Posted on 03/16/2017 1:12:53 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
This will go the way of the Flying Cars idea—Just not going to happen. No Money in it.
I the robot cars can pay the taxes of the unemployed truckers, bus drivers, delivery people etc.
How do these things work when the road is covered with snow?
Can’t see lines. Can’t see curbs. Traffic signs plastered with snow. Sensors covered with ice.
There’s money in control, for a bureaucrat in government or the insurance industry.
One EMP attack away from Lord of the Flies
Oh no, this not only WILL happen, this IS happening. Because there’s TONS of money in it. Ask anybody whose business revolves around drivers how much the secondary cost of drivers is. Keeping them insured, having to replace them if they get any ticket any time (transit licenses are delicate things), and of course you need more of them than you use so they can get sick and go on vacation. The commercial application of self driving vehicles alone is staggering. Then in non-commercial space the fact is not everybody actually likes to drive, and as traffic gets worse they like it less. Especially those people with big commutes that are (dangerously) finishing breakfast during the drive. Yeah there’s money in it, money enough to lure dozens of companies, many not even remotely tied to the car business, to it.
Because you aren’t the masses. And frankly Americans suck at driving and need to either be retrained or replaced en mas.
Will they ban “classic” cars from the roads?
I say they will not.
Not everybody can afford a new car. Or, a new “old” car.
In 50 years? Iffy, but probably not.
But insurance could make them cost prohibitive. Robot cars will be FAR safer than regular cars...and so very boring. I’m glad I won’t live to see it.
It’s because vintage stuff of some types is fairly easy to support is why I am revamping a couple of old Jeeps and a K5 blazer.
The only electronics are in the ignition modules. I despise points.
“Something like eight million jobs”
Robot trucks are CERTAIN and likely will be required in 10 years.
They can operate 24hrs per day excepting fuel stops. They can also pack up in convoys of dozens and travel at a perfect 55mph.
It will substantially reduce the cost of freight and provide a safer transit.
I wonder how much the ambulance chasers and the body shop lobby will fight the autonomous (more or less) car?
How can the Federal Highway Administration possibly think a "driverless car" is a safe mode of transportation when the Federal Railroad Administration is studying improved safety standards for railroads that will require locomotives to have TWO engineers in the cab instead of one?
A train has much less variation in its mobility than a car. Who really believes that requiring two operators in a train and ZERO operators in a car makes any sense?
I do, however, want almost everyone else to have one.
LOL.
Actually, autonomous car operation is more likely to be found in congested cities where safety is less of a concern because travel speeds are low. I think Pittsburgh just rolled out a pilot program with fully autonomous taxi cabs in the center of the city.
Just center city or up into the surrounding hills? I’ve often thought those hills would be a very scary prospect in an ice or snow storm. Steep, San Francisco level steep.
Cabs/Uber and long-haul trucks will be first.
If the road has to be made into a ‘smart road’, it isn’t really a ‘self driving car’ at all.
I guarantee that kids born today...and kids born 20 years from now...will still drive cars.
then you will be driving on the back roads, because it wont be long until ONLY self driving cars are allowed on the interstate.
They work best when all the other cars are also self driving around them.
Instead of gridlock it will be computer deadlock.
And what about viruses that cause the cars stuck in traffic to turn into a demolition derby. The cars probably all have to be connected to a network which makes them vulnerable.
Probably some prankster kid would do something like that.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.