Construction costs are currently skyrocketing

Hi,

The Chinese or Koreans will show us how it's done

In China? Have you ever been to China and seen the traffic conditions there? It is so incredibly chaotic and overcrowded, combined with partly very poor roads and drivers who disregard any rules, that the complexity of fully autonomous driving is significantly greater than here.

That can only work if they approach it with the mindset "we have 1.4 billion people, so a few less don't matter" and "even bad autonomous driving is still safer than our human drivers." In China, these approaches wouldn't surprise me, then it could indeed move quickly.....

Best regards,

Andreas

In China? Have you ever been to China and seen the traffic conditions there?

Yes, even several times and in multiple metropolises.

That can only work if they approach it with the mindset "we have 1.4 billion people, so a few less don’t matter" and "even poor autonomous driving is still safer than our human drivers". In China, these approaches wouldn’t surprise me, then it could indeed go quickly.....

Exactly! I’m not an obsessed driver and even believe that private individual transport will be abolished, but in Berlin public transport is too expensive under standard conditions (because the monthly ticket costs 80–120 EUR), I’ll stick to that,

In Hamburg, a pilot project with autonomous shuttle buses will take place starting in 2024. So not in ten or twenty years.

No sorry, I can't understand the "public transport is too expensive" argument. 100€ per month is three commuting days from Oetti. That's a good 4 days of parking 11 hours a day at Döbeleplatz here in Konstanz. That's 4 times going to the cinema with two people, but without popcorn or 3D. 100€ is nowadays a week's groceries. To travel around the city from morning till evening and on weekends for a month is really not expensive. We in Germany have become way too fixated on public transport having to be cheap instead of good. And afterwards we wonder that it is mainly used by people who can't afford a car or are still too young for one.

In Germany, we have become far too fixated on public transport having to be cheap rather than good.

Well, I would also pay more if it were good. I already regret having purchased the 29 Euro ticket in Berlin. We really left the car at home for a while, but now my wife drives to work every day again because the buses are just so extremely unreliable. And mind you, this isn’t even about a connection that requires changing... In Berlin, public transport is only made attractive by restricting car usage as much as possible. Investments, however—at least it feels that way—are lacking.

Well, it's just like All You Can Eat for 20 EUR. Great deal - I might need that two or three times a year. The rest of the time, I'd like to eat for about 10, not even half of what I eat at All You Can Eat. Or like the famous picture with the nicely paved path that borders a meadow, and on the meadow there's a worn footpath diagonally across. That's certainly a great offer, but it's off the mark, or rather oriented to the market from 30 years ago.

Regarding financing, I believe that if the employer wants me to work at a specific location, they should pay for it. For business trips, that's already the case...