there will an untold number of accidents from this and they will be bad.
Why you ask?
The owner of the self-driving car will not wear a seat belt because he believes the car cannot have an accident.
Mark my words.
Just because something is possible to do, does not mean that it should be done.
“there will an untold number of accidents from this and they will be bad.”
No worries; I’m sure the Senate will pass new laws to provide immunity from liability to these captains of industry.
They can make the vehicle refuse to operate if you’re not belted. Besides, trust in those things is going to be earned.
No doubt these cars will be involved in accidents. The vast majority of which will be operator driven vehicles causing accidents in the same way they do now. Robot car isn’t going to stop someone from rear ending you because they were fiddling with the radio heading into an intersection.
But I would bet any amount of money accident and injury rates will decline as the proportion of these vehicles grows. Not to mention wealth not flushed in broken windows.
We have pretty good stat collection on this:
2016: According to data released by the National Safety Council (NSC), in 2016 there were more than 40,000 traffic fatalities in the U.S. for the first time in 10 years. The NSC statistics show a 6 percent increase in auto crash deaths in 2016, and a 3 percent rise in the number of miles Americans drove, compared with 2015. NSC estimates that the cost of deaths, injuries and property damage attributed to crashes in 2016 totaled $432.5 billion, up 12 percent from 2015. Nearly 4.6 million people required medical treatment after crashes, an increase of 7 percent over 2015.
Great way to get rid of humans.
Doncha just love “Central Planning “?
A lot freepers grew up driving and riding in cars before the seat belt era. Apparently it’s a marvel to you that any of us managed to survive.