[ctdonath2]

Please elaborate.
Self-driving cars will be a boon: tell it where to go and you’re there; traffic will flow far smoother when most vehicles are automated.

Odd side effect: motels per se will disappear. Being able to drive a full trip in one shot (automatically recharging along the way) will leave passengers willing to just sleep in the car en route, rather than wasting hours of time sleeping (in some cheesy motel) without moving.

[Borges]

I was addressing the points made in that entry.

[Alberta's Child]

Don't count on any of that. I work professionally in a field where vehicle automation has major implications, and I firmly believe -- as outlandish as this may seem -- that we are further away from self-driving vehicles today than we were five years ago.

What's happening is that as the technology gets more refined, the costs are getting higher and the number of potential users who really want a self-driving car is shrinking.

[sjmjax]

"How traffic will flow when it's all motorized!"

Lord Bostwick

[magellan]

I am in agreement. The problem with the idea of self-driving cars is people think vehicles will be exactly the same, just without drivers. But the reality is vehicles will change.

If you look at the very first automobiles, they were nothing more than modified horse drawn carriages. It took time for them to change, but even then we still have holdovers from the horse drawn era: motive power at the front, movable wheels for steering at the front, and luggage storage at the back.

It is the same thing with the story about the crazy man on the bus. It is a stupid story because the same thing happens on unattended subway cars, far away from the subway operator in the front car. But society deals with it. Regardless, large buses will likely disappear, replaced with many more smaller autonomous vehicles.

You make a great point about self-driving cars built to allow sleeping, and the decline of motels. Falling asleep while driving is a risk, but with a self-driving vehicle with comfortable reclining seats we could hop in an let it drive us through the night.

These are the kinds of changes which will make self-driving cars be accepted by the general population.

[DoughtyOne]

By that time cars will travel 2,000 miles on a fifteen minute or less charge.