Car appreciation... the aesthetics, the engineering, etc

reducing the need for cars in a city in the first place leads to 'better' cities (whatever that means).

Totally agree with this, but it is not and will never be a panacea. Particularly outside of London and some other major metropolitan areas (UK)

Driverless cars already exist in huge numbers, we call them 'buses'. If more people didn't insist on their personal automotive bubble for the huge <2 mile travel that is typical, cities would be a better place.

Outside of London the rapid charger network is piss poor. I was in Wales recently and had a look for the nearest 3 rapid chargers to where I was :

1- Crewe, 67 miles away
2 - Wolverhampton, 68 miles away
3 - Swansea, 91 miles away.

Utterly not feasible there yet.

I find some areas of London have shit coverage too, East London beyond Whitechapel and Camberwell/Dulwich are pretty ropey.

I've been working for Zipcar for the last year and spent a lot of time recently driving and charging their electric fleet of cars (e-golfs), and its mostly been a pain in the arse, and there's a number of things about the charging network that is frankly unbelievably shit. I'll chime in on the EV thread so as not to go off on a massive rant here.

Also in my experience of driving them around I find electric cars utterly soulless and devoid of character, I clearly think of the engine as the soul of the car and have not adjusted yet. After spending time with any traditional car I've bonded with it and often named them, but couldn't imagine naming an electric car, would be like giving my washing machine a name.

Driverless cars already exist in huge numbers, we call them 'buses'

This is a pretty disingenuous argument.

Buses don't appear outside your door as you walk out if it. They don't drive directly to your destination, without stopping and taking a non direct route, whilst carrying a large amount of luggage should you need it.

Apples v apples, if you would.

Congestion is largely the product of junction capacity, not link capacity. Removing parking doesn't help you.

You can (ok maybe could) see your personal shared vehicle utopia in the west end on a Saturday night when the place was completely clogged with Ubers, one or two people in each, none of them going anywhere.

This is interesting.

Does a mesh of autonomous, connected vehicles allow for junctions to be used with greater efficiency?

If traffic light controlled junctions are more efficient than non controlled ones (?), Then in the connected scenario, all junctions would have that efficiency uplift.

Obviously, the huge problem to all of this is transition and political implementation.

Until the government decide to back a wholesale reduction in car culture, none of this will happen.

I find electric cars utterly soulless and devoid of character

Why do you need an emotional bond with your car?

I don't need an emotional bond with it, but I spend more time in it than I do with my family, so I'd prefer the experience to be a little more engaging/exciting. Even if it did over the top pretend vroom vroom, screech noises and shout 'wanker' at other drivers/peds/cyclists I'd like it more, can Tesla's do the latter yet?

Basically I think I want the KITT Knightrider experience that I saw in my youth.

Only if you ban everything else.

Though the closest existing thing we have to autonomous connected vehicles is trains, and no one has found a safe way to run those more often than every minute or two.

Apples again. Trains obviously do not equal cars.

You don't need to ban everything else. But you do need an autonomous super majority.

Drove my DS this evening and got a number of waves / smiles. Did a lot more for my sense of well being with people being nice to each other than cycling and getting hooted at by inpatient types in silent Teslas. We’ve also put in a pond and done loads of planting so I do not feel guilty. Burgers tonight .

Your argument that meeting these needs is necessary on a large scale in a city with existing and effective mass transit that adequately serves the 46% of households that don’t have a car is also perhaps disingenuous?

Pretty sure I explicitly excluded London, in one of my posts up there ^

I did. It was in reply to one of your posts.

can Tesla's do the latter yet?

https://www.theverge.com/2020/12/25/22199963/tesla-holiday-update-fart-sound-horn-goat-boombox

Your anamorphic equaliser is not going to make the traffic jams on the M25 any more bearable.

Ha! Its just a matter of time until you can get a tourettes firmware upgrade, giving a rich tapestry of insults in whatever accent you choose.

Ha again! Today I needed cannon or that super launch flying through the air button, there was some epic clusterfuck at Hammersmith today I got trapped in, and it took me 70 mins to do 0.3 miles. sob

EDIT: for context I've just briefly checked and that's 0.25 mph, and I could actually have been overtaken by a banana slug, which can manage a heady 0.3 mph. CSB.

Veggie burgers, right?

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Fuck yeah

There are good examples in existence. Uber is a shared resource albeit with a driver and since they’ve become a thing there are way more cars on the road. And yeah, sometimes they do prowl aimlessly looking for a fare.

I think it’s going to take something significant, and that is currently unthinkable - such as banning the parking of cars on the public road, as I believe some (all?) cities in Japan do. At that point owning a vehicle which sits for 95%+ of it’s time somewhere that costs you money becomes highly undesirable for most and use of a driven or undriven hire car becomes logical.

But under current conditions it won’t happen as the moaning about LTN’s would turn into something altogether uglier I think. Unless it happens in a slow push from small beginnings where the boiling the frog aspect might work.

I think it’s going to take something significant, and that is currently unthinkable - such as banning the parking of cars on the public road

Or just having a really good public transport system. Cycliste spent 15 years in Switzerland without a car and, thanks to the fantastic public transport system over there, never needed one. She only bought one due to Covid and no longer wanting to take trains.