Driverless cars got massive appeal. Its a proven fact. Many
people are willing to pay top dollars for it - in many
countries.
Cleaning robots got how much appeal? How much it costs to
develop? How much can you sell? How many people want to buy at your
price point?
Running a country is not about making sure everyone is well fed
and well taken care of - although it is important to make people
feel that way. It is about keeping the country relevant in terms of
high tech, and making sure the GDP figures are nice, and the
country is rich. As for the citizens under its care, the job of our
politicians is to mesmerize you with sweet promises during election
time. Just like you, the bottom line is having the cash flow to run
the government and military machinery.
Whether electric vehicles threaten cabbies future or not hardly
matters. No pun intended. The government cannot be wibbly wobbly
feely wheely towards people who may be headed for a dire future -
although they cannot bluntly say it. They must wayang abit but at
the end of the day - you die your business.
What talked you? Proven fact got massive
appeal? Show us the report....
Currently only tested on the roads in USA on not busy roads at
50 km/h. Remember our streets are a lot more congested
and our requirement is up to 90 km/h.
Let them implement
successfully in those countries that design and manufacture them
before we consider whether to implement or not. There
is hardly any tangible benefits for being one of the first few to
implement them ( remember we are not a car manufacturing country
).
Safeguarding Singaporeans jobs should be no 1 priority of the
government. Even citizens who are not currently taxi
drivers may find themselves one day needing to become taxi
drivers. Always remember this, after age of 45, very
hard to find a good job (remember it is 17 years from 45 to
retirement age of 62). Remember in Singapore, you must always
take into counsideration the Singapore National Pledge..... in case
you forgot, read it here again: http://www.nhb.gov.sg/resources/national-symbols/national-pledge
. Taking away Singaporeans' jobs and backup jobs is not
happiness for Singaporeans but happiness for foreigners since they
get to manufacture more components and get to sell at higher prices
to us. Remember the countries pushing for driverless taxis
get to design and manufacture them and they have very high
taxi fares therefore they need them whereas we do not get to
manufacture them (and at most limited designing of them) and we
have relatively low taxi fares. Can we survive without
driverless taxis? Yes.
I can foresee it in those countries pushing for driverless taxis
finding themselves poorer since the eliminated taxi drivers would
be on social welfare as they would not be able to find another good
job ( so it means instead of generating tax money for the
government, they would burden those countries by taking money
(remember these money could be better used on other things) from
them. Their kids would also be very dependant on financial
aids for education ).
Check again the taxi prices of developed countries from here:
http://www.priceoftravel.com/555/world-taxi-prices-what-a-3-kilometer-ride-costs-in-72-big-cities/
.
Also remember all these facts about Singapore:
Hotel prices: same as other developed countries
Home prices: same as other developed countries
Basic items: more expensive than other developed countries.
Cost of putting car on the roads: Probably the most expensive in
the world ( recently COE price came down for a while only to be
spoiled by Uber )
Food prices (hawker centres and coffee shops): cheaper than
other developed countries
Cost of Tobacco products: Among the highest in the
world
Cost of alcoholic beveledges: Among the highest in the world
Taxi prices: Among the cheapest by developed countries' standard
(despite the highest cost of putting cars to road and high road
taxs for diesel cars [approximately $6000 a year] )
Salaries of politicians: Highest in the world.( determined
by a public panel rather than politicians with consideration of
getting top grade people to work for the government )
Salaries of ordinary citizens: Among the lowest by
developed countries' standard
Personal Income Tax: Low by developed countries' standard.
Corporate Income Tax: Low by developed countries' standard.
Social welfare: Almost non-existent. If you do not
work, you do not get money. This is unlike many welfare
states whereby you are paid if you do not work.
So where do we REALLY need improvements and
adjustments?
Very important fact to consider too: Later on when more
and more companies in Singapore find the city too expensive and
relocate to other countries or downsize by retrenching, what jobs
could Singaporeans who are retrenched after age of 45 work
as? People pushing for new things also give a false
illusion. They would not be really generating 1000-3000
new jobs, they would be generating -52000 to -54000 new jobs.