This is probably one of my favorite things about owning a car, and why I have a sedan vs. a hatchback. Being able to store emergency supplies (couple cases of water, a backpack, ...), personal tech supplies (spare mbp charger, cable toolkit, etc.) in my car makes life much easier. Realistically this is 100-200 pounds of stuff, and I wouldn't want to have to carry it to/from a car myself every time I got a robot car.
The important distinction is that a car is a "place for my stuff."[1] I carry tools[1], erythritol, and emergency[2] preparedness items, at the very least. My largest car carries enough of a subset of my home that it's even a comfortable place to sleep, if need be.
I could certainly do without, but, having done so in the past, it's not worth it. Similarly, carrying a large enough subset on a bike, bus, or both, as I've done when I bike commuted, was a constant annoyance. Routinely/exclusively bicycling also requires additional cargo in the form of lights, locks, and minor repair tools.
[1] cf the late, great George Carlin
[2] As with my usage of "cargo," this is general, including such things as laptop.
Having different sized cars on demand will be amazing. Going to work? 1 seat please. Going to the beach with the family? 7 seat + luggage area please. Going to town with mates? 12 seats. Going surfing with a friend? 2 seats, luggage area, kitchenette, changing area + wet storage area.
I nerds who live in a city and don't really use cars other than to move them and a little shopping around forget about farmers, post men, telecom engineers, water engineers... if I get to a job and need some tools I can get them delivered from the depot while I work on something else! If I need a mini-digger I can order it and get it. Or if I need to take a fallen tree to the dump - easy. All these things I do in my little car at the moment, I have to compromise.
What if you kept all your car stuff in some sort of modular compartments that could be easily loaded and unloaded? At the moment there isn't much incentive to do so, but that might change with this scenario.
What I'm getting at is while your argument seems sound, and may in fact prevail, when you change one piece of the puzzle sometimes other solutions become possible.
You would just get a van or truck on demand. That's a huge benefit of on demand, self-driving cars - instead of having one car you try to fit into your every need, you get what you need and when you need it. So, something tiny if it's just you and your partner going to dinner. Or a van if you're taking kids and friends to an event. Or a truck if you have to move a sofa.
I have a sedan. 90% of the time it's just me in the car. Insane.
Why don't cars (or even pickup trucks) have modular storage?
Why isn't there a way to load up your groceries in the store, put them in your car in a modular way, and help you unload them into your house somehow?
It could go even further to mini palettes that can be loaded and unloaded automatically. And even electrical cool or cold boxes to keep stuff at the right temperature as you drive home.
The car as a service option won't be the solution for most families, because they have a lot of nonhuman cargo they need to store in their car: strollers, diaper bags, sporting equipment, etc.
It doesn't even take up much room, even if you travel with considerable water supplies (which takes up the most room and also is the most important, both for obvious reasons).
Almost everything else on the list is space efficient and/or packs in specific areas in your car made to store things like tools, spare tires, etc. People have a lot of room in their vehicles that go to waste simply because they don't read user manuals.
Fair point. If there are lots of self-driving taxi cars, there could be a market for storage lockers to store golf clubs or other things, however, I understand that may not provide the same benefit, namely not having to move this stuff all the time.
TBH I think there are all solutions to that when you have a big enough fleet. Rent a cargo van, rent a car for the day for storage, more storage options at places, rent a car with car seats for several years and sport equipment racks. When family is over, automatically scale with 3 or 4 cars, etc.
You could make specialized cars that would be way more convenient than the typical suv, but no person would keep as their permanent car configuration. I could see vans with roll in bike racks for example, which is more convenient than latching it on top of the typical suv sports rack for example. Groceries and other retail shopping I could see you just drop in the little cart drone and it gets to your house before you do, already in the pantry, etc. Grocery drones will be well insulated coolers, which is better than your typical suburban shopping trip freshness wise. No more melted ice cream anxiety when you remember something.
I think a major point is using a car as storage. Many professionals I know keep a lot of stuff in their cars, particularly if they are not sure what kit they'll need when they go out to a client. In the trades this is even more extreme, some people run entire businesses out of their cars/vans.
As an aside I'd love a small to mid size electric pick up. I don't do much driving and we share a volt at home. But a lot of things I don't want to put into a car with a hatchback. Mulch, compost, gas cans, leaky bags of ice melt, plants from a nursery, etc.
Sure, cars can be physically lifted and moved, but it's pretty obviously not nearly as easy in terms of prep time and throughput compared to laptops or phones, which any able-bodied person could do at a moment's notice and with a reasonable sized bag carry several at a time.
Looks like there is a bag compartment for had luggage where the dashboard normally is. The size of the thing does not suggest it's built for heavy lifting, I'm sure there will be models for that too.. maybe even the same with the passenger seats ripped out. When the car self-drives, you don't need the driver anymore to get stuff around. This really opens possibilities.
The first prototype might not be the be-all-end-all thing, but it makes me confident that they don't try to design that on the first go.
You can put a lot of stuff in a car. I have a fair amount of snowboarding stuff for example, but it does not actually take up all that much space. Camping is probably a better example, you can have an insane amount of camping stuff or a backpack full, but quality dominates quantity.
We just bought a 2018 Corolla (first car in over 10 years that wasn't the city bus...) but I am going to keep that in mind because at some point we'll need a second, and something like that is just perfect for moving some gear around.
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