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Yes, yes. Since we can't cover all edge cases right now, let's abandon the concept completely!

"Disgusting" is a normative, qualitative term. Can you put it into calculable, quantitative terms?

I fail to see how cameras are missing the point. Are you saying that all condom wrappers will be the exact same color as the upholstery? Are you saying the stains on the seat will be the same color as the upholstery? (Are they still stains if they colormatch the material?)

So we take some before photos, and do machine learning analysis. And we can have people rate the car, or even refuse a car, with the app. Yes, you'd have to have a motor pool with idle cars to get this to work correctly, but queue theory says you'd need idle cars during non-peak hours to meet peak demand anyway.




Whoa, sorry, didn't mean to push any hot button. Just exploring the problem space, no emotional content intended.

If a car service is automatic, there are no people guiding its normal operation. Putting cameras back in would mean, I thought, humans to monitor those cameras. That's adding back much of the cost of cabbies.

So maybe the camera can be automated too! That's a good idea. In fact, just their existence may be enough to quash most objectionable activity (snogging, urinating, allowing pet messes, littering).

In the end whatever the scheme has to be practical, not just possible. Its the details that sink projects. Like, how to keep the kids from using an autocar as a makeout pit. And so on.


Take a train in most of the world and it won't have used condoms, dog vomit or pools of urine. It may or may not have cameras.

Only Americans seem to have these problems with public transport — in which case, maybe the technology will be rolled out in Europe or Asia first.


A private car may be entirely different from a public train. Just thinking out loud. These auto-cars will be a new thing, dissimilar to what came before. Not an American thing (where did that come from?)


I wonder if most of them will have upholstery, or if they will have something a little easier to point a pressure washer at.




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