http://www.forbes.com/sites/joannmuller/2013/08/27/another-big-promise-by-nissans-carlos-ghosn-affordable-autonomous-cars/this morning that got me thinking about autonomous cars (cars that can basically drive themselves or assist people).

It got me thinking about the saying all driving instructors and parents will say to newbies, "driving is not a right, it's a privilege."

What would you guys think about a future where you could not drive a car yourself. You simply input your destination and your car would take you there. What if a fast car in the future just meant a car that could take you from point A to point B faster than another one?

Ready? Set? Discuss!

Cars that drive them selves is a great idea. A car can't get drunk!

I dunno. I hate driving, but I also hate the idea of something doing the driving for me: in spite of happily taking a taxi whenever it's available.

I guess it mirrors my attitude about automatic gearboxes: I hate the idea of them, I have a much better idea of when to change gear than some contraption, it's all part of the driving experience man, but now that I own an automatic it does a reasonable job of it and I no longer end up with a knackered leg through having to spend too much time pressing on the clutch.

This.

However machines malfunction and human intervention is needed to make corrective action. What if you were in a self-driving car that started to make a mistake but it was unable to be driven manually? You would have no choice to correct it and you would be trapped inside a moving 2000 lb mistake...

Traffic has become unbearable lately. There's always traffic wherever you go. I've recently driven from Boston to Washington hitting really bad traffic in the expected choke-points, but I've also driven to northern Maine and northern Vermont, experiencing some awful backups in rural areas. And here's why: if it's a popular place/time, there's traffic. If it's a popular place, but not a popular time, they're doing construction. And when in doubt, the texting and driving epidemic makes it seem like there are more and more accidents that always increases traffic. There's always traffic everywhere.

Now on to automated cars:

If they can increase speeds and reduce congestion, everyone wins. Traffic wastes time, fuel, money, and pollutes. If new technologies can make transit more efficient then I'd be interested. With all that said, however, I think I'm probably too much of a Luddite to ever buy one myself. It's a similar situation to efficient food-solutions. There's more to eating than calories and nutrients, and there's more to driving than getting from point-A to point-B. I love pleasure drives more than anyone I know.

please no....


you know how powerful a computer it would take to update and adapt to environment, road conditions, traffic, kids darting across the street, roadblocks, flooded roads, black ice, highway construction, school buses dropping kids off, kids playing street Hockey, kids riding bikes around, etc... I mean, such a super computer would border on AI status...


Machines Malfunction, all it would take is one glitch in the system of a single car, to potentially cost the lives of dozens of people..

http://tinyurl.com/pnunocv

Just to cuss at a Johnny Cab

Driving can be a tedious chore at times, so I'm all for automatic vehicles. Hopefully they will reduce the level of traffic congestion and accidents as well.

Fact: After cancer, heart disease, respiratory disease, and suicide, car fatalities are the most common cause of death in the US. It makes up approximately 1% of all deaths in the US each year. The number of people injured in car accidents is even greater.

NHTSA (part of the Department of Transportation) estimates that driverless cars could reduce accidents by as much as 80% (which is the same percentage of car accidents caused by human inattention -- human error in general makes up 93% of car accidents in ths US).

Most car accidents are human's fault. We are easily distracted and have slow reaction times. Having a computer drive isn't just safer, it's more logical. It'd also free you up to do things you actually enjoy during your commute, like reading.

There's also the savings (you'd get to work faster due to less congestion, save on gas due to better reflexes, and save on car insurance).

Humans "malfunction" much more often than computers do.

We've been doing autonomous cars for decades now, and they are finally ready for prime time. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DFBdBb79X0o. You don't need a supercomputer to do it. Driving is simple, it just requires a lot of concentration. Computers are much better at concentrating than humans are.

No.