Ask HN: Next step for Uber, VR taxi drivers?

1 points by grif-fin 9y ago ↗ HN

Assuming the investment in driverless cars pays off in couple of years from now there will be massive job losses specially for taxi/uber drivers.

Since the initial driverless cars cannot be perfect, would it make sense for Uber to start with Remote taxi drivers (drivers sitting at home with a VR headset taking customers to homes)?

What are the challenges with this idea?

2 comments

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mendeza 9y ago ↗

Would you ever feel comfortable with a person remotely driving a car you are in? Your family's in, your spouse is in? I wouldn't.

GFischer 9y ago ↗

I think the idea is to have a driverless car, with a remote-driver fallback.

I don't like that option because there are no downsides for the person remotely monitoring the car (plus it has to be incredibly boring).