Uber was supposed to help traffic. It didn’t. Robotaxis will be even worse::px-captcha

  • red@feddit.deEnglish
    703·
    1 year ago

    How the fuck was Uber supposed to help traffic? That’s the most American take on solving traffic issues I’ve read in a while.

      • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        In theory it just reduced parked cars. If 100 people need to go somewhere at the same time, you still need 100 ubers to do it.

        Uber pool would actually reduce cars in circulation but for some reason americans can’t share rides and even then buses are just a better way to do it.

    • GamingChairModel@lemmy.worldEnglish
      4·
      1 year ago

      The actual study modeled a 40% reduction in number of taxis on the road when hailing was made more efficient, with carpooling passengers, and a re-purposing of parking space:

      In the 2010s, the Senseable City Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where one of us serves as the director, was at the forefront of using Big Data to study how ride-hailing and ride-sharing could make our streets cleaner and more efficient. The findings appeared to be astonishing: With minimal delays to passengers, we could match riders and reduce the size of New York City taxi fleets by 40%. More people could get around in fewer cars for less money. We could reduce car ownership, and free up curbs and parking lots for new uses.

      But it turns out that just like with widening highways, human behavior responds to the increased efficiency by stepping up the demand to reach the previous equilibrium again.

    • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Because mainstream media said so!

      Tbf uber pool DID help in theory alleviate a bit of traffic but americans are allergic to sharing rides. And even then buses are several times more efficient.

    • erwan@lemmy.mlEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      I imagine that the fact that you call cars with an app instead of waiting for an empty taxi to pass by is more efficient, and you can have less cars for the same number of passengers. Basically having less empty taxis on the road.

      I know it’s a stretch, but this is the only way I can see Uber reducing traffic.

      • 小莱卡@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
        11·
        1 year ago

        You used to call taxis to pick you up not just wait for one to randomly pass LMAO, that was solved by cellphones. Individual Uber drives do not solve anything, it is still one car to take one person somewhere, it does reduce parked cars tho. Uber pool did help alleviate traffic but its hard for americans to share rides for some stupid reason, and even then a bus would be more efficient.