Isn’t that more of a reason to want this in the automotive world? Or are you saying that we won’t have a choice?
Humans suck at driving. By casual observation, I’ve noticed that 2015 has been a VERY bad year for vehicle deaths.
edit: 18,000 vehicle deaths from January through June of this year. That’s just half the year.
Think about that. 18,000 people have lost their lives due to errors made behind the wheel. I think that number trumps any person’s “but I like driving my car” excuse.
Yeah, check my edit. I’m arguing that if you like driving the idea of self driving car computers as standard equipment should scare you. Once they’re mainstream don’t expect to have a little switch you can flip and just go back to manual drive mode. At a trillion dollars a year in cost because of crashes it won’t be long after computers prove they’re safer than humans that humans are removed from the driver’s seat.
It won’t happen overnight because of how we always grandfather existing vehicles into new regulations, but it will happen a lot faster than simply waiting for all the current self driving cars to come of the road naturally. My guess is you’ll have an insurance quote for a couple hundred a year to insure your computer driven car, and several thousand a year to insure your “accident prone bag of meat” driven car.
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Look at the bulletpoints for the major contributing factors to crashes…
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Alcohol-Related Crashes:
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Speeding:
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Red Light Running:
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Fatigue:
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Distracted Driving:
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Cell Phone Use:
A computer doesn’t make any of those mistakes. The flip side is what happens when the new #1 cause of injury crashes is a software bug? 
It’s going to end up being a luxury thing at some point better start investing in tech now.
I would also love autopilot when I want it, but not mandated. After listening to a lot of what’s coming in Europe and all the proposals, and then ultimately what Volvo, Google etc is trying to accomplish long term, it concerns me.
Maybe I shouldn’t be too concerned, but going back to what people predicted for the future in 2000 and what we have in 2015 in computing and everything else, I can easily see a day before my 40s where the only option to actually drive a car is off road or pay huge premiums through insurance for the ability to do so. Maybe that’s alright, at least in theory it would prevent the majority of those deaths every year unlike gun control. Drunk drivers wouldn’t be an issue either.
Except for the fact that both the Fed and insurance companies would most likely know every single move, drive and action you take. Certainly heading in that direcrion.
The idea of having a computerized DD is appealing and I don’t even drink that much.
How soon till someone gets killed by a hacked one :lol:
This is about as good as it gets for production cars right now:
It still prompts you to touch the wheel every 90 seconds, but pretty much does it all for you.
As long as it doesn’t happen 18,000 times in 6 months, we will be doing alright.
As a programmer I’ve been wondering about this since we first started talking about self driving cars. How do you program it to handle no win situations?
So I’m suppose to chose to kill a bus load of kids because I was an irresponsible parent that brought my kid to work in a dangerous environment? How will that excuse hold up in court? Besides, the bus should have been electronically communicating that is was stalled before it was in the line of site of the trolly operator, the stuck crossing arms should signal the trolly, and already decreasing speed to decrease stopping distance.
And run flat tires. The TPMS should communicate with all other vehicles in the area and slow them down to decrease and potential risk, while the car your traveling in is able to slow and park on the shoulder.
Not that it’s important compared to public safety, but I wonder how all of this will effect Autobody Collision shops in city areas say 20 years down the road. I perceive that there will be much more competition and the majority will have to close down or move towards the high tech mechanical aspect of auto repair. How will this all effect the aftermarket business as well? Until Iran or North Korea or Russia or somebody decides to set off an EMP, then it’s back to horse carts 
people will always find a way to drive in to shit. If you believe the recent GM truck adds ford will keep them busy with their alum bodies… and I am sure a few years later they will adopt the same alum body.
I’m not talking in the next 5 years. The whole idea of automation is to cut down on accidents. Even if the reduction by 2035 is only 50% (which I doubt, should be much higher) it would mean much less business for collision shops and much less need for replacement parts (non moving). It would be more of a niche market because even though I might not, most people in the USA will jump on it as soon as they can. That as well as the fact that for the first time more of the younger generation would rather take public transportation than drive their own car. They don’t find getting a drivers license as exciting as those of my generation and older did.
This is also probably the best way to deal with drunk driving. A judge could probably even make it a condition for somebody to drive a autopilot car after the first dwi if they want to keep their license, as soon as 10 years from now.
This brings up another point. Will fully autonomous vehicles actually encourage more binge drinking? People knowing they have a safe ride home so they stay out later and drink more alcohol? Would it discourage people with alcoholism from getting help because they can continue living their lives with one less consequence?
Just trying to stir the pot with a different angle. “For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction.”
Nope, it’ll just cut into Uber’s profits.
I don’t drink now so even if there is a increase in my drinking by 300% I will still not change my life one bit
Tesla just pushed their auto driving feature today 
However, Mr Musk said users adopting the software - available in North America from Thursday - should exercise caution while using it.“It should not hit pedestrians, hopefully,” he told the media. “It should handle them well.”
I’m sure there are lawyers just salivating over that statement.
For the next update, Musk said, Tesla is working on having the car drive itself in and out of garages when it’s summoned by the owner.
^ Ok, now that’s just cool.
Changes lanes on it’s own? Fuuuuuck…