The 80% reduction doesn't seem likely to me. There will still be depreciation, insurance, maintenance, and other costs associated with operating autonomous vehicles. I already have access to on-demand bus service with nominal fares for seniors. However, I can still walk to most of the places that I can go to on one without having to change to another bus.
I agree with you. I'm already in my mid-70s and wish that autonomous vehicles were available now so I could give up my car. I've never really been a car person and have always driven less than most people. I love to walk and frequently walk several miles per day. I also so have a recumbent tricycle. (Nothing like a child's trike, it has two wheels in the front, one in the rear, and a low lawn chair-like seat.) My current one has electrical assist. Strangers frequently stop me to comment on how often they see me walk, two of them yesterday alone. Recently a boy around 12-years-old stopped me and said that his mother told him she remembers seeing me walking when she was a girl.
I was able to retire 26 years ago at age 51, mostly because of my portfolio of individual stocks. Was I a great stock picker? No, I was lucky. I did do a lot of research on the stocks, looking for ones I thought would do well over 10-15 years. All of my individual stock investments were less than $5,000. Most were mediocre investments; a few were outright awful. However, 3 of the stocks performed spectacularly over the 15-20 years that I owned them. All 3 were in mundane industries. I was an engineer but never invested in tech stocks because I knew that few of them would survive in the long term. I ended up with a large portion of my net worth in the 3 stocks in a period when taxes on long-term capital gains were much higher than they are today. I took me several years to diversify my holdings. Now, I only own broad-based index funds. I would not recommend that anyone have a significant portion of their portfolio in individual stocks.
Comments
The 80% reduction doesn't seem likely to me. There will still be depreciation, insurance, maintenance, and other costs associated with operating autonomous vehicles. I already have access to on-demand bus service with nominal fares for seniors. However, I can still walk to most of the places that I can go to on one without having to change to another bus.
Post: Ageing and the Open Road
Link to comment from May 2, 2026
I agree with you. I'm already in my mid-70s and wish that autonomous vehicles were available now so I could give up my car. I've never really been a car person and have always driven less than most people. I love to walk and frequently walk several miles per day. I also so have a recumbent tricycle. (Nothing like a child's trike, it has two wheels in the front, one in the rear, and a low lawn chair-like seat.) My current one has electrical assist. Strangers frequently stop me to comment on how often they see me walk, two of them yesterday alone. Recently a boy around 12-years-old stopped me and said that his mother told him she remembers seeing me walking when she was a girl.
Post: Ageing and the Open Road
Link to comment from May 2, 2026
I agree with you entirely. I do feel, however, that the hype for some stocks is distorting their value in the indexes.
Post: Wall Street Trap
Link to comment from May 2, 2026
I was able to retire 26 years ago at age 51, mostly because of my portfolio of individual stocks. Was I a great stock picker? No, I was lucky. I did do a lot of research on the stocks, looking for ones I thought would do well over 10-15 years. All of my individual stock investments were less than $5,000. Most were mediocre investments; a few were outright awful. However, 3 of the stocks performed spectacularly over the 15-20 years that I owned them. All 3 were in mundane industries. I was an engineer but never invested in tech stocks because I knew that few of them would survive in the long term. I ended up with a large portion of my net worth in the 3 stocks in a period when taxes on long-term capital gains were much higher than they are today. I took me several years to diversify my holdings. Now, I only own broad-based index funds. I would not recommend that anyone have a significant portion of their portfolio in individual stocks.
Post: Wall Street Trap
Link to comment from May 2, 2026