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.
I wonder how much the ambulance chasers and the body shop lobby will fight the autonomous (more or less) car?
“this IS happening”
Example please.
No...not some test where there is a driver in the front seat who takes over when the car is confused...an honest to goodness bona fide example of a vehicle that can traverse city streets with no input from a driver.
Where IS this happening?