Driverless cars: are you ready for a dramatic cultural shift about to happen?

[mathew101281]

Both volkswagen and Chrysler plan to have driverless car on the road by 2020.
What does this mean for the us which is a very car centric nation?

1. Can you give a ticket to a driverless car? That might dig into someone’s pocket.
2. It’s quit possible we are living in the last days of the “driver’s license as right of passage,” era. Why have a car when their is a fleet of driverless Uber cars roaming the highways and streets.
3. What does this mean for people that drive for a living?

[DrNewGod]

One last major hurdle is insurance. It hasn't been quite decided where liability will lie (owner v programmer).

[Ragdoll]

There's a J G Ballard story about a man who tries to keep driving his own car after self driving cars take over and the social ostracizing he suffers for not going with the program. I plan to drive crappy human driven cars til the day I die (hopefully in an automobile crash where I hit a self driving car that's going too slow in the fast lane on highway)

[JCAll]

A car that drives itself would make my life a lot easier. I can't drive (without crashing) so have to ride everywhere. I'd gladly be done with that for the rest of my life. I'll never be able to afford a driverless car though.

[Kusanagi]

One last major hurdle is insurance. It hasn't been quite decided where liability will lie (owner v programmer).

That's a very good question, especially if it comes down to maintenance. If you don't have your car serviced enough, do you become responsible?

The biggest thing I think of when I think of driverless cars is how will it effect employment, there will be a lot of truck/cab drivers unemployed once we hit the saturation point.

[DrNewGod]

There's a J G Ballard story about a man who tries to keep driving his own car after self driving cars take over and the social ostracizing he suffers for not going with the program. I plan to drive crappy human driven cars til the day I die (hopefully in an automobile crash where I hit a self driving car that's going too slow in the fast lane on highway)

On Earth of Niven's Known Space stories, manually operating a vehicle is a capital offense.

[DrNewGod]

That's a very good question, especially if it comes down to maintenance. If you don't have your car serviced enough, do you become responsible?

The biggest thing I think of when I think of driverless cars is how will it effect employment, there will be a lot of truck/cab drivers unemployed once we hit the saturation point.

It will be a crisis for cabbies/Uber drivers. Long haul transportation has been suffering a desperate driver shortage for over a decade in The US. It's one of the reasons NAFTA included provisions allowing Mexican drivers to haul freight in The US. Parcel delivery and short haul will probably still need a human cargo handler on board, but the pay will be less.

[Osiris-Rex]

Used to love to drive. Now I would gladly let the car drive. In a few more years I will probably need a car that drives me anyway. 2020 fits me.

Not sure the need to give a driverless car a ticket would ever arise. Kind of one of the reasons for giving tickets is to eliminate human error. Most tickets are given because the driver screws up and as
a punishment so as to discourage the driver from doing it again. Would a driverless car intentionally screw up and how would it be punished if it did? Obviously a monetary fine wouldn't have an effect.

It will be a crisis for cabbies/Uber drivers. Long haul transportation has been suffering a desperate driver shortage for over a decade in The US. It's one of the reasons NAFTA included provisions allowing Mexican drivers to haul freight in The US. Parcel delivery and short haul will probably still need a human cargo handler on board, but the pay will be less.

Amazon is experimenting with drones to deliver packages, so that may eliminate parcel delivery drivers too. For items too bulky they just need someone to unload the packages but that person could just be a passenger.

[Ragdoll]

On Earth of Niven's Known Space stories, manually operating a vehicle is a capital offense.

I feel like that is in our future, especially with these terrorist attacks using vehicles lately. But... I don't know, I love driving. I get all my coolest thoughts when driving, like showering.

[DrNewGod]

Amazon is experimenting with drones to deliver packages, so that may eliminate parcel delivery drivers too. For items too bulky they just need someone to unload the packages but that person could just be a passenger.

The technological hurdles on that are minor, but the package theft issues are major. So until they beat that (probably by normalizing neighborhood dropboxes), full automation will be problematic. Single package delivery solely by air drone probably won't make it either except for very expensive shipments; too much cost attached to a long-range, one-way trip. Something like the "aircraft carrier" concept tho, that's another story, but it might still call for human loaders, and still has to deal with the package theft issue.

images.jpg

[JCAll]

I feel like that is in our future, especially with these terrorist attacks using vehicles lately. But... I don't know, I love driving. I get all my coolest thoughts when driving, like showering.

I doubt it has anything to do with terrorism. It's just that once EVERYTHING is coordinated by computers, trying to add one human into the mix could screw up the coordination for everyone and lead to disaster.

[Colossus1980]

That's a very good question, especially if it comes down to maintenance. If you don't have your car serviced enough, do you become responsible?

The biggest thing I think of when I think of driverless cars is how will it effect employment, there will be a lot of truck/cab drivers unemployed once we hit the saturation point.

Will driving schools close? Or do people still need a valid driver's license?

If people don't need a valid drivers, will the DMV be closing shop? Less insurance people since no on is driving cars? Chauffers? Bus drivers? Will police, ambulance, and fire truck drivers be exempt?

Will there be less car accidents? Meaning less repair shops?

I find it very interesting to see what happens in the future.

[DrNewGod]

Will driving schools close? Or do people still need a valid driver's license?

If people don't need a valid drivers, will the DMV be closing shop? Less insurance people since no on is driving cars? Chauffers? Bus drivers? Will police, ambulance, and fire truck drivers be exempt?

Will there be less car accidents? Meaning less repair shops?

I find it very interesting to see what happens in the future.

Going to be massive all right. Probably drive individual ownership of cars down. That's a lot of revenues that state governments rely on.

[mathew101281]

Used to love to drive. Now I would gladly let the car drive. In a few more years I will probably need a car that drives me anyway. 2020 fits me.

Not sure the need to give a driverless car a ticket would ever arise. Kind of one of the reasons for giving tickets is to eliminate human error. Most tickets are given because the driver screws up and as
a punishment so as to discourage the driver from doing it again. Would a driverless car intentionally screw up and how would it be punished if it did? Obviously a monetary fine wouldn't have an effect.



Amazon is experimenting with drones to deliver packages, so that may eliminate parcel delivery drivers too. For items too bulky they just need someone to unload the packages but that person could just be a passenger.

But the money coming in from tickets is a major source of revenue for both local and federal institutions? Would that source dry up rather quickly if DLC's become popular?

[numberthirty]

But the money coming in from tickets is a major source of revenue for both local and federal institutions? Would that source dry up rather quickly if DLC's become popular?

Never mind that.

Think of how many times the police probably use the premise that some sort of traffic infraction has taken place each day to try to justify a traffic stop. That entire landscape probably changes if there is no driver in a car.