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Downside:

This and all of the other software bugs that have caused Airbuses to fall out of the sky.

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and yet they are still safer than human-controlled automobiles by an incredibly wide margin

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*In theory.

The inability of humans to safely operate a vehicle, especially at highway speeds, is well documented. All data so far, little that it is, gives every reason to assume a better safety record.

I think that fuel economy really is an impact that is overlooked as well. If the national goal is energy independence, think how much more efficient we will be in self-drive cars. That's a lot if savings in petroleum.

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The inability of humans to safely operate a vehicle, especially at highway speeds, is well documented. All data so far, little that it is, gives every reason to assume a better safety record.

I think that fuel economy really is an impact that is overlooked as well. If the national goal is energy independence, think how much more efficient we will be in self-drive cars. That's a lot if savings in petroleum.

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You're assuming the automation is without flaws and works well in volume.

I can also see gas use going up if this allows folks to have longer commutes, take more trips, etc. because those long trips are now easier.

As someone pointed out earlier, the bar for automated driving to be an improvement over human driving is pretty low. Nothing is without flaws, but the testing has been going on for a long time and so far, so good.

I get that you're just advising to tap the breaks, so to speak, but I haven't heard much argument that actually points out the negatives in our society going to auto-drive beyond 1) emotional attachment, and 2) job loss. The former can be mitigated by hobbyists, and the second is simply a fact of life with efficiency.

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As someone pointed out earlier, the bar for automated driving to be an improvement over human driving is pretty low.

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I can't agree with this on the whole. In some situations and ideal conditions, I agree. But I'm highly skeptical. And even if it is 99.9% of the time, when you throw volume at it, it has to be orders of magnitudes better for people to trust their lives with it. That requires much more testing than could be done in a year or two and it's why I agree with the industry's choice of implementing incrementally over Google's moonshot.

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I get that you're just advising to tap the breaks, so to speak, but I haven't heard much argument that actually points out the negatives in our society going to auto-drive beyond 1) emotional attachment, and 2) job loss. The former can be mitigated by hobbyists, and the second is simply a fact of life with efficiency.

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There's privacy concerns, utility concerns (off road use / manual control use), lack of perceived freedom, huge changes to how our cities are laid out, how business is conducted (big potential changes for small businesses such as those off the road in strip centers, travel centers), etc.

The adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist features in my car have changed my perspective on AI vs human control. At first I was very skeptical and never trusted it with my safety.

Now I fond myself engaging cruise even on short city streets as a safety measure against distracted driving. It's the first gen technology on a hyundai, and it's ability to flow with traffic and stop when needed usually is as good or better than my abilities.

Given time and the ability of software to learn and adapt as a whole would make automation a very safe alternative to the morons currently on the road.

It'd be interesting to see in the future if this did exist that sort of car theme parks would exist where you could manually control a car on a course and relive the good old days like people do with horses and such now. I also wonder how this would effect people traveling to other countries that haven't adopted the system and what the crossover would be like for say trucks coming from Mexico to the US.

you mean. like a go-kart track?

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The adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist features in my car have changed my perspective on AI vs human control. At first I was very skeptical and never trusted it with my safety.

Now I fond myself engaging cruise even on short city streets as a safety measure against distracted driving. It's the first gen technology on a hyundai, and it's ability to flow with traffic and stop when needed usually is as good or better than my abilities.

Given time and the ability of software to learn and adapt as a whole would make automation a very safe alternative to the morons currently on the road.

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So you engage cruise to make it safer for you to drive distracted?

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The adaptive cruise control and lane keep assist features in my car have changed my perspective on AI vs human control. At first I was very skeptical and never trusted it with my safety.

Now I fond myself engaging cruise even on short city streets as a safety measure against distracted driving. It's the first gen technology on a hyundai, and it's ability to flow with traffic and stop when needed usually is as good or better than my abilities.

Given time and the ability of software to learn and adapt as a whole would make automation a very safe alternative to the morons currently on the road.

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So you engage cruise to make it safer for you to drive distracted?

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Not even close to what he was saying (this is the cultural bias self-driving cars will have to overcome). It's merely a driving aid in the case that he becomes distracted, possibly through no fault of his own. Think of it as an additional safety feature.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Autonomous_cruise_control_system

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Autonomous cruise control (ACC; also called adaptive cruise control or radar cruise control) is an optional cruise control system for road vehicles that automatically adjusts the vehicle speed to maintain a safe distance from vehicles ahead. It makes no use of satellite or roadside infrastructures nor of any cooperative support from other vehicles.

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Pretty much exactly what I mean but more for adults. I wonder how impressed people would be with like the Indy 500 if no one knew how to really drive anymore. Interesting to see self driving car vs human driving races to test man vs machine!

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Pretty much exactly what I mean but more for adults. I wonder how impressed people would be with like the Indy 500 if no one knew how to really drive anymore. Interesting to see self driving car vs human driving races to test man vs machine!

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I've wondered the same.

Also ruins Star Wars in a way. They're so far into the future but are flying ships manually. Same with The Last Starfighter.

Star Wars is the past, before driverless cars...

Nerd fail.

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Nerd fail.

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Definitely. Had to think about that one as I'm not a Star Wars guy (watched the original versions once 25-30 years ago now). Always think of it as in the future instead of "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." lol.

Still, though, all that tech and they're still flying manually?

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I didn't read this whole thread, so this may have already been said, but i think that the biggest benefit to driverless vehicles traffic-wise would be for big trucks. those guys taking an hour to pass each other causes a ton of the traffic issues on highways. plus, it would eliminate the need for those guys to stop and rest every day.

i guess the downside is maximum overdrive.

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Nice! It may be one of the worst movies ever made, but I freaking loved that movie as a kid. It's one of those movies I have to watch all the way to the end every time it comes on TV (which is rare).

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Nerd fail.

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Definitely. Had to think about that one as I'm not a Star Wars guy (watched the original versions once 25-30 years ago now). Always think of it as in the future instead of "A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away..." lol.

Still, though, all that tech and they're still flying manually?

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The astromechs can fly the ships, they just aren't as good as the human pilots. Because reasons.

By "human" I guess I mean "non-droid", and by "non-droid" I mean "droids that aren't IG-88".

Midichlorians

If my kids were born today, I think the chances are pretty good they wouldn't be driving their first car...and I would be very much relieved.

Tex Avery has already shown us the Car of Tomorrow.

I'll bet a driverless car would be much better at remembering that Koppe Bridge is closed near my neighborhood and that I have to go down Rock Prairie to Hopes Creek until they get it fixed. Conversely all three of the driver driver cars in my house are struggling with that fact two weeks after they closed it!

Interesting infographic.

I just look forward to being able to buy a self-driven RV to tour the country.