I wanted to post an update to my article Autonomous RVs Will Disrupt The Airline Business. I need to give credit to a discussion with my father where we were discussing the points I’d made.
I got something wrong in the article.
The special RV hotels I’d referenced will likely never be built. If staying multiple days, I think that the RV will drop you off at a conventional hotel, and move on to pick up someone else. A new RV will come and pick you up to take you to your next destination.
There are a few reasons for this. Most significantly these hotels will be expensive and complicated to build (and just not needed) but secondarily, there will be enough to service the market in major traveled routes, and they never stop, so where possible, they will always be servicing someone. Lastly, as someone who has spent a lot of time an RV, I can tell you that not everyone will enjoy some aspects such as the size of the bathroom, amount of hot water, etc.
I predicted 15 years, its going to be sooner than that. The batteries are getting the capacity (=range) they need, and prices are dropping fast, and the cost of LIDAR is plummeting. The $100 solid state LIDAR hasn’t arrived yet but it will, soon.
When I wrote the first article, I was concerned with the speed at which the technology to move heavier vehicles wouldn’t exist for some time, but then on Nov 16, 2017 Tesla announced its electric semis which they plan to have in production by 2019.
This seems to have been very well received by the industry as, UPS reserved 125 of them.
This means that the capabilities for towing or moving really heavy vehicles, with a decent range will be here soon.
If you like the topic of EVs and disruption, check out my article dedicated to the subject here.
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