Driverless Cars, Good Idea, Horrible Idea?

I can't wait to have a selfdriving car. I hate driving myself, I will be so happy when I'll have one.

Can't wait for this. Especially after last night's drive.

Driving is so stressful here.

I think they're a good idea, but the hurdle to leap over is in the mix of machine driven cars and human driven cars. Solving for the problem of 100% machine driven cars seems like it would be orders of magnitude easier than to account for the randomness of human drivers with what we call "defensive driving".

Unfortunately, the harder problem is at the birth of machine driven cars, then once they become the norm, or even the mandatory method of transportation, people will be able to fully optimize self-driving cars for efficiency and speed.

In the long term (when it's not in it's infancy) it will be statistically safer. My concern is the security, especially since we all know they will all be wirelessly communicating.

This wouldn't make sense, unless you can override it, it would only make sense to have the manufacturer be liable. (Unless obviously the accident was due to poor maintenance).

Yeah, vehicle maintenance would becone a much bigger deal I would think. Police would probably stop you solely for that reason or your car is mostly disabled until it gets a new maintenance date and passed inspection.

I would think that the security issue alone would deter most people from having a driverless car.

No matter how great the firewall or security program is, there is always somebody who's able to get around it. All it would take is time.

Beware! Here there be aviation fan porn!

My fascination with vintage aircraft aside (thanks, pilot stepdad!) I find myself utterly split on the idea of driverless cars.

On one hand there's my thought process that once refined it would be better by vast degrees than the current system because people are utter ***on the road. Just *** awful. People think that rules and laws apply to other people but not them. They think they have right of way no matter what.

I actually had someone argue against self-driving cars once by asking, "well how would they know which card should go at a four-way stop?"

*** really? THERE ARE ESTABLISHED LAWS AND PROCEDURES FOR THAT AND YOU SHOULDN'T HAVE A LICENSE IF YOU DIDN'T LEARN THEM.

On the other hand, I personally love driving and I love cars and I am 100% loathe to completely turn control over to a computer because...I love driving. There's very little in this world to match getting on the highway in a good car on a beautiful day with the perfect soundtrack for you and just...driving.

Driverless cars? Bring it on. I used to love driving, but after my 2 2004 Subaru Impreza WRX's got stolen from my driveway overnight, within 11 months of eachother, I stopped caring. Now I'd be perfectly happy to set my destination on the GPS and let the car take me there while I nap.

Well that's what you get for buying the preferred car make of aftermarket meatheads!

...really. I actually like Subarus but I'd never buy one because there's just too much of an aftermarket community for them. They're targets for theft and for accidentally being identified as one of those douches.

Mine were stock. I didn't mod or race them. They were just my favorite car since I was a kid playing Gran Tourismo and living in Montreal, driving through the snow in an AWD car that was still small enough to park in small opening between snowbanks, well that was a dream.

Oh, no, you're misunderstanding what I'm saying.

I'm not saying you are one and I'm agreeing with you that I like their cars.

I just 1) don't want to be mistaken for one of those people and 2) don't want my car stolen and stripped for parts because some punk screwed his up and now he needs a replacement part on the cheap.

Yeah, I did understand what you meant. I was just providing the logic behind why I bought the car.
There used to be 5 of those cars in my neighborhood. 1 was mine, 3 belonged to men in their 40's (we all used to wave at each other) and 1 belonged to a punk kid who raced them and never waved back. Mine and the 3 who belonged to grown men all disappeared. The one that the kid raced outlived all ours by about 2 years.

I submit that a correlation exists!

I wouldn't bet on that. Then again with this cough I have, I sound like I could keel over at any moment.

I know.

go have some vitamin C.

But I like my scurvy!

Insurance companies.

I, for one, welcome our new robot overlords.

I would like the option to put it in autodrive under certain circumstances, admittedly.

I think a better solution than fully-driverless vehicles would be an automated public transportation system, but that would mean an entirely redesigned and new infrastructure.

AKA: BRING MY ME FUTURAMA TUBES.

There is a project for that actually; highways with selfdriving cars that run on a rail system for individuals. It's talked about at some point in this video I posted here, it's one of the many amazing public transportation concepts of the future...that no one wants to invest on.

Oh, I'm aware of a lot of the underfunded initiatives out there.

But true tubes is what I want!

Physics-defying, futuristic tubes!

Yes nothing bad can happen with a driverless car never ever !

Some people here remind me of that guy in Port Jeuno who's all skeptic about airships that fly above his head all the time anyway

The technology is cool don't get me wrong but I trust myself (driving) more than relying completely on technology.

Plus I enjoy driving sometimes at least.

I trust myself driving most of the time, but there are a lot of really bad, selfish, idiotic drivers out there.

And no one is 100% immune to distraction and mistakes no matter how good of a driver they are.

And like I said, I'm certainly with you on enjoyment. There are times where it's just the best.

To me it honestly comes down to numbers. If driverless cars can result in a reduction of death and serious injury, they're worth the adjustment.