Self-Driving Cars and the Bay Area

Are you down for self-driving cars?

I love the concept of self-driving cars! The worst part of my day is definitely the commute. When I’m driving, I’m forced to pay attention to the road and stay awake after spending a long day at the office. Sometimes, the sun gets right in my eyes. Other times, the car is slightly warm and the sun is at the right level, making me incredibly drowsy in the middle of my daily 45 minute commute. I think of all the work I could do if I was able to use my hands and my eyes on something else. What books could I read, what posts could I write, what Instagram pictures could I look at? All questions that I ponder as I sit in traffic going 20 MPH in traffic.

I’ve been interested in seeing self-driving cars on the road since 2017. Since then, I’ve been eagerly waiting for 2023, the year that self driving cars will supposedly be available for consumer use. I still remember the first time I got into my friends Tesla and we drove to SF on autopilot. We were terrified for the first 10 minutes, but quickly got over our fears and started showing each other photos on Instagram on the drive.

Good news for self-driving car lovers!

Two more self driving car companies got permitted to operate in the Silicon Valley!

AutoX and Pony.ai are Chinese companies that have satellite branches in the Bay Area. Another company, Zoox, is a Foster City based self-driving car company that got it’s permit to drive around the Bay Area six months ago.

AutoX is currently delivering groceries in San Jose, and Pony.ai is giving joy rides to it’s employees. Even though the cars are driving themselves, they still have a safety driver inside who can take over if something goes wrong. One of my close friends works at Pony.ai and says that it’s both fun and terrifying to ride in them at the same time. As a passenger, you can get picked up and dropped off at your location, but you only get a seatbelt for protection. Whereas the safety driver get to wear a helmet and full protective gear incase something goes wrong.

If you’re down to try it, volunteers can join AutoX’s early rider program here https://www.autox.ai/apply-xtaxi.html (I signed up!)

How will this affect real estate?

Real estate prices are determined by one thing…location, location, location. Proximity to high paying jobs and great schools drive up prices for neighborhoods in Palo Alto, Mountain View, and Los Altos. Solid neighborhoods for tech employees are in Sunnyvale, Cupertino, and West San Jose. As we move away from this epicenter, we see a drop off of home prices. As we get farther away, home prices become much more affordable, but the daily commute becomes more unbearable.

What will happen when the daily commute is less of a burden?

I predict that more people will be ok with living farther away from the epicenter of good jobs and schools to live in cheaper homes on the outskirts of the cities. Supposedly congestion will be lower due to the ‘better’ driving capabilities of self-driving cars. I believe that people need to be around other people to be productive. I know first-hand that working from home has a lot of distractions. We can’t live in a society where everyone works from home. At least with self-driving cars, the daily commute will be better.

People will be able to work on their commute, get some extra minutes of sleep, or spend the time getting ready in the car.

I love the idea of earning back more time in our commute and I believe real estate prices in the outskirts of the cities will see a boom in prices. What do you think? Are you down for self-driving cars?