Replies

This has nothing to do with liberals, the technology will start to emerge over the next few years, it’s already happening.

Advanced Driver Assist Systems (ADAS) can already keep you in your lane, provide active cruise control which adjusts your speed to the vehicle ahead of you, and automatic emergency braking. As these technologies advance we’ll enable a vehicle to drive in an urban environment and get you from A to B with a far lower accident rate. The death rates will plummet.

As this happens companies like Uber will provide dirt cheap transportation that is on demand. It will be cheaper and safer. People will CHOOSE to use these services and will CHOOSE to not own a vehicle.

ALL vehicle manufacturers have autonomous vehicle programs. BMW is trying to get a highly (not fully) autonomous vehicle on the road by 2021. Cars do not drink and they don’t get distracted by texting and alike as people do.

GM has started shipping vehicle-to-vehicle communication systems, which broadcast your position, speed and direction 10 times a second (about 300m range). There’s no VIN information, nothing else about the vehicle, but this simple data set will enable vehicles to just stop hitting each other. You’ll be able to buy aftermarket devices to retrofit older cars. This technology will also improve traffic efficiency, no more waiting for a traffic light to turn green when nobody else is around - it’ll turn green before you even reach the light.

As you may guess, I work in this field, people of all stripes see the potential. Nobody wants to stop people from DRIVING. In fact, there’s one exception to the “ALL manufacturers” statement - Porsche, they’ve stated they’re not developing one, as it makes no sense for their customers. Why buy a Porsche to have it drive you, you buy one for YOU to drive.

So long as it’s about choice, along with making our lives safer and cheaper, I’m all for it...so are many other conservative engineers I work with.