Construction costs are currently skyrocketing

My ordered packages never end up with me, but rather in various branches or with the neighbors. :) Even when I am at home.

If the package were a person, it would have been brought close enough to the destination.

And yet the traffic volume increases because of it.

This refers to autonomous driving with corresponding coordination - your statement contradicts the studies on this.

And if you can save even 10 cents, most people will fetch the car from the other end of the city rather than a car available closer by.

That would be a fundamental mistake. You do not summon a "specific car" to you. There may be several providers, one of which you prefer to use; in terms of kilometers, this makes practically no difference with adequate supply.

Sure, the customer wants that.

Refers to the "immediate deliveries" from Amazon and co. The customer then has to pay for this madness – including climate costs. Then probably not so many will want it anymore.

There is nothing more annoying than having to pick up a (large) package at the downtown branch where you cannot park anywhere because the parcel locker was full again.

Those are indeed very big worries.

We live a lifestyle for which we do not fully pay. The damage that causes is generalized. That has to change and with that, everything will become more expensive. Sounds unpleasant, but it does not help otherwise.

It's just annoying. Why people don't do everything to reduce it (like changing jobs, for example) is a mystery to me. Just having to listen to someone say they "like to drive" is enough.

Ah, and topic full cost accounting: I recently sold my second car and did a final calculation (using a website that tracks car costs and something to do with fuel on the monitor). It was a very cheap used one (€2400), only minor repairs, 8 liters of gasoline, mid-range – so really nothing special. In the end, the car cost me 89 cents per kilometer over the five years I had it! I'm so glad that thing is gone!!

You can ask the question of why for virtually any hobby. Driving is fun in the right car, of course not in city rush hour traffic.
Your car cost calculation is surely influenced by an extremely low annual mileage. With normal, average mileage of 10,000 km/year, new small cars end up at €0.20/km. The same distance would cost you €8900 at your costs (just to explain the reason for your high cost per kilometer).

It may be a vision, but every good idea starts as one. And no good idea has ever been implemented by "No"- or "But"-sayers.

[*]When the vehicles, after dropping you off, first drive around to pick up the next passenger, they create empty runs and thus additional traffic. So there is more traffic than before. The streets cannot handle that, even if you rezone all previous parking spaces into roads.

No, the next passenger is already waiting where you want to get out, or you will just be let out 50 meters earlier or later than you actually wanted.

[*]For the same reason, such a system will consume more energy than the current status quo. You simply generate additional traffic.

Across the entire society, without private transport? Never ever!

[*]Better not even talk about the resource consumption for building additional new routes. Such a concept would basically mean demolishing and rebuilding large parts of the cities.

The routes are already there, you just have to rezone them.

Hello,

I am waiting for Tesla-like automatic lane keeping + distance control

you are brave.... I would rather wait for a system that doesn’t steer me into ambulances and police cars parked at the roadside.
This is really completely off topic, but Tesla is now pretty far behind; what they advertise as "Autopilot" is simply life-threatening. Conventional manufacturers can do that much better nowadays. Mercedes now has the first car worldwide approved for Level 3, unfortunately it costs a bit, it’s the new S-Class.

Otherwise, I agree with you, my dream would also be a car that can drive fully autonomously on highways at least. I fear, however, that this would create significantly more traffic.. Why should I get on a late and overcrowded train if my car chauffeurs me around automatically?

Best regards,

Andreas

Your statement contradicts the studies on this.

Always this bad habit of referring to studies without naming them. So your study could also be your regular bar buddy. So please name it, or don’t.

Refers to the "immediate deliveries" from Amazon and Co. The customer then simply has to pay for this madness — including climate costs. Then presumably not so many will want it anymore.

If we leave immediate delivery aside, it is still climate-wise better to deliver packages to the doorstep than if everyone individually drives to some pick-up points. 1 vehicle delivers vs. 50 vehicles pick up individually. Especially the Amazon driver delivers x packages in the same street. And that with three or more Amazon vehicles per day. Whether it can be done better in another way, I don’t know. But I am sure the vehicles are full of packages and drive optimized short routes in the target area.

No, the next passenger is already waiting where you want to get off, or you will be dropped off 50m earlier or later than you actually wanted.

Doesn’t work. You can see that with the rental scooters. They have to be collected at night by transporter and redistributed so that it even functions and they stand where people would rent them.

Across the whole society, without individual traffic? Never ever!

Yes. More mobility has been a main motivation of humanity for thousands of years. That was true in all epochs and will continue to be so despite digitalization. If you create possibilities, people will travel even more than they already do today.

Your car cost calculation is certainly influenced by an extremely low mileage.

Sure. Just a second car.

... with new small cars you end up at €0.2/km.

But for that, you have to drive far more than just the average 13-15k km. Gas already eats up more than half of that. At least currently. And if you come with statistical mileage: the average Golf of the average German costs €500 per month (ADAC). So even the statistical average German car is - sorry - really expensive.

So: I do not want to say that there aren’t people here who drive relatively cheap. You can optimize a lot and maybe some luck in the model lottery also plays a role. But generally, driving a car is expensive, environmentally harmful AND (for some, possibly even many) not enjoyable at all. Or put differently: If it is supposed to be fun, it is many times more expensive because the air-cooled 911 requires quite a lot of maintenance and care.

And one more edit:

You can ask the question why for almost every hobby.

Driving cars as a hobby off the racetrack is even forbidden.