Calif. professor: Self-driving cars could more than double traffic in San Francisco

SFGate ^ | 04 Feb 2019 | Michelle Robertson

[blueplum]

It's the not-so-far-away future in San Francisco. One-Wheels and e-scooters litter the road. Your self-driving car has just deposited you at Union Square, and you've instructed it to return in an hour, after you've purchased the latest it-smartphone, the iPhone Z. Your autonomous vehicle, intelligent as it is, knows finding a parking spot downtown is nearly impossible at this hour, plus parking lots are known to charge flat rates of $15 and up. Instead of parking, your car decides to cruise...

[blueplum]

ut oh

[Ciaphas Cain]

One-Wheels and e-scooters litter the road.

That isn't ALL littering the roads of San Francisco.

[Moonman62]

Why don’t we ever see liberal concern articles about illegal aliens increasing traffic?

[RoosterRedux]

Use your self-driving car as an Uber agent for the next hour. It will become part of the solution (traffic congestion-wise) and earn a little extra dough.

[Diogenesis]

SF has more junkies living on the street than students.

the selfdriving cars are thus to get the junkies
off the streets & onto the streets in gov’t funded cars.

[mylife]

plan for the worst, pray for the best.

[Hardastarboard]

your car decides to cruise

Um, in San Francisco, "cruise" has a different meaning than it perhaps does elsewhere.

[Fresh Wind]

Use your self-driving car as an Uber agent for the next hour.

And then YOU get to clean out the trash and other undesirable matter that others deposit in YOUR self-driving car.

[redfreedom]

Vehicles today are subject to hacking and thus remote control by a third party. Now take a bunch of these self drivers in heavy traffic with some really good hackers and you have a real nightmare.

Imagine other great opportunities. Bomb delivery by terrorists. Kidnapping. Murder by driving into a lake/river with doors permanently locked. Drug trafficking to avoid getting caught.

All this sure makes that 1995 Silverado look good.

[Openurmind]

If self-driving cars end up being all that is available, I will be switching to a good fence jumping Missouri Mule.

[SecondAmendment]

I wonder how well AI drivers can cope with the next major earthquake ?

[Da Coyote]

I’m old enough to remember when San Pelosishtsco was a nice place.
One question: will self-driving car have sh*t avoidance software so that the tiires don’t smell like a Democrat cloakroom?

[nathanbedford]

The time is not far off, certainly within the lifetimes of my children, in which one will not be able to drive an automobile, all autos will be drones. When that occurs, the left will have obtained so much pervasive authority over our society that one must file a flight plan for one's contemplated drive much as a pilot today flight plans his trip when flying IFR. That implies that the authorities in control will either authorize or not authorize the journey.

Can you imagine: total control over your health care which means control over your body; control over your Internet which means control over what you know; control over your business through climate regulations; and, now, control of your transportation which means control of virtually every one of your movements, your ability to associate, your ability to petition your government etc.

This is inevitable given the more than doubling of our population in my lifetime causing the congestion complained on this thread of but it is also inspired by an insatiable progressive urge to control every facet of society. We will see control of our automobiles, it we are lucky enough to be allowed to keep them, for the same reason we see so many surveillance cameras.

Remember, the automobile represents the same individual freedom that the left despises in the myth of the American cowboy-an independent male who comes into town without official authorization, settles the bad guys with a gun and rides God knows where into the sunset completely unfettered by government control and in no need of its authorization

[Lockbox]

Yep, your car cruises down Castro Street gets rear ended by a large strong delivery vehicle and they drive off together never to be seen again.

[ThunderSleeps]

I'm sure self driving cars will make traffic worse.

Consider: bad as it is, rush hour traffic is sort of self-regulating. If you really don't like sitting in traffic for a hour (or whatever) and it becomes important enough to you, you'll do something about it. Either start taking another route - maybe longer in miles but shorter in time. Or maybe you'll adjust your schedule to leave earlier, or later.

But now picture you've got your electric vehicle or hybrid. With regenerative braking stop-start rush hour traffic actually plays to one of its strengths, it's very efficient in this realm. Add in self-driving and unlimited data plans or wi-fil hotspots everywhere and now you can catch up on that Netflix series you've been meaning to. Maybe take that conference call with the east coast and push the presentation from your laptop or tablet. Doze lightly, whatever. The upshot is, without having to concentrate on driving, and how utterly boring driving in rush hour can be, you can reclaim that lost time. The "pain" level just isn't there, so you're far less likely to adjust your commute. It will mean more people willing to put up with that commute since they can get other things done, that time is no longer wasted.

[BobL]

“Your self-driving car...Your autonomous vehicle”

Sorry Prof, not going to happen that way. The vehicles will be owned by fleet operators and once they drop you off, they’ll simply pick up someone nearby.

[precisionshootist]

““Your self-driving car...Your autonomous vehicle” Sorry Prof, not going to happen that way. The vehicles will be owned by fleet operators and once they drop you off, they’ll simply pick up someone nearby.”

There is no such thing as a self driving car and there likely never will be. The only thing these cars are doing is shifting control of the vehicle from the idividual driver to a third party. The car will be driven by a combination of software developers, government run computer algorithms, big tech corporations, etc etc. Bottom line is someone will be driving the car it just won’t be you!

oh and those third parties that are driving the car for you will become increasingly disintrested third parties. Enjoy your new...freedom.

[G Larry]

Its easier on the AI at 2mph......

[bgill]

Well, they don’t poo in the street so that’s a plus.

[central_va]

There arn’t self driving trains and they are on rails. Come on.