Geekspeed wrote: This is the kind of thing that worries me. I LOVE to drive (obviously). However, if these things work, do not be surprised when they ban human-driven cars. I am really not happy about this.
Yeah it is the only way these things make sense.
I'll take a car that drives itself. Doesn't mean I'll get rid of the Miata or anything else. It'll be really nice when I have to drive 100 miles just for an one hour meeting and drive right back to the office. Or when I want to have a few drinks and make it home in a responsible, yet affordable fashion.
Yep most of the benefits can only be had when there are no human-driven cars on the street. I think there could be some compromises though, like backroads for fun driving could be designated "recreational driving roads" that you could trailer a manually-driven car to (having parking lots at the ends would obviously be helpful), and any autonomous cars driving that route will have to follow a different set of rules to accommodate the manual cars - and there would be no slow drivers on the road and maybe no speed limits...
GameboyRMH wrote: Speed limits? Well if we have electric cars and fusion energy there will be no reason to have them - the financial motive will be gone with no speeders.
The arabs are gonna hate this....
GameboyRMH wrote: Yep most of the benefits can only be had when there are no human-driven cars on the street. I think there could be some compromises though, like backroads for fun driving could be designated "recreational driving roads" that you could trailer a manually-driven car to (having parking lots at the ends would obviously be helpful), and any autonomous cars driving that route will have to follow a different set of rules to accommodate the manual cars - and there would be no slow drivers on the road and maybe no speed limits...
More realistically, autonomous lanes will replace HOV lanes.
yamaha wrote:GameboyRMH wrote: Speed limits? Well if we have electric cars and fusion energy there will be no reason to have them - the financial motive will be gone with no speeders.The arabs are gonna hate this....
They'll be out of oil before fusion energy is viable and possibly even before electric cars are in widespread use. That's why they're building all that crazy crap, to attract tourists when the oil runs out.
Keith Tanner wrote:GameboyRMH wrote: Yep most of the benefits can only be had when there are no human-driven cars on the street. I think there could be some compromises though, like backroads for fun driving could be designated "recreational driving roads" that you could trailer a manually-driven car to (having parking lots at the ends would obviously be helpful), and any autonomous cars driving that route will have to follow a different set of rules to accommodate the manual cars - and there would be no slow drivers on the road and maybe no speed limits...More realistically, autonomous lanes will replace HOV lanes.
In the short term yes, but further in the future most roads will be autonomous-only.
I don't know... I feel like:
1) Roads will never been autonomous only. How will they deal with motorcycles and scooters? 2) If any appreciable percentage of the population switched over to autonomous cars, the benefits could be huge. The super-networked benefits don't come until like 80% or something, but I would imagine even 20% would cut down merging congestion and the like by quite a bit. 20% of the population in autonomous cars, is 20% less idiot drivers doing idiot things.
Motorcycles and scooters won't be street-legal. Riding bikes on the street will be one of those things ultra-safe people of the future look back at and say "Man, people back then were some crazy-ass motherberkeleyers."
If the insurance industry doesn't make it financially infeasible first the governments will just ban them outright "for the greater good."
Today, people would rather be safe than free. I think that is sad. The problem is that this mentality is also aligned with the idea that everyone needs to be safe (saved, whatever), whether they want to or not. So, in the interest of "public safety," and to save myself from myself, they are gonna take the wheel out of my hands.
It's the same thing with racing. I see it being outlawed in the not-too-distant future for "environmental" reasons. Things like this are just the tip of the iceberg.
I don't think racing will ever be outlawed for environmental reasons. In terms of overall CO2 emissions it's probably in the same ballpark as backdoor BBQ'ing (not including teams flying their crew and gear around, which is where the lion's share of dino juice gets burned), and soon a lot of race cars will be electric anyways...
Golf would be an easier target.
GameboyRMH wrote: Motorcycles and scooters won't be street-legal. Riding bikes on the street will be one of those things ultra-safe people of the future look back at and say "Man, people back then were some crazy-ass motherberkeleyers." If the insurance industry doesn't make it financially infeasible first the governments will just ban them outright "for the greater good."
Which would be half of my reason for 'updating' 'A Nice Morning Drive.'
Grizz wrote: In reply to GameboyRMH: Till the guy in charge of watching the cars falls asleep at his desk. Or what happens when Cali runs out of money to pay the people whose job it is to maintain the system, or the tracks, or whatever the hell it is that drives these things around?
lol does no one recall on Top Gear when jezza mentions the french made auto-maton car... and just knowing that some guy named "larry" decided to do some maintenance on his auotmaton vehicle is inevitably coming the other direction and will kill you so you know you can never let down your guard as your riding around in your vehicle
Grizz wrote: Till the guy in charge of watching the cars falls asleep at his desk. Or what happens when Cali runs out of money to pay the people whose job it is to maintain the system, or the tracks, or whatever the hell it is that drives these things around?
The cars could work entirely on P2P wireless networking without any need for extra infrastructure.
Seeing as I don't use the cruise control most of the time, I'll pass. The trip is as important as the destination to me.
I've said it before: In Germany I loved having awesome public transportation that I could go out, drink as much as I wanted, and know I could get home safely. I would love to be able to go out at night and have that one more beer or never have to worry again if I was okay to drive, or if I needed to take an hour to drink water and walk around, or find a ride, or whatever. Since almost all of our country is SOOOoooooo spread out compared to densely populated areas (like Berlin), being able to push the "drive me home" button on my car would be frickin' awesome.
I think we'll be all the shiny happy people driving "illegal" cars in the future, trying to avoid the lawman. 
Look, the sky is full of planes that for the most part, fly themselves and talk to each other to figure out how not to die.
This hasn't stopped the guy in his 172 out reducing the local lovebug population. I'd love a self-driving car, the time I spend commuting is time I'll never get back.
Last I checked, its still legal to drive cars made 80 years ago on the road (although none are even remotely on par with today's cars' perfomance, safety, etc). I don't see them making current cars illegal anytime, ever. They may try and encourage getting rid of them, but that's it.
If I can get a self driving Trans Am I'd letting my chest hair grow in again.
I'll be the shiny happy person that drives the "normal" car and randomly brake checks the train or uses my turn signal like I'm gonna merge right in front of the train and causes havoc just for my entertainment. I'm sure that somebody will get tired of my BS and shoot me because they spilled their coffee when I did this. Hope it's a head shot so I don't suffer...
Beer Baron wrote: I've said it before: In Germany I loved having awesome public transportation that I could go out, drink as much as I wanted, and know I could get home safely. I would love to be able to go out at night and have that one more beer or never have to worry again if I was okay to drive, or if I needed to take an hour to drink water and walk around, or find a ride, or whatever. Since almost all of our country is SOOOoooooo spread out compared to densely populated areas (like Berlin), being able to push the "drive me home" button on my car would be frickin' awesome.
Umm, they're called "taxi cabs" ;)
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