Self-driving cars won't

[LockH]

... make us more productive
http://www.pcworld.com/article/3120299/car-tech/self-driving-cars-wont-make-us-more-productive.html

The average U.S. driver spends an hour a day in their car, but the study concluded that for 62 percent of Americans, freeing up that driving time won’t make them any more productive. And the findings suggest riding in a self-driving car may be a white-knuckle nightmare of nerves, car sickness, unsafe seats and flying gadgets.

 

[spinningmagnets]

Millions of drivers on facebook and reddit.

 

[liveforphysics]

And the findings suggest riding in a self-driving car may be a white-knuckle nightmare of nerves, car sickness, unsafe seats and flying gadgets.

lol

Every experience is whatever you interpret it to be. I find autopilot to be a perfectly comfortable incredible convenience that does a better job at not falling asleep and paying attention than I've ever done. I wouldn't consider buying a car that didn't have it (at the moment I've got no cars and only electric motorcycles and bicycles 8) ).

Some people feel terrified on a bicycle or motorcycle, some people feel like a God on them.

 

[Chalo]

But self-driving cars WILL make "us" (motorists) safer. And they'll make us (peds and cyclists) MUCH safer. In the meantime, they'll be more energy-efficient and cost-effective than retard-guided cars, and they'll be emotionally unattached to what energy source is powering them.

 

[LockH]

Hehe... And with announcements about electric *cars*, self-driving *cars* I tend to joke about stuff ("An operator and three empty seats! And lots of (empty) trunk space!") "So. Large, heavy, expensive and capable of going much faster than most urban spaces!" "Will it be hard to pedal?" (Re warmth and exercise, but also to shave off peak battery outputs ie lower costs per mile overall.) "So. Plenty of property damage, millions of injuries and deaths to animals (some human), but in a more "eco-friendly" way!" "Will it go any faster (stuck in bumper-to-bumper traffic)?"

So the ONLY way I suspect to make room for more urban folks (inevitable) is to shrink the size of the vehicles. (See bikes and trikes.) Then we'll have plenty of space on existing roads and infrastructures, plus folks can get around faster. (While saving tons of money vs the "car"/"SUV"/"minivan"/"van" etc.) (And larger commercial vehicles will also get around faster/easier.)

 

[Chalo]

For sure I'd rather see a new form of tater transport that didn't impose the hazard, noise, space hogging, and other nasty externalities of all cars (even electric). But my impression is that the primary adoption of self-driving cars will be as driverless taxis, which means relatively few of them will replace a much larger number of personal cars, and they won't have to be parked where people are. Those are good things.

That development will widen the cultural divide between vibrant cities and backwards suburbs and exurbs.

 

[John in CR]

Some people feel terrified on a bicycle or motorcycle, some people feel like a God on them.

Put me firmly in the latter group. I don't know about the self-driving car thing though, so I'll wait till it's perfected, and even then I'd rather drive myself. I'm with Chalo though that self-driving cars probably already exceed the abilities of most of the retards behind a wheel.