Study says self-driving cars will create a $7 trillion 'passenger economy'

Mashable ^ | June 3, 2017 | Brett Williams

[Alberta's Child]

If you’re going to conduct business and eat meals while commuting, you’re likely to start asking yourself why you’re even bothering to commute at all. This is an odd paradox that auto manufacturers will have to deal with over time. As the technology pushes them closer and closer to fully self-driving cars, they’re going to find that more and more people simply don’t have a need to travel by car very much at all.

[Alberta's Child]

It maybnit be very interesting at all. It will be a product liability claim instead of an auto accident claim.

[ETL]

[Spirochete]

Re: Going to hurt police revenue, though.

Also, the cost of car insurance will come way down, and a lot of collision repair shops, parking lots, and medical trauma specialists will disappear.

Everything you said, but the insurance premiums will increase as usual. For non-automated cars, the premiums will become astronomical - to force everyone into automated cars.

[ETL]

[AlaskaErik]

I’m too old to ever see it. But I have no complaints about having to drive myself. I think I hit the sweet spot in personal transportation. Great cars and trucks, but before the nanny state technology went too far.

[octex]

...will free up 250 million hours of commuting time per year
***************************************************
The time it takes to travel from point A to B, and return, doesn’t change.

[ETL]

The technology has been here for years. RCA had a prototype of a self-driving car that they were testing in Princeton, NJ in 1960 (yes, that’s almost 60 years ago!)

[SecondAmendment]

> Not at all. Technology is getting to the place where self-driving cars will be cheaper, faster, and safer than human drivers.

Really ? I bet you don't write software for a living.

[SecondAmendment]

> It will be a product liability claim instead of an auto accident claim.

So it will often be in the vehicle owner's best interest to risk a passenger's life when faced with a potential multi-vehicle or pedestrian collision ...

[outofsalt]

Maybe, if...

[ETL]

[outofsalt]

Why not self driving houses?

[SecondAmendment]

Until they can get a few fully autonomous cars to run a complete indy or NASCAR race it’s hokum ...

[TXnMA]

I must admit -- an appropriate response...

These imbeciles have no comprehension of why the vast majority of Americans choose private vehicles over public transportation.

Their skulls are so full of socialistic mush that they don't understand that the raison d'etre for the dominance of the POV is that Americans value the freedom it allows them to go anywhere and anytime they want to go -- however they want to go.

That desire for unfettered freedom ain't going to go away just because some bunch of dorks develop cars that can drive themselves.

[setha]

“And all of this *may be* far cheaper than what you pay now, as a percentage of your income, on total cost of ownership for your car. It *may be* safer, faster, more convenient, and cheaper than having a single car today, but it will be *different* than every family member having his or her own car and chauffeur.”

And less free. Unless I can arbitrarily control its cost and destination at any point in the unmonitored ride, I’ll still opt for a 6-cylinder+, human-controlled car with self-drive assist.

FWIW, I see self-driving cars as the backdoor way to get the US to adopt European levels of citizen control.

[setha]

“Everything you said, but the insurance premiums will increase as usual. For non-automated cars, the premiums will become astronomical - to force everyone into automated cars.”

I wouldn’t think so, since they’d be effectively be losing lots of customers.

[TXnMA]

Read #75

This is America -- and as we say here in Texas, "Yo're eat plumb up with the dumb@$$!"

[catnipman]

this self-driving car BS is like the 21st century version of the mid-20th century nonsense about flying cars.

[Wayne07]

Two vehicles approaching each other on a curved highway on a hill, traveling 70 mph each in opposite directions, one driven by a soccer mom, texting on her cell phone, the other driven by a recently licensed 16 year old who just had his 5th beer. What could possibly go wrong? It’s not like people ever fail.

Traffic fatalities were 37,757 in 2015, and 40,200 in 2016. Self driving cars aren't going to do worse.