Comment by martythemaniak
3 years ago
It's really bizarre that people are treating autonomous EVs as somehow pitted against transit.
The core of public transit is having a monopoly on local service and using profitable routes to subsidize unprofitable ones for the benefit of the public.
Transit agencies don't build their own vehicles, they buy them and operate them. Having the option to buy autonomous EVs does not change the core of public transit, but it does give them the ability to save on operations, run more routes, more frequent service, use a different mix of vehicles for their fleet, etc.
Replacing one 50 seat $500,000 bus with 5 $100,000 10 seat vans that cost a fraction to operate will make public transit far better than it is today.
An EV self driving car still has the same capacity and takes up the same amount of space in rush hour like a regular gas guzzler. Without denser zoning and lifestyle changes, nothing will change.