QOTD: What's the Most You Will Pay to Have Autonomous Decency?

by Jack Baruth

Published: July 14th, 2017

qotd what s the most you will pay to have autonomous decency

Yesterday, we talked about how self-driving cabs would quickly become absolutely filthy, the same way that most of mass transit is absolutely filthy. I’m not sure if that’s always the case, to be honest.

Which got me thinking about autonomous vehicles — is there a way I could ruthlessly limit the customer base of any given vehicle to those whose thoughts on personal hygiene, food disposal, and bodily fluids mirrored mine? There are surely people who are fussier than I am, as well, and perhaps they don’t want me in their vehicles.

I suspect that autonomous vehicles will quickly segregate into “tier” levels, the same way that air travel, gym memberships, and, uh, everything else in New York have. Those tiers will be priced accordingly. Surely there will be some kind of tier where you are guaranteed an autonomous Rolls-Royce with a freshly valeted interior, and just as surely there will be an autonomous vehicle with a one-piece blow-molded interior that will be hosed out once a day with a bleach mix whether it needs it or not.

I also suspect that the cost of using an autonomous service will have to slip below $499/month for people to well and truly consider it. Maybe it can be a little more expensive in Manhattan or Chicago but very few people in the Brave New World really have much more than five Benjis a month to spend on transportation. So let’s say that the base price for autonomy is $499/month. How much more would you pay for your tier? And what do you expect from that tier?

As for me, I’d pay $200/month more to have an outrageously exclusive set of parameters placed on my customer group. I’m thinking I want age restrictions for sure. Young people are messy and as Perry Farrell once sang, the elderlies are like children. I don’t want aromatic food in my vehicle. I don’t want the residuals of cologne or perfume in my vehicle. I want it to meet the standards currently set by my Accord — imperfect, but not more than ten minutes of cleaning away from being ready to sell.

How about you?

[Image: Blaz Kure/ Bigstock]

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Jack Baruth

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Kendahl on Jul 14, 2017

You are assuming that vehicle sharing will replace ownership. I suspect most people who can afford the cost of ownership will still prefer it over tolerating the messes that other users leave behind. For me, how well the vehicle functions in autonomous mode will be the critical factor. If I'm going to the grocery store, I will want to get into it inside my garage, announce my destination, and enjoy the ride until it has parked itself in a slot near the store's front door. In situations where there is no parking nearby, I would expect it to drop me off at the front door and then find a parking place where it would await my summons. Until autonomous vehicles can function at that level, I fail to see their usefulness.

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- Bikegoesbaa on Jul 14, 2017
  
  I would find an autonomous vehicle to be enormously useful, even if all it did was operate safely on the interstate and reverted to manual mode on surface streets. I made a 20 hour freeway trip to visit family over the 4th of July. I would have much preferred the car drove itself for those 20 hours while I slept or recreated.
  
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TW5 on Jul 14, 2017

Hard to say because this consumer behavior is on the backlash/outrage spectrum. It's like gasoline prices. They rise and nobody really cares, then one day, society draws a line in the sand and rage spreads throughout the population, and people start buying economy cars and hybrids en masse. It's not really possible to gauge your rage before hand so I'm not sure what would trigger my desire to spend more money. I don't fly first class, though I jammed in coach seats like a sardine for 3-4 hours. I can say confidently that personal space will not affect my decision. I'm pretty sure puke would set me off, and I'd probably be willing to drop another $150-$200 in order to escape the weekend puke brigade. Maybe autonomous vehicles could have age restrictions like rent cars. Everyone under 25 get the city bus plastic seat treatment.

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