Driverless Cars
Posted by Flootus5 9 years, 9 months ago to Technology
Now, I am always one to encourage invention and technological advancement through entrepreneurial free market activity, but this one gives me pause.
Driverless cars. Cars shuttling the kids off to school, dropping Dad off at work, and then taking Mom to work, then later picking one or both to go grocery shopping. People's time freed to be further on their laptops, tablets, iphones, etc., while seated in a circle of chairs with no human driving.
"There is little question that driverless cars will improve fuel economies not only because they smooth out the braking and accelerating of human drivers, but also because they improve traffic flow by finding optimal routes and mitigating congestion. The lower accident rate will mean fewer traffic jams from that cause as well."
How do we know the accident rate will be lower? It seems to me the use of "There is little question" is an awful lot like saying "the science is settled".
The analogy "that the change in thinking could be no different than the shift from elevators manned by operators to today's completely automatic elevators" with driverless cars plying complex routes out there, I find rather disingenuous.
But, am I being an old-fashioned-stuck-in-the-ways curmudgeon by being somewhat skeptical of this technology? A horse and buggy whipper?
Driverless cars. Cars shuttling the kids off to school, dropping Dad off at work, and then taking Mom to work, then later picking one or both to go grocery shopping. People's time freed to be further on their laptops, tablets, iphones, etc., while seated in a circle of chairs with no human driving.
"There is little question that driverless cars will improve fuel economies not only because they smooth out the braking and accelerating of human drivers, but also because they improve traffic flow by finding optimal routes and mitigating congestion. The lower accident rate will mean fewer traffic jams from that cause as well."
How do we know the accident rate will be lower? It seems to me the use of "There is little question" is an awful lot like saying "the science is settled".
The analogy "that the change in thinking could be no different than the shift from elevators manned by operators to today's completely automatic elevators" with driverless cars plying complex routes out there, I find rather disingenuous.
But, am I being an old-fashioned-stuck-in-the-ways curmudgeon by being somewhat skeptical of this technology? A horse and buggy whipper?
