I learned the co-ordination of clutch and shifting on a Vespa motor scooter (go figure). I took my drivers test in a 1965 Comet with three on the tree.

 

Soon all cars will be autonomous. You will just be a passenger. It only makes sense. Motor vehicle accidents are one of the biggest risks of death and injury in this country. Taking the human out of the driver's seat and replacing him or her with a reliable computer, programmed to avoid all dangerous behavior as well as accidents will save thousands of people from injury, death, and property damage.

 

I agree, Bill, although I think this change could take 10 years or it could take 50. One reason is economic: I'd bet a third of American drivers cannot readily afford cars that are less than several years old, especially one equipped with enough tech to be autonomous. The other reason is social. As usual, the public will allow the perfect to become the enemy of the good, fighting mandatory adoption of self-drivers for "safety" reasons long after the self-drivers are proven much safer than manually operated cars. There will be a period where every serious accident involving self driving cars will be big news, at least locally, and will create a false impression regarding their relative safety in the minds of the public.

I think you will see taxis disappear long before manually driven personal vehicles, Next will be manually operated rental cars. I suspect there will always be manually driven cars, maybe even some with manual transmissions, to satisfy demand from recreational drivers. Not sure where you will be allowed to operate them, though. As a prelude, I could see a total ban on driver operated cars in major metro areas, requiring those driving manually operated cars to park on the outskirts and transfer to shared autonomous vehicles or to mass transit. Not sure that would be such a bad thing, really

 

How 'bout pedestrians, and kids and dogs dashing out into the street. Somehow I'm betting the computer will decide to not hit oncoming traffic head on or a parked car and protect the car and passengers -- and get the kid and puppy.

We have the same issue with autonomous tanks and other weapons Dirty soldiers all look alike. ;(

-- Chuck

 

No. when faced with a pedestrian, the car will jetison the passengers to safety and then explode.

 

Sounds good to me. Less congestion on the road. When can we expect to see them in New Jersey?

 

Food for thought on self-driving cars.

http://www.autonews.com/article/2017...EM11/170829831

 

The states and cities will resist autonomous cars as they will reduce their traffic ticket revenues to near $zero. Follow the money.

-- Chuck

 

Interesting point, Chuck.

 

Cities and towns will charge hefty "user fees" for peoples' autonomous cars to connect to the city traffic grid information system, which will be required in order to drive into town. Revenues will increase as the city grid will be nothing more than a connection to the stop-light system which the city already has.