erich.9864]

​@@Chairemy or create a new breed of the shih tzu, a shit tzu

[@livelongandtroll9108]

"It is so dumb, in fact, that even Elon Musk came up with it some time a go" Brutal

[@fenrirgg]

If Musk were developing a normal (but better) train system instead robo bobos he would be poor. He needs money to make the stuff.

[@rokkraljkolesa9317]

@@fenrirgg he needs money for his 10th jet, think of the poor, starving billionaires!

[@PainterVierax]

@@fenrirgg there is not enough techno-babel to communicate with, a lot of stupid ideas were already tried quite recently (like maglev) and there is a lot of well implanted, extremely experienced concurrents in that sector. And more importantly: Train is is not part of his dystopian corporatist-elitist ego-trip.

[@Lewtable]

@@PainterVierax Feels more like he wouldn't do it because it wouldn't let him keep attracting investors on the promise of future profits. Investors, especially in the US, don't want trains. They're a car-centric country for a reason, plus I guess it may conflict with his own electric car line to push for people to take trains instead of cars.

[@PainterVierax]

@@Lewtable That's another part of the issue. But more of that start-up mentality, those billionaires are still seeking to fulfill their twisted dreams, otherwise they will instead jump on advocating for cultural changes and real disrupting techs. They aren't IBM, ASML, Berkeley or MIT, nor developping things like ITER, LIGO or JWST projects.

[@daemonspudguy]

Imagine a transit idea being so unrelentingly awful that not even Elon Musk wants to touch it. I didn't even know that it was possible to stoop to levels that low.

[@FTZPLTC]

I'm pretty sure he *did* want to touch it at some point. He definitely promised robotaxis "next year" for about ten years.

[@iulian844]

​@@FTZPLTC😂😂😂

[@aidanfriedfeld8889]

I mean Elon musk just pretends to want to innovate public transit so he can take government funding away from actual public transit so he can maintain reliance on cars cuz that’s how he makes his money. Amazon just wants to reinvent Uber with less employees because humans are icky and have rights.

[@blahbleh5671]

That's not really possible

[@Maxzes_]

⁠​⁠​⁠@@FTZPLTCDoesn’t he always? It’s like those “[X country] will be a superpower by -2000- -2010- -2020- 2023”

[@notever_everytime5074]

I live in San Francisco, home base for Uber, Lyft, and all of the test autonomous vehicle companies. For the first eight years of Uber's operations, their mapping system consistently told my drivers to drive off the cliff a block away from my house to get to the Embarcadero, the main roadway on the eastern shore of the city. This was despite numerous reports by both residents and drivers, for years on end. Now these sorts of companies want me to get into unmanned vehicles with no override, because they totally pinky swear AI will not drive me off a cliff / into the sea / into other vehicles / over pedistrians' bodies? Uh, no.

[@rascoehunter3608]

I'm wondering who would pay for the injuries that the auto taxi causes. Whether that be the rider or Amazon.

[@GrahamCStrouse]

That’s one way to deal with overpopulation!

[@Nick-tj9cr]

You probably also remember all the scooters that people were chucking into Lake Merritt. I can only imagine how people would treat these robo taxis.

[@Darca1n]

@@rascoehunter3608 Pretty certain it'd be amazon/whoever manages the vehicle, the rider has no control over it after all.

[@rascoehunter3608]

@@Darca1n There are so many weird legal loop holes when it comes to insurance. Also Amazon could have a hidden condition in the terms of service that prevents them for being liable for injuries.

[@pylonialwaffles6944]

Some company: 'We're reinventing the wheel.' *their wheel is square*

[@DecMurphy]

Remember kids, public services should be publicly owned.

[@anarchoyeasty3908]

and private services should also be publicly owned. eliminate private ownership.

[@Goat_gamering]

@@anarchoyeasty3908 Though some may not like you if you go that far and call you something which they think of as a swear word. A "communist"

[@DecMurphy]

@@anarchoyeasty3908 Not necessarily publicly owned, but socially owned in one form or another certainly.

[@SCHMALLZZZ]

​@@Goat_gameringPublic ownership is a type of socialism. Communual ownership is what defines Communism

[@thelakeman2538]

​@@anarchoyeasty3908yeah because governments running consumer industries turned out so well for all the states that did that. There's strategic industries, public services (roads, hospitals, schools, etc), and certain industries prone to natural monopolies (telecom, ports, etc) where you can make that argument, anything outside that is just setting yourself up for failure.

[@Adriethyl]

The "scalable" thing immediately reminded me of the million other "we reinvented the train but its not actually a train and it has all the downsides of the car" cash grabs lmao

[@notreallyhere67]

Every time I hear that word, I tune out because I know it's going to be a buzzword salad that follows...

[@Kuhmuhnistische_Partei]

@@tarstarkusz I use public transport every day and would never want a car.

[@mateherbay2289]

​@@tarstarkuszthat's not being romantic, that's being practical

[@roguereaver634]

@@tarstarkusz Where do you live? Tbf If I had to use public transport where I grew up (South Africa) I'd probably have died in a rolled over minibus taxi that went off a cliff because the driver bribed to get his license and couldn't hear anything over his sound system. Living in Europe it's been pretty pleasant taking the bus/train whenever I need to

[@Jimoshi1]

"scalable" they meant they will atach multiple cars to each other to save on engines and then make special roads for them so we can save on tires. Also fun is most trains already drive automatically.

[@Nightweaver1]

I'm not putting my personal safety in the hands of a faceless, multi-billion-dollar corporation with no incentive to actually keep me safe.

[@Turret0pera]

It blows my mind how rich people would rather waste millions to billions of dollars pretending to fix issues instead of using the money to actually fix issues.

[@function0077]

This woman just seems like another tech grifter. They don't care about making the world a better place. They just care about enriching themselves.

[@sporovid5856]

It’s all by design, my friend

[@isaacvitela5131]

It's literally stroking their own egos until they cover themselves in it

[@vyran7044]

The thing is they only want to "fix" issues if the "fix" makes them more money then they invested and/or it gives them enough good PR to balance out bad PR moves that, in turn, can make them more money.

[@thatoneguy8146]

Adam always turning an idea into a train will never get old, I love it

[@BobSmith-cg2ek]

"It's just coming up with trains, from scratch, every time we turn it on?" -Confused silicon valley AI developer, looking at a box smarter than them.

[@mk1st]

It’s trains all the way down.

[@idriveastationwagon1534]

i feel like adam somehow finds a way to turn any stupid idea into a train, no matter what the idea is. It doesnt even have to be related to transportation

[@StefanCreates]

@@BobSmith-cg2ek 😂😂😂

[@megadeth116]

It;s the companies trying to shrink the trains into pods and not pay for the driver

[@HiIIzRelliking]

Nothing puts a smile on my face faster than Adam saying "Let me make some suggestions..." knowing exactly where he's going

[@TurdBoi-tf5lf]

TRAINS!!!

[@simonebellisario3682]

I read this comment before watching the video and I already knew where he was going to end up

[@gdbalck]

ALL ABOARD!

[@Aedlmonrl]

Its like Colombo saying "Oh yeah, one more thing" You already know what's gonna happen, but its always so dopamine inducing each time

[@hvdveer]

He managed to make it super funny again with his Mega-, GIGA- and 🤘!!TERRA!!-🤘 Taxi silicon valley marketing spin.

[@mckorr2116]

Amazon can't even find my house for deliveries, why would I trust them to get a robotaxi to it?

[@amrswalha]

0:35 "It is so dumb, in fact Elon Musk came up with it some times ago" You had me rollin

[@jon2922]

The core issue with this is that the idea isn't "we don't want you to be dependent on cars", its "we want you to be dependent on *our* cars instead". All the downsides of car centric transport with none of the upsides of owning a private vehicle.

[@marksmod]

you don't have to worry about parking.

[@Abrothers12]

@@marksmodyeah, but they do. It’s likely they would do it as cheaply as possible or just straight up lobby the price unto the taxpayers

[@setlerking]

It will always be easier to underpay real humans than use robots. Uber makes money because they don’t assume liability for their cars, robot taxis are as expensive as a regular taxi company to operate

[@ImpactWench]

Amazon has the money to buy legal reform to change that.

[@antonioscendrategattico2302]

Yeah, all these "automation will solve it!" sales pitches always seem to pretend that the issue is that there's like, not enough drivers. Which never was the goddamn issue.

[@setlerking]

@@ImpactWench it’s not laws that do that, it’s basic economics. If I run a robot taxi service and compete with Uber I’m the loser. I assume liability, maintenance, insurance, taxes etc for my fleet of taxis. Uber pays a fraction of that as payment to its contracted drivers, the drivers assume all the risks associated with owning a car. Amazon using robots *might* happen but they’ll still use humans for a lot of the warehouse jobs that they need filled. Robots require maintenance, costs a lot of initial investment to field and can cause mass shutdowns in your logistics if problems arise. An underpaid human can just be told to do something, does not require any substantial initial costs or maintenance.

[@tullochgorum6323]

Well, they certainly will be once you take the inevitable vandalism into account. Just imagine Friday night, with thousands of drugged-up people going home from the clubs...

[@daggerdan12]

Do Uber make money now

[@memelord8769]

100% agree with the statement that we will never have full self driving. Computers thrive on predictability, humans thrive on adaptability.

[@carultch]

On top of that, who do you charge with manslaughter when things go catastrophically wrong, due to corners cut on safety in the inevitable race-to-the-bottom?

[@gyroscope915]

" This is not a car, its a vehicle" Is some hard core sovereign citizen bullshit

[@David-wc5zl]

Sentient Sovereign Robo Taxis would be hilarious.

[@WillDa713]

let's not forget that bus drivers (one of the backbones of our modern lifestyle) can act as a form of authority but not only in the case of a robbery. Many times in my city have people being denied access to a bus that still had some standing space but the drivers were like "yea but then nobody gets in or out and the line accumulates delays, take the next one and let's all keep traffic flowing" basically. There's also this one time a teenager lit a cigarette in the back of the bus like an edgelord and this lady went up to the driver, talking about her medical condition. The driver stopped the bus and personally threw out the kid after he refused to behave. Can't expect civility from a LeVeL fIvE autonomous vehicle.

[@kaitlyn3168]

I imagine they would put an Alexa or other form of AI to "regulate" the more unruly people in it. I wouldn't put it past them to do that

[@suddenllybah]

​@@kaitlyn3168 But how? a pair of earmuffs blocks the only vector it could possibly have to affect change, and it would not have the "you touch the bus driver, you go to jail" thing

[@kaitlyn3168]

@@suddenllybah I didn't say it would work, just that it would most likely be in the vehicle for "security" reasons. It's a shitty security measure, but amazon would point to that and say "bad guy should've listened to alexa". Obviously, any criminal or would-be criminal would just ignore it and do whatever crime anyway, but amazon would say that Alexa is the security measure. Along with security cameras inside/outside the vehicle.

[@dalemsilas8425]

But this isn't a bus, they are more like taxis.

[@madshorn5826]

Yeah, we can imagine all kinds of bad stuff, but the alternative is people clinging on to their motorized overcoats like today. Clearly leaving everything to a private corporation would be bad, but so will the status quo. The future may be a ton of busses and trains and some autonomous vehicles. This video is seeking outrage, not solutions. Try again Adam.

[@antonioscendrategattico2302]

When Adam starts offering suggestions to make these craptastic transit ideas better, we all know that he's about to make a bus or a train... but it's always hilarious anyway. It's like his finishing move.

[@ahmadjz8144]

Exactly, I even opened the comment section looking for this comment

[@lillysmith6123]

It's like the point just before the drop. You know it's coming, and you know what it will be, but it's fun anyway.

[@shrouddreamer]

Or the video about the "innovation" that was just pumped-storage-hydroelectricity, but worse

[@CowardEdd]

I was thinking it might not be here given he already mentioned bus / tram earlier on, but Adam didn't disappoint.

[@puttiplush]

Today we ALSO got a bike, as a treat.

[@victorfield4607]

Victor from Russell Island here - the bright sparks from our local city council trialled a driverless bus on Karragarra Island - a small island with a population of about 200 here in Moreton Bay. It was a ludicrous failure! The vehicles started so violently that passengers were knocked off their feet, it broke down constantly . . . Hopefully not too much of our council rates were wasted on it. No further publicity has been heard about this bright idea.

[@uristmcary]

Half of a truck driver's job is accepting liability. They often also know basic maintenance/bureaucratic processes as well. Actually driving is the difficult part but the point of a commercial license at least where I live is that if something goes wrong everyone knows who to blame. Anyone can drive a truck, not everyone can accept they screwed up when they failed (and therefore be good enough not to screw up.) It ends up that while driving is the main skill truck drivers are known for, for 90% of the time it's staying awake, some truck drivers even avoid the difficult parking with trailers. Which, means that if you automate a truck perfectly. You will still need a driver to accept liability and be there for basic maintenance and signing paperwork. Until a computer can do those things the truck driver is a necessity. It's easy to sign paperwork and theoretically computers can do maintenance. But... You will never make a computer or robot accept liability, that would mean the owner/producer/programmer is liable. Hiring a lawyer or sponsoring 3rd parties (be they licensed professionals or minimum wage kids who don't know any better) Is cheaper for all parties involved than accepting that they might cause damage. See also insurance industries. For this reason, "DRIVER OUT AUTONOMY" will never happen unless some entity forces it to happen for prestige or something. Trains stay on rails and travel the same routes over and over again, If they hit something? 99.99% chance it's not their problem, it's the fault of whoever was stupid enough to be on railroad property. Yet trains still have conductors. airplanes often take off and land using automated computer scripts (no matter what flight attendants say) yet aircraft still have pilots. Buying into cutting out the fat of a risk accepting human sitting in a chair is throwing money away and in the long run will get ZERO returns, any returns they get, are from something other value or grift. TLDR: The value of pointing your finger at someone when something goes wrong > salaries of every person operating any kind of machine and you can take that to the bank.

[@NotJustBikes]

There will be so many wild outcomes of these become real. For example, imagine a parent who has to drop off a kid at elementary school, a kid at highschool, and then drive to work. With Robotaxis that will become three trips - one for each kid and one for the parent - and this will be considered normal behaviour. The number of trips that people take will explode and traffic will become insane. Personally, I look forward to ordering a single tube of toothpaste for instant delivery, brought to me by my local robotaxi delivery company. The future will be great!

[@gilbmkay]

And as it would be a transition happening over time while traffic gets worse tech bros will blame non-autonomous vehicles and public traffic for not being somehow connected 🤓 Good thing autonomous driving won't happen in the next decades

[@JH-pe3ro]

If everyone has a choice between robotaxi or bike, it most likely becomes one robotaxi, two bike. Road safety goes up. Looks good to me.

[@olavsantiago]

Those droids to deliver your toothpaste are on the pavements of your winter cycling city - Oulu. They often get confused and stuck (and that was just summer)

[@user-op8fg3ny3j]

12:14 why is there a photo of Malaysia?

[@trioptimum9027]

I think the Adam Something answer to your single-tube-of-toothpaste delivery would be to reinvent the postal service. Because that's a perfectly reasonable way to deliver things, if there's a delivery vehicle transiting your street several times a day anyway, right?

[@ArtanisKizrath]

Any time anyone says they will REVOLUTIONIZE transportation or logistics, their concept eventually lead to TRAINS if they try to make it efficient and scalable.

[@Joe-vm6ds]

Silicon Valley loves reinventing the train but worsw

[@filthycasual6118]

Like how everything in nature evolves into a variant of crab. The end-boss of all transportation is trains.

[@wyqydsyq]

Monorail!

[@eric2500]

Or buses or trams in some cases.

[@eric2500]

Don't forget bicycles, as in Adam's example!

[@CryingBlossom814]

11:33 - I love how every time you make a video about a bullshit futuristic transport there’s always a moment when you transform it into a train or a bus

[@stylesrj]

I was waiting for the part where Adam would invent the Bus/Tram/Train and he didn't disappoint. Actually he went above and beyond by inventing the bike too.

[@jansenart0]

Any company that advertises themselves as a "public service provider" should by all rights be nationalized, and its product become a taxpayer-funded operation.

[@JanHarcuba]

Why?

[@vylbird8014]

@@JanHarcubaBecause a public service should be available for too, but a for-profit company is obliged to set a price that maximises revenue, so not everyone will be able to afford it.

[@JanHarcuba]

@@vylbird8014 someone must pay for public services, they are not free. You pay for them with your taxes. Why should I be forced to pay for services I don't want?

[@N.i.c.k.H]

There is no necesary connection between the two concepts. Private bus companies working on public contracts work just fine. Almost all transport strikes are on publicly owned transport systems and the public ownership becomes a single point of failure becuase they belong to the same union.

[@masterkamen371]

It's not that simple. My city's (Zagreb) public transport would be an even bigger mess if it was tax funded. They aren't for-profit, but they do charge for tickets (cheapest tickets in Europe). The trams are by far the largest consumers of electric energy in the city, the larger trams consume up to 420kW when accelerating hard. Ticket sales cover a big part of the operating costs of the network. The bus network is always a mess, missing drivers, missing vehicles, something like 20% of the vehicles are broken, etc. I've been to Graz and was shocked by how nice their public transport is. A tram every 4 or so minutes instead of 15, punctual, clean and new buses (probably also punctual, haven't tried them). But their tickets cost more than 2€, compared to ours which are 53c. Full tax funding may work in Luxembourg, but their bus network has 38 lines. Zagreb has 147 bus lines and 19 tram lines. And that's a "medium-sized" city by many metrics. The fuel consumption for 300+ buses and 187 trams that drive every day is ridiculous. The costs would probably bankrupt the city after a while. They already pay for many of the new vehicles that are acquired (some paid for by the EU and some by the city, some are split between them).

[@charlesboudreau5350]

Challenging the "attitude towards car ownership" would have sounded like something commendable if I didn't immidiately understand that what they mean by challenging is "removing ownership" more so than anything.

[@tristanridley1601]

It's all emphasis. "attitude toward CAR ownership." vs "attitude toward car OWNERSHIP." :)

[@devinward461]

"You will own nothing, and you will be happy"

[@skaruts]

Is there a difference? Both sound like communism to me.

[@devinward461]

@@skaruts because we all know how much Jeff Bezos loves communism

[@yorhaunit8s]

@@skarutsactually working and useful public transport and walkable cities isn't communism, it's just a normal thing that can be present anywhere (be that democracy, autocracy or communism). What amazon proposes is not that at all, it's leaving all the cars, removing people's ownership over them and thus keeping all the problems of car based infrastructure but now with corporate control. Classic corporate anti-utopia.

[@nigor42]

Once again, an Adam Something video sheds its coat and reveals BUILD A TRAIN once again and frankly, that's what I'm here for.

[@Depressionwave2338]

I am glad Budapest was mentioned. I live there and the public transport is SO GOOD. It is easy to get anywhere by tram or metro.

[@RazorsharpLT]

Adam Something IS from Hungary, dude. He absolutely hates Orban too

[@youtubename7819]

I visited Budapest and while I was there, the line connecting an island to the buda side was down. A bus came every SIX minutes. The driver wouldn’t stop apologizing to me for it. He seemed genuinely disturbed I had to wait six minutes for a bus. It was like some kind of dream. (It’s normal for the bus to come once an hour where I am from, and there is no metro.)

[@lmallia6719]

One of the best things I experienced in Budapest was how efficient BKK is.

[@gaphic]

my favorite part of an adam something video is the part where he fixes stupid ideas by turning them into trains. the popeye eating spinach moment. it's the same every time and i never get sick of it

[@Infernus25]

He even turned them into bikes this time, amazing stuff

[@ianmason96]

When traffic gets you down, build trains around downtown, he’s Adam the Transit Man *toot toot*

[@ambiarock590]

@@ianmason96 Who needs traffic when you can just cycle your way around the traffic? *taps head*

[@wolfbountygameryt1404]

Adam is the Mann trains go chuga chugga choo choo

[@Z7aRk]

It maddens me to no end how these rich people can just blow all these resources on completely unfeasible, or borderline dystopian ideas.

[@blindmown]

Why does it madden you? It's their resources, they can do pretty much as they wish given how our world is setup. You can try to do something about it, you can either become wealthy and make what you perceive to be better decisions, or you could attempt some act to try and push back whether political, or violent. Personally, I don't like how resources are used. But I don't see any point in letting it effect my mood. It's not going to change on my account.

[@bilbobluntz1946]

maddening. the poor masses, indeed, know better.

[@LeafHuntress]

It *angers* me, _righteous_ anger. There is a lovely Tom Scott video of a garden in Germany where some rich dude had installed lots of fun stuff centuries ago. I also listened to a Belgian podcast about a lot of rich dudes who patronaged the church & the arts as a result. And i know about the calvinist Dutch rich dudes who made it almost into a sport who could give the most to the poor, the orphanages etc. all properly accounted for of course. It's criminal how these modern rich dudes go about spoiling our planet with their dystopian shyte, when they could have funded another Rembrandt or Bach. Or even garden follies for all i care, just not cars & rockets, we've got too much to loose. It's our world too.

[@bilbobluntz1946]

@@LeafHuntress YES! Bach > space program! Garden follies > electric cars!

[@RobertDoornbosF1]

​@@blindmownBecauze instead of wasting money on bullshit transit projects they can just invest in actual working, profitable solutions

[@ravengrey6874]

The only (proposed) version of self driving cars that I have seen is in fiction. The movie IRobot had a good version of this idea where cars were self driving while on major highways but driver controlled while in urban environments

[@qwertydavid8070]

There's also the "high-speed highway" from Detroit Human. I feel like that's the only way self-driving cars could properly work to their full potential, by creating infrastructure made SPECIFICALLY for them. Of course, the real solution would be to instead make our cities safer so that biking and walking can become more commonplace.

[@aprilmg7072]

Every futuristic game: autonomous trains to anywhere Every fake future guru: Self-driving cars At this point it's just denial that cars just don't make sense as a ubiquitous solution.

[@MrMakeDo]

You know how Tesla’s self driving operation sometimes starts steering the car into oncoming traffic and the driver has to grab the wheel and take over? Now imagine that happening in a vehicle with no steering wheel.

[@USSAnimeNCC-]

Or a child that is waiting to cross the street only to see a robo taxi cross it

[@LexYeen]

I'd rather not imagine a nightmare, thanks.

[@mickeyboyracer]

Well given there is also no driver the lack of a steering wheel is a fantastic cost saving outcome!

[@LimeyLassen]

Level 5 Autonomy is when you have no autonomy at all

[@HarveyCohen]

No problem! Won't happen more than once per robotaxi.

[@thedarkone5049]

I love how he eventually turns every single idea of transport that rich come up into a train or a bus, tram, bike.

[@nebulastar2130]

Or a tram

[@grahvis]

There is a simple reason for that. So many of the supposed solutions to traffic congestion are advocated as a method of mass transport when clearly they are not, whereas a bus or train is.

[@thedarkone5049]

@@grahvis i know... That was a statement, not a problem or a question

[@pozhiloy_d-class5192]

Here in Estonia, a citizen can get a special card which allows you to freely use public transit (buses, trams) in the county where this citizen lives. This Zoox crap wouldn't work here specifically for this reason.

[@kristinfrostlazerbeams]

How cold does it get in Estonia? Batteries stop working when they get chilly. Another reason that this is a dumb idea is temperature can cripple the stupid Toots or Xoox or whatever. Just ask Scandinavia how well it works to fully convert public buses to electric. I think Denmark did it and realized that. 😂

[@pozhiloy_d-class5192]

@@kristinfrostlazerbeams its gets to -25C on an average winter. Buses here still work on combustion though. And crippling the Zooxes... Well, if you took our free, reliable, decent public transit and replaced it with these 4-seat "pods" that you need to pay for it each time you use it, we'd tear them apart next night. Some pretty important routes lie right next to forests and shady places. Also, what these "pods" wouldn't have even in Europe is for-hour and for-day tickets, i.e. ticket that you pay for once to freely ride any public transit in a city for an amount of time, and that would scare off citizens and tourists alike.

[@kristinfrostlazerbeams]

@@pozhiloy_d-class5192 negative 25 and the battery doesn't charge, so it's great to keep those busses. :)

[@GThu1]

The rentable bikes I really like. There are so many stations now and it's very inexpensive (~$15 for a year pass allowing you ride the first 30mins free as many times you want, so you can reset the timer at every station). Because you have to leave the bike at the station (except you have to pay ~$15 penalty), I don't think it is suitable for the suburban area (it's not affordable to maintain stations for some streets), but it's absolutely perfect for more dense areas. Like in Budapest. People in suburban area using own bikes, cars or walk to get to the local railway station and go with train into the city, skipping all trafic (because we don't have much highways). From the central railway station, you can get anywhere with those public bikes.

[@Mouritzeen]

I also like how in every sci fi novel mass transit isn’t a thing. Massive space highways, space traffic, flying cars in traffic, flying cars that somehow never crash, etc

[@Iden_in_the_Rain]

That’s one thing about Coruscant that I never got, like holy hell it is so chaotic in the second movie

[@Mouritzeen]

@@Iden_in_the_Rain the most dense, advanced city never thought to make a train or metro or anything else

[@Something8830]

@@Iden_in_the_Raincourscant has a traffic control mainframe that guides everything in the traffic corridors.

[@disgoop]

capitalist realism in action

[@Iden_in_the_Rain]

@@Something8830 it does? I’ve never heard about that (which is surprising since I have looked at the expanded universe and lore and whatnot a lot)

[@psow4062]

As an electronics engineer who worked in automotive I have a lot of doubts about self driving cars too. True level 5 car is still many years away. In the end it may require very expensive sensors and advanced, very well trained and tested AI. I think getting there with just cheap cameras and regular programming is close to impossible (too many variables, too poor sensors). Meanwhile level 3 and 4 cars still require you to drive in the more challenging situations, but also, they rob you from the chance to gain experience in regular situations, which overall makes you a worse driver. So basically, the system goes: "I can't deal with that, let me surprise this relatively inexperienced human and put him in charge to deal with this hard situation" - is it actually safer than lesser level of automation?

[@jonatand2045]

Then geofenced with lidar and radar are the sensible option for the near future.

[@dragon723.]

Yes. Most dangerous trafic situations are created because of human inattention or impatience. So while they may be less suited to handle the dangerous situations that do occur, the chance of it happening will be much lower, likely due to someone deciding to drive themselves.

[@Skylancer727]

@@dragon723. I find this claim highly dubious. There are many cases that things happen completely out of anyone's controls like high winds flipping trucks, general weather like vehicles hydroplaning, lanes being improperly marked or worn out, not noticing things like railroad crossings (I work on the railroad and just the last trip saw 4 people fly through a signal that was flashing), etc. The road is just so incredibly complex I doubt even our best AIs can really handle every situation. And current cars just saying "not my problem" when they feel like it tends to cause even more problems.

[@dragon723.]

@@Skylancer727 1: About 13% of accident happen due to bad weather conditions. This includes strong winds, ice on the road, lowered visibility, etc. 2: About 13.5% of accidents happened when the roads were wet. 3: The remaining accidents happened when the sun was out or it was cloudy, reasonably decent conditions for driving. As for missing a railroad crossing, that's the kind of thing humans will never stop doing. Just as accidents involving road rage, anxious driving (a lot of accident are caused by people who drive too slowly), impatient driving, driver falling asleep/ ill/ heart attack and so on will keep on happening. A properly programmed automated driver or even a driving assistant who can take over in emergency situations won't suffer from that.

[@valdir7426]

state of the art modern cars have already a lot of features that makes driving easier and more safe. We don't need more than that; and since fully autonomous self-driving is pretty much impossible we indeed need people to still know how to drive. We could get to the point of very advanced highway with standardized signage were you can let the car in autonomy but that's as far as I think we can and should go. Car makers should be stopped from making self driving car claim; specially on currently sold cars. Having "beta self driving" in cities with pedestrian for teslas is absolutely criminal.

[@mcsomeone2681]

My grandfather has stories of this same thing happening but with restaurants, in the 60's and 70's fast food chains flooded my city and offered insanely low prices, once a good 50% of mom and pop restaurants were driven out the fast food prices went up.

[@viniciusjose8763]

This reminded me of a case here in Brazil, in the city of Recife, the bus was offered by companies with a contract with the city council, independent kombi drivers did this service for 25 or 50 cents per ticket and went to places where the buses didn't go, the competition There was so much that the company offered buses with air conditioning, but Karens' complaint, saying that the kombis made the traffic bad, combined with the press lobby, bureaucratized the kombis, it was a kombi license, kombis union, in a short time the kombis disappeared, traffic is still bad and the ticket price is more than three bucks

[@echo_soldier]

Adam Something improving every new transit idea into a train is probably the best running part of these videos

[@graealex]

As long as you ignore the infrastructure cost, you can turn everything into a train or tram. He even scalds BEV busses, despite them being one of the most flexible and accessible option to improve public transit availability.

[@kirby1225]

@@graealex Most busses are already very clean and can run on some biodiesel. Batteries are not great for the environment and that requires them to be charged which for a large vehicle may take some time in which case you'd need another bus to cover that line while it potentially charges over the day. BEVs at the very best should be kept as a stop gap to trams or just busses that get electricity from wires above it-

[@graealex]

@@kirby1225 The problem with combustion engines is and remains that the pollution is released where it is unwanted the most - in the city.

[@kirby1225]

@@graealex Then it depends on the city, if there is low amounts of pollution then it doesn't matter as much and in smaller cities with low pollution. and where the added costs of a BEV bus may impact the service they can provide.

[@gromm93]

Silicon valley is reinventing the bus every single day.

[@rtvdenys]

Adam, your suggestions on improving the robotaxis are interesting, but they are missing a crucial ingredient: you need to call all those things "pods". No pods - no investments - no big bucks.

[@kebien6020]

Tera-podxy

[@sogerc1]

Megapod, Gigapod and Terapod, yeah I like it, those sound very futuristic, that ought to bring in inverstors.

[@SynchroScore]

I work as an old-fashioned machinist in a pump repair shop, and let's say one of the tech geniuses was put in charge. Likely they'd look at the process: "It takes one machinist on one lathe to produce one coupling in one hour. It takes two machinists on two lathes to produce two couplings in one hour. Therefore, we can get rid one of the lathes and instead have two machinists make one coupling on one lathe in half an hour." This is what happens when Silicon Valley people try to take on a real-world engineering issue. Spending your whole time with computers, you do not appreciate physical constraints. Run out of memory? Add a few sticks of RAM and save files in the Cloud. It's all easily solved with a few keystrokes. Infrastructure doesn't work like that. All these cars will take up space. Space to drive, to park, to charge, to be serviced. A self-driving car takes up just as much space as a human-driven car. The geometry doesn't change, no matter how much technology you throw at it.

[@jameslovallo9603]

I knew it would evolve into busses and trains, but the bicycle threw me for a loop

[@Snek_1000]

I love how this channel is just “the solution to everything is public transport”

[@Tsagan]

Trains, the answer is always Trains

[@brunoheggli2888]

and it is!

[@evinbraley]

@@Tsagan Adam might as well be called the Conductor at this point. No Gods or Kings, Only Trains!

[@dertythegrower]

the thumbnail was the exact opposite and why I clicked (and i even work in factory where we make aluminum part for zoox, heh)

[@Parabueto]

@@tarstarkusz Depends where you live. For me parking anywhere in the city is more expensive than the bus, my car only seats two so filling it up doesn't gain any savings, there's no dedicated parking at home so coming home after rush hour is an absolute nightmare even with a tiny car, traffic is awful and it's only half an hour walking to work. Driving in rush hour it can take 20 minutes before finding somewhere to park and all that stress. If not having a hobby requiring going to the countryside to private farms and stuff in the summer I wouldn't have a car at all.

[@chrisball3778]

Uber's been trying desperately to make this happen for over a decade at this point without much success. They are so, so horny to sack their workforce and replace them with robots. The fact that they thought mass-adoption of self-driving cars was inevitable was a key reason they were lent an absolute ton of money by venture capital funds, enabling them to expand as quickly as they did.

[@Novastar.SaberCombat]

Yup. And they can do whatever they wish. Rich gotta rich, poor gotta suffer and serve. It is what it is. Cope, deal, accept.

[@gregmark1688]

That idea just seems impossible, tho. The vast majority of Uber's profits come from exploiting the worker-owned vehicle, not having to buy or maintain the thing. Not having to pay the driver can't possibly make up for having to own and maintain the actual cars.

[@aaz1992]

Lmao. I make $140,000/year working for uber. My 2017 Accord has 280,000miles on it and has made me almost $700,000 with maintenance costs under $8,000. Not a single repair ever

[@chrisball3778]

@@aaz1992 All hail Uberbot. You don't address a single point I made, but you sure got a lot of advertising for Uber in there. Thank you for proving my point and for demonstrating Uber's horrifying automated PR blitz! Also, FUCK UBER!

[@originalsusser]

You have a funny, self-aware way of looking at things. I haven't laughed so much at a KZbin in a while. Great job, keep it up 😊

[@martinponc8021]

There is nothing wrong on personal ownership of a car. Although, driving it in a city isn't effective nor fun. So I prefer public transportation inside of a city, and individual transportation(conventional car) outside of cities.

[@Praisethesunson]

God capitalism is so dedicated to not having mass public transit.

[@cracknigga]

But that friendly black lady with a foreign name looks so reassuring, she could not possibly do us harm, could she?

[@whereswaldo5740]

It’s known as freedom.

[@StivyIvy]

Everything I dont like is capitalism

[@JSmith19858]

@@whereswaldo5740 No doubt. I hate that every time I have to use public transport, Communists come and kick in my door and march me to the bus stop at gun point

[@Numbers-gStands]

I liken it to the crabs in a barrel analogy, car and oil lobbies (among multiple other groups) force car centric infrastructure on everything to make a profit not only at the expense of people but even other companies as reducing mass transit reduces the amount of people that can move to different jobs meaning less human capital can be extorted as efficiently, hence yet another contradiction of capitalism.

[@colesweed]

Adam turning buzzword pods into trains and buses is my favorite part of these videos

[@Seoras111]

So Amazon is challenging car ownership so that they can own all the cars instead. Heck they want to own you! Not a chance.

[@oppaloopa3698]

“Well it's *easy* to be a saint in paradise, but they do not live in paradise! Out there, all the problems haven't been solved yet! Out there, there are no saints! Just people! Angry, scared, determined people, who are going to do whatever it takes to survive, whether it meets with Federation approval or not!” And that’s why these things will be robbed

[@Abyss-Will]

I love how they speak all positive things about how transportation helps to develop society and how they want to help disadvantaged areas and their solution is basically to have taxis but not paying the driver a salary... Yes, very helpful of them.

[@jonatand2045]

Yes, that benefits the consumer.

[@Lucasrocha-pl1ll]

​@@jonatand2045our Jobs bro

[@a-don13]

yes. this eliminates human error accidents which is a good thing. Also EVERYTHING he said in this video will have a solution. Narrow minded as always

[@onsokumaru4663]

@@jonatand2045 No, it only benefits Amazon.

[@TC-th1ey]

​@@a-don13 I for one can't see full self driving vehicles being developed as then the manufacturer is taking the risk of being sued if it crashes or malfunctions. From a legal perspective it's a great deal safer if the human occupant is ready to take control.

[@Tuschet]

Ah yes, fixing congestion caused by too many cars by using more cars.

[@leighz1962]

Maybe if we add even more cars?

[@The_GreenHub]

'just one more stupid idea guys' JUST BUILD A FUCKING TRAIN

[@leonpaelinck]

we solve that by adding more lanes

[@qazaqstanmann]

@@leonpaelinck...and then the lanes fill up, so we add more lanes. Kek.

[@lem860]

​@@dertythegrowertotally no safety issues with having hundreds of kilograms flying through the air controlled by some computer somewhere, surely there will be no sabotage Also have you stood near a small remote controlled drone taking off? The cities will become unbelievably loud

[@ensdogukan]

The Idea of the train is undefeatable, by any means and I get reminded of it everytime this guy uploads.

[@RyanBride620]

I applied to work here. And interviewed. Sorry adam something, rent had to be paid

[@EnSnusTack]

The problem I see with all these "revolutionary" ways of transport is with the people make them. They want to find a solution to the horrible car but also never wanting to set a foot on a vehicle with ordinary people. They see themselves as better and more important. Ending in a cycle of re-inventing the car.

[@electrosyzygy]

Thing this is, they're not trying to find a solution to the car. They want to expand the amount of time in a day that their customers stare at screens of their choosing, they want a captive audience so that more data can be mined and more products be sold.

[@AtlasNovack]

My favorite part about Adam's videos are the inevitable "motherfucker you just thought of a train" rants

[@kantcunt1471]

It's a GIGA TAXI!!

[@hellexar6450]

I love when you come up with these "genius" ideas on how to improve these terrible products and just describe existing things that already work, you've turned me into a train enthusiast

[@danielloewen2857]

Every attempt at solving traffic forgets that eliminating car ownership basically imprisons people in a city

[@seamusmckeon9109]

Couldn’t I take a train or bus out of the city?

[@lefishe5845]

What's with this narrative of imprisoning people in cities? Do yall think people in europe just don't leave their small pasture like a bloody henhouse?

[@pervertedgeniusgirl9649]

Adam evolving the tech bro "revolutionary" new transport concepts into trains never fails to make me laugh .

[@Thessalin]

I'll be honest, I cheer and laugh every time. The bike got me today. Aahhhhh ahahaha!

[@hellmasterjoleck]

the only problem with the train is it's really hard to get a sofa home by public transit, they wouldn't even let me bring a dresser onto a bus, had to buy a wagon and drag it 10 miles home.

[@IncorrigibleBigotry]

"Chain-pedal manual propulsion" Please never change, Adam.

[@erkinalp]

Bicycle.

[@user-op8fg3ny3j]

@@erkinalp ironically, he used a photo of malaysia when talking about that which has notriously bad bicycle infrastructure because it get's hogged by the motorbikes

[@praevasc4299]

The big problem with the suburban solution is that in very bad weather, or in most of the winter, bicycles are not an ideal solution.

[@umbrellacorp.]

So trains, busses and bicycles Awesome ideas. Why didn't we think of that?.😉👍💯

[@SarahRoseCO10]

I love that Adam always ends these videos turning this shit into trains. 10/10 every time

[@no_less03]

that shirt is so based, lol

[@angusmuir6180]

Seconded, top tier shirt

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

When life hits Adam with lemonade, he turns lemonade into trains.

[@Aedlmonrl]

​@@theultimatereductionist7592 Lemons made out of the sourness of salty techbros and grifter billionaires. Surprisingly provides more energy than a kilo of uranium

[@jonatand2045]

​@@theultimatereductionist7592 Even when the technology isn't meant to repleace mass transit. In fact it could enable autonomous busses.

[@romanonaidoo2737]

It’s funny how an actual cost effective, sustainable and practical solution is almost always a well run rail system but they’ll pour outrageous amounts into anything but.

[@jonatand2045]

Because there is a huge market for cars. Those cars could all eventually be automated.

[@Spearca]

​@@jonatand2045There's a huge market for cars because we have poured unimaginable amounts of money into building infrastructure for cars, and little else in many places, so there are not options. For a house that I'm currently selling, a nearby 'improvement' to car infrastructure (replacing shoulders with travel lanes under a highway overpass) actually took away the option of walking to the nearest bus stop.

[@jonatand2045]

@@Spearca I'm from Mexico, where infrastructure is lacking and cities are more walkable. Still plenty of cars here and in any country that isn't very poor. Ai would need to be capable to drive here, but the demand is there.

[@MrFlarespeed]

Idk, this time the solution isn't trains. Its busses. No need to put down tracks, they can go wherever cars can, and have far more capacity than a taxi.

[@AngryReptileKeeper]

You can usually thank the "not in my backyard" people for that one.

[@aquaprofile]

Imagine a certain group of people being so ungovernable that they would literally ruin any social program or public transit program out into their neighborhoods

[@dizzylilthing]

It isn't a certain group of people because no group that you are thinking of is a monolith. scarcity drives poverty and people experiencing poverty have higher rates of crime based on a myriad of conditions. generational trauma is a proven concept, segregation is still practiced, people experience in poverty are more likely to be exposed to harmful chemicals that impact behavior such as lead or industrial byproducts.

[@phoenixdowner]

In Spokane, WA it is hard to ride the bus and ride a bike because the bike racks are usually full. If you are taking a bike, you usually have to take it all the way here.

[@jkoepis]

Also, imagine the horrible subscription services these would inevitably be marketed with. The cheapest option is slower because it stops in front of businesses where you will get 15% off of selected items based on your shopping habits. Chip in more and you might get music and less ads. The premium service gives you priority over lower-tier customers and all green light trips through the city centre.

[@jonatand2045]

Stopping would really anger customers though, so that's not going to happen.

[@NullHand]

And absolutely ALL non Platinum Customers must disembark, and get on a diffent Zook for , erm..., fuel route efficiency reasons, at our central transcommute garage that we call "Atlanta".

[@Skylancer727]

@@NullHand Oh god Atlanta. I went there a few months back as my new employer's training center is there. I can't believe it took me only 8 hours to go the first 600 miles of my trip there, yet it took another 4 hours to get the last 100 miles through that place. Thought it was funny seeing a cop try to pull over a pickup in bumper to bumper just to see a billboard down the road asking if people could report that truck on the phone. XD

[@Spearca]

​​​@@jonatand2045People put up with a lot of abuse when they feel they have to (until some snap). Lots of people would feel they had to take the cheapest option.

[@jonatand2045]

@@Spearca Maybe, but how many customers would they loose? Stopping isn't free either.

[@theultimatereductionist7592]

When life hits Adam with lemonade, he turns lemonade into trains.

[@byebyeworld961]

he's on the spectrum

[@nigor42]

THIS is my favorite comment

[@lordknightalex]

"self-driving taxis" just fucking bring trolleys back at this point

[@aidanstokes3]

I love your videos man, please keep them coming!

[@vgalis]

I'd say the biggest advantage of trains in this context isn't the lower friction of rails, it's that on the pre-determined grade-separated route you can achieve full self driving.

[@JohnDoe-rl9ft]

Level 5 FSD has been a reality for decades. In Metro trains.

[@jonatand2045]

​@@JohnDoe-rl9ft If only they covered all routes.

[@lefishe5845]

Trains trams and tracks for bikes is pretty much the ideal system. Need a long distance? Train. Far from a station or just need to go a medium distance? Trams. Low distance? Bike.

[@Eden_Laika]

Amazon: Are you ready for the future of public transport? Me: Is it a worse version of trains? Amazon: No! Me: Is it a worse version of buses? Amazon: ... maaaaybe...

[@DelProv]

I mean, buses are already a worse version of trains. Now you’ve got a worse version of a worse version of trains!

[@peterjohansson1828]

@@DelProv I'd argue that buses are a side-grade compared to trains. Trains have amazing capacity and speed but it's not practical or cost effective to put a train line in urban areas. Buses on the other hand are so much more practical in lower demand areas while still performing the same role as a train.

[@Eden_Laika]

@@DelProv How are buses worse versions of trains? Buses fulfill a completely different function to trains; they're not equivalent. Trains are for inter-city travel; buses are for inTRA-city travel.

[@Superboy-jx3zv]

But a tram is already a side grade train, a bus is a sidegrade for unurbane areas

[@Eden_Laika]

@@Superboy-jx3zv Maybe this is an American confusion: maybe you're thinking of Greyhound buses, which in fairness _are_ a worse version of trains, but that's not what buses were designed to do. A good public transport system would have buses _and_ trains, because one is not a substitute for the other, they just serve different functions altogether.

[@daniellclary]

What really annoying about these kinds of ideas, Is they think they can get this to work in All of the USA. These people never visited other places before. They have no idea how much distance and low density central US is. It is not economical, or environmentally friendly. You would have to have routs that only function once or twice a day, to be profitable, and that don't work for anyone's schedule.

[@tripleh327]

Every public transportation idea stretched and thinked for enough time will inevitably turn into a train Law of Adam something I love your video man keep going

[@jackpaice]

What pisses me off is these are the same companies forcing people to go back to the office, creating a whole bunch of to-and-from work related traffic that had been reduced by work from home policies 🤦‍♂️

[@robgrey6183]

Got to get out of your jammies at some point!

[@jackpaice]

@@robgrey6183 Wow how incredibly condescending :)

[@angusmuir6180]

​@@robgrey6183but why though? Do you write better code in slacks than pajamas? Does time wasted in traffic make you more motivated to do your job? Do you collaborate better with your coworkers when you're stuck in an office with them?

[@santiagovasquez1404]

@@angusmuir6180 you nailed it collaboration is a problem with remote work. most teams need to be present. being comfortable all the time is simply demotivating. teams do better when they are a little uncomfortable..

[@angusmuir6180]

@@santiagovasquez1404 think you might have missed my sarcasm, mate. While being in person can certainly make it easier to work up the passion and energy that makes for good collaboration, it is neither essential nor a guarantee. And I don't buy for a second that being comfortable is demotivating or that being "slightly uncomfortable" is ideal.

[@Gapis321]

This is definitely a (perceived) alternative to public transit for middle-upper class tech hipsters (offered by middle-upper class tech hipsters) that don't want to risk their $20 starbucks being spilled by someone accidentally bumping into them on the way to/from work The rest is just corporate talk.

[@zw6980]

Or reasonable people who don’t feel the need to be harassed by vagrants on unsafe American public transit

[@WeAreChecking]

My favorite part of public transportation in my area is getting to sit in spaces that smell rancid and getting to confront people who try to steal my things. I still take the train when I can because it's convenient when it works but the biggest problem with public transit tends to be exactly that, the public.

[@peperoni_pepino]

@@WeAreChecking That means there is a problem with your local public transport options, not with public transport itself. Most reasonable public transport systems are roughly at the same level of cleanliness and safety as a typical flight. (Actually, airplanes are arguably public transport -- you pay to ride a vehicle that is owned by a company and that is accessible to anyone who pays.) In particular, people with a long trip tend to fall asleep -- and feel comfortable enough to do so.

[@AshBashVids]

@@WeAreChecking That's what happens when public transport is constantly underfunded and ill-maintained. It's almost like they WANT you to use a car instead.

[@Alex-cq1zr]

@@WeAreChecking Probably a self-feeding loop. Public transport sabotaged by car companied > public transport has less funding and is not focused on > public transport becomes worse. Having more public transport and improving it's quality is certainly possible.

[@zekeweis6529]

One reason I am still far more pro car is personally control. I rather be in control of the vehicle I am in if possible because I am in control of the situation and can respond any issue that comes up. HOWEVER, the idea of mass transit that works, I'm fine with, some days I can handle my anxiety and be a passenger. But self driving cars just never seem like a good idea to me from the start, not just because a machine is driving, it allowed people to stop paying attention and won't react in time if they have to take control for some reason. That and a mega corporation doing it, yeah, that isn't going to end well.

[@user-pb1bb4zd7g]

How can all other transportation go bankrupt, if the robo taxi just operate in save areas?

[@cloud_and_proud]

It's really altruistic of amazon that they want to send free boxes of rare earth minerals... I mean robot taxis, to disadvantaged neighbourhoods.

[@AngryReptileKeeper]

The theft of catalytic converters and copper pipes/wires comes to mind. The same people who steal those would definitely mine these things for resources.

[@spongerobert]

Free batteries for my solar system

[@RazorsharpLT]

What's stop those "same people" from simply holding the guy at gunpoint and robbing the car? Do you think these self driving cars will encourage people to take 1 step further? If anything - an automatic alarm to call the cops if someone tampers with the car + cameras will discourage people from robbing taxi drivers in poor neighborhoods.

[@altrag]

@@RazorsharpLT > simply holding the guy at gunpoint and robbing the car? The guy. Its a lot easier to steal when there are no witnesses - never mind if the guy takes it in mind to try and stop the thief. In the US that can easily mean a shootout and one or both participants in the morgue.

[@fearofmusic1312]

@@AngryReptileKeeper They might try that but the society we are heading for and the society that allows those "own nothing but rent everything from a megacorp/monopoly" transformations is also basically a surveillance capitalist dream coming true now. in this every object will be tracked (one of the purposes of digital IDs). And people will be watched and scored digitally almost everywhere all the time. This is happening mostly for the sake of exploiting as much data as possible from people and to commodify new aspects of life (a lot of things will be offered only "as a service" and even things like access and free movement rights will be sold) and to manipulate behaviour. But it will also make authoritarian control over people easier. Most people commiting theft like that will most likely be caught easily.

[@TasTheWatcher]

_"This is not a car, this is a vehicle"_ Same energy as _I'm not driving, I'm travelling_

[@ambiarock590]

I'm not "drinking and driving", I'm consuming beverages while moving.

[@RF-jl3qb]

You have got to love how he always circles back around to introduce his innovative and never seen before transportation methods.

[@AndrewJeffersonCotter]

"You will own nothing and you will be happy" 0:50

[@Lina-py5wm]

I was falling asleep but hearing "level 5 autonomy" and the explanation of *no manual wheel or pedals* gave me such a jolt of horror I dont think I can sleep for at least another day. Holy shit these things are death traps

[@JohnGardnerAlhadis]

Imagine being trapped inside one of these things as it drifts across lanes and all you can do is watch before the giant metal cage you're in plunges into incoming traffic at 80 kph. Absolute nightmare fuel.

[@shibainu2528]

I feel like that would *probably* not pass OSHA, or whatever road safety is governed by. Having a manual control mechanism of some sort feels pretty much necessary for those emergency situations, assuming this is the parallel universe where they do exist. Redundancy systems are a thing for a reason, it's so if one thing fails, it has another just like it or similar enough that can perform the same task (Such as a jet turbine failing on a plane. Some, if not all planes can still operate with just the other turbine from what I recall.) The redundancy system for the self-driving car is the human who can actually drive the car, or at the very least pull the hand brake and pull over if they don't have a license.

[@taranullius9221]

I can't even. I still struggle watching the Vegas tunnel footage. The OHS manager in me gets queasy and the chest tightens and I want to yell and hyperventilate and tear my hair out.

[@steemlenn8797]

At the very least there would need to be an emergency stop button (which will get misused). And maybe a command console to tell the car if to continue standing, move to a place close by or resume driving. And open the doors, of course. Though that should also have a manual option that's both easy to use in a panic and child safe. Hm...

[@web1bastler]

Also, don't forget: We've had fully automated metro lines since the 90's! The U2 in Nürnberg has been running on "full-auto" since 2010! There! Tera-Taxis and Full-auto!

[@theodorgiosan2570]

The other problem with this idea, besides all of the other problems, is people with unusual use cases. For example most of my friends live 90 miles away in a city in the next state over. If I had to pay for a 180 mile round trip in a taxi every single time I would be bankrupt in a year or less. Even taking a bus costs around 70 dollars for the round trip. Meanwhile in my 1979 Subaru that gets 45 mpg it costs me maybe $15, maybe $20 if there is a ton of traffic. It takes me maybe 3 hours total, to get there and back. And if I want to drive there in the middle of the night I can do it.

[@redwolf92]

Startups getting railed by Adam always rustle my jimmies.

[@1SaG]

Not sure if I'm amused or depressed by the fact that, when looked at a bit more closely than in a corporation's glossy CGI-video, all of these "futuristic" traffic solutions turn out to be nothing more than Lyle Lanley selling Springfield a monorail.

[@rosymiller]

Great reference! 😂

[@michaelclark6941]

I fully support corporations putting robots on the street that I can freely vandalize without worrying about an owner calling the cops on me.

[@abhishekpowar2733]

You'lle probably be out of luck on that end because these mega-corporations are usually the ones that lobby and make the laws that these cops then enforce.

[@rhysun]

So many opportunities for creative mischief makers. I too am looking forward to seeing these things on our streets. It will be glorious!

[@sepro5135]

Oh yeah, vandalizing an expensive vehicle that has a number of cameras everywhere and will most definitely record you an€ probably call the cops itself. What a great idea

[@AnEntropyFan]

But have you thought of the possibility that they might calling in robot cops? Do you want Robocop? Because that's how you get Robocop...

[@blindmown]

​@@sepro5135 personally I wouldn't bother vandalizing the robocars, seems pointless. But having said that, have you ever heard of masks? It will be impossible to stop these things being vandalized. They will be forced to stop if they spot movement (won't push past pedestrians, so they won't push past vandals). They will have cameras everywhere, but vandals will cover their face, and the police will not chase people down via CCTV tracing for spray painting a car outside of maybe Singapore. The only way to stop this would be to have an operator manually take over the car's operation and move it past the vandals, or call the police, and good luck getting them to come out fast for a basic vandalism call. Unless something changes in society, these things will go the way of the electric scooter and I bet you they will start turning up having been pushed off bridges or set on fire.

[@jaex9617]

I have a friend who worked on self-driving cars at Ford. No matter what, the most critical use case kept coming back to "how to clean up vomit from drunk riders."