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What I said was central communications or networked if you prefer. If traffic is being routed by a central hub they could for example have packs of them to go through a 4 way intersection, cars may have to slow down or speed up but they wouldn't have to stop. Whatever the case the capacity and efficient use of roads would drastically increase.
Firstly what you consider a privilege is not extended to those that may be too handicapped to drive, this could help those people gain the freedom you have. You are not losing freedom of movement but instead losing the ability to manually drive the car. It's still going to go wherever you want to go.
This isn't going to happen overnight, as suggested previously it might be 30 or 40 years before you won't be able to manually operate a car.
So now you think all vehicles on the road will be controlled by a central hub?? Ok. You may not realize it but you are well beyond fantasy and what-ifs. Do you really think people all over are going to risk not being able to move there vehicle because of communication problems with "the hub"? Its one thing when my phone goes out and they have been establishing a network for over 20 years. Yet you think somehow this "central hub" will somehow have perfect communications... all over .... the continent or all over the world?? You should read up on the technology they are using, that's not the way it works.
At what point does that really not make sense?? Does your plan involve the end of off-roading (where adjustments need to be made depending on where the rock sits), or will that only be allowed by "antiques" How about when a sensor goes out? you wouldn't be able to drive it to a mechanic, you would have to get it on a flatbed.. Do I really need to go on?
So now you think all vehicles on the road will be controlled by a central hub?? Ok. You may not realize it but you are well beyond fantasy and what-ifs.
I think that is inevitable in particular in urban areas. More road capacity, more efficiency and you'll get where you are going much faster.
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Do you really think people all over are going to risk not being able to move there vehicle because of communication problems with "the hub"?
Just because they would be routed by centralized hub doesn't mean they cannot act autonomously. Matter of fact it would be more practical in rural area.
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You should read up on the technology they are using, that's not the way it works.
I have had a computer since about 1983 when I helped a friend operate a bulletin board, In case you don't know what that is it would be the precursor to Usenet and ultimately forums like this one. You had to dial it direct with a phone modem. I'm more knowledgeable than most people.
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How about when a sensor goes out?
There will be redundancy built into these systems, the failure of one sensor is not going to make it a brick. Other than that it's just like anything else on the car that can fail that is critical like your tires, battery, alternator, brake lines, on and on...
Really. Driving is freedom. Get in the car and take a sunday drive. Go cross country. Pile the family in and hook up the boat or trailer and go someplace for the weekend. check out the fall colors. the freshly fallen snow. Drive on the beach to go fishing or find a nice surf break. Go deep in the woods on some trail and pitch a tent. I can go on and on and on but basically it is freedom. It seems a few here hate freedom and since their lazy asses would rather be picked up by some appliance and let that appliance do their work, they feel the rest of us feel the same. The day it is illegal to drive a car ones self is the day this country isn't even worth living in. Might as well be 70's USSR. Can't believe people would want to give up one of the biggest freedoms we have just because they are lazy victims of technology. You know, technology isn't always good. It can destroy lives and country's and that seems to be what some of these wackos want.
While I'm on this rant I'll add that to these nut jobs they feel cars should drive themselves. However, small planes are still flown every day by individuals. Boats are driven by individuals. Motorcycles, scooters, bicycles. I guess those all need to be fully automated as well. you know, got to let the government protect us. Ironic that these same people envision drones buzzing all over gods creation dropping off and delivering packages. What a dark and depressing world they must live in. Why not leave the city occasionally and enjoy whats out there beyond the high rises!
Yep, life expectancy a wopping 25 years old as the typical house of the 2100's will have a moving conveyor belt leading to the front door and an elevator leading to the second floor. All conveyors, escalators and elevators will lead to the rented concrete grey econ box that can't be driven by an individual. Even those 2 wheeled segways will be used in house enabling one to never lift a leg himself to take a step. Eventually they will transform to electric (totally computer driven) wheelchairs with feeding devises as all use of arms and legs are eliminated and they don't function anymore. By the time our life expectancy has dropped down to a reasonable 12 years , arms and legs would have joined the ranks of the appendix.
Enjoy your miserable ppointless life people!
Who says having a self-driving car is going to take away your freedom?? You can still go where you want to go. You can go fishing or surfing. You can watch the fall colors with the rest of your family instead of wondering if the person in the other lane is going to get in your lane too early and smack your car.
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Originally Posted by Nepenthe
^ Quite a rant.
I used to love to drive. I was a car guy for most of my life, still read about cars a lot. Just don't get that much enjoyment out of it, for the reasons I cited. But I still enjoy it more (and pay it more attention) than the vast majority of idiots on the road more concerned about their social media "presence" while in the car.
I believe self-driving vehicles are completely inevitable. Time is the only variable. This will happen whether I want it to or you want it to, I believe. There will be a generation of humans who've never driven a car. At some stage carmakers will start to phase out manual / human-controlled modes in their vehicles. Society will shift, so that those who still want to drive themselves (especially in an ICE-powered vehicle) will be ostracized, lightly at first and then more vociferously. At some point governments (local, state, Federal, world) will have mandated automated driving modes for certain areas, certain types of roads, and eventually there will come a time when selling a car with a manual mode for use on public roads is illegal (not that many automakers will be doing it by then anyway). Finally, driving a car manually on a public road will be illegal.
No, if I had my druthers I probably wouldn't want any of this to happen. What I'm saying is I no longer derive the joy from driving that I used to, 10 or 20 years ago -- so I feel a lot has been lost already, and since it's [in my view] inevitable ANYWAY, I sometimes feel, when it takes me 48 minutes to travel 9 miles to work, that that automated future might not be so bad. 15 years ago, UH UH, I was enjoying the Vette, the Stealth TT, and dreaming about my next car, and was adamantly against all this.
Look, there are a lot of things about the future I'm not too enthused about, but I'm *powerless* to stop them. There's a difference between objectively talking about what will happen, accepting the inevitable, and actually WANTING these things to happen -- like the difference between the question "who do you think will win?" and the question "who do you want to win?"
Some people think the very concept of owning anything will disappear in the future -- that includes cars. I'm 42 right now, and I don't think I want to live past about 75, in part because the world that exists by the year 2050 will be something I'm completely maladapted for. People will think VERY differently by then. To a large extent they already do, as I know or know of a few teens who have shown little interest in driving even now.
So no, I'm not trying or wanting to give up freedoms -- I'm a pretty stout believer in individual strength and liberty . But I'm also a realist. Do you understand? Talking about something I think is on the way doesn't hasten its arrival or make me an advocate for it, just like ranting against it won't prevent it from becoming reality.
Now, you mentioned a sunday drive, cross-country, going somewhere for the weekend (we work weekends), looking at fall colors (nothing like that here), the snow (ditto), the beach (ditto), fishing, the woods, camping, etc. -- and I guess I'm failing to see how not having your hand on the steering wheel and feet on the pedals would prevent any of that. Granted, it does open up the potential for authoritarian control of where you can go or how many miles you're allocated, and many other dystopian ideas, but just ceding on-the-road inputs to the driving AI? Not really.
There also could be a lengthy period where it looks like the Schwarzenegger movie The Sixth Day -- when you're on a busy freeway or a main boulevard the computer is firmly in charge of the actual driving (not even giving the option for a manual mode), while for sedate residential driving and all of that "getting out of town" driving (country, beach, woods, rural interstate) the driving AI is optional. And track days may become more popular than ever.
Now to bring it back to the point of the post of mine that I quoted, I had more fun driving in VR the other day than I've had in a very long time in the real world.
Things change. The world changes.
Not owning a car does not mean you're giving up your freedoms. Car ownership has only been a thing for the past 100 years.
I think it will only happen in limited cities. It requires a full reconfiguration of roads, signs, and even cross walks. China will most likely be the 1st country to adopt it because they have a central government that can mandate such changes easily.
You cannot have a road where AI cars are driving amongst normal people and roads it just won't work.
You cannot have a traffic accident lawsuit between a human driver and AI car, the mfg will lose and cause many companies to stop offering them.
I think it will only happen in limited cities. It requires a full reconfiguration of roads, signs, and even cross walks. China will most likely be the 1st country to adopt it because they have a central government that can mandate such changes easily.
You cannot have a road where AI cars are driving amongst normal people and roads it just won't work.
You cannot have a traffic accident lawsuit between a human driver and AI car, the mfg will lose and cause many companies to stop offering them.
You do not have to reconfigure and Uber has these cars driving in Pittsburgh right now.
If I were driving the 405 in Los Angeles or the LBJ in Dallas everyday, I would be interested. However, I guess I am old fashioned as I do enjoy driving and appreciate the experience of getting behind the wheel and seeing the scenery.
I want to put an input about your "self-driving" concepts nowadays. It is maybe out of the topic, but, anyway, for the clarifications then I yell.
The lab people say, the current developed "self-driving" systems are not really driving the cars. It shall be more correctly being called - the aid driving.
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Ok. You may not realize it but you are well beyond fantasy and what-ifs. Do you really think people all over are going to risk not being able to move there vehicle because of communication problems with "the hub"? Its one thing when my phone goes out and they have been establishing a network for over 20 years. Yet you think somehow this "central hub" will somehow have perfect communications... all over .... the continent or all over the world?? 
