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In 40 or 50 years I would suggest you will not be able to drive a car manually, that antique will need to be retrofitted with driverless technology to take it on the road. If you want to take full advantage of what this technology is going to offer you will need to get human operated cars off the road.
For starters you would not need stop signs and red lights, streets and highways would no longer need lanes with specific directions of travel. The amount of traffic that can travel on existing infrastructure will explode and you'll get where you are going much faster with much more efficiency.
I'm not even going to attempt to predict 50 years from now. We could just as easily be riding around in chariots fabricated from old truck beds and throwing rebar spears at each other while wearing hubcaps as armor.
I expect an eventual future where the common man has no access to mechanically aided personal transportation. We will not be able to go anywhere. Transportation will be for whatever infrastructure exists to distribute food & services. We will only experience other places through virtual reality. There will be some with a memory of a distant past, with stories about when people could actually see the world. There will be a protected aristocratic class with more freedom and privileges and there will be the poor with those truck bed chariots & spears.
It would a sight to see hundreds maybe even thousands of driverless cars find parking spots at malls on Black Friday or during Christmas holidays. Or even sporting events, concerts, or even Costco on weekends. That would be a sight to see.
It would a sight to see hundreds maybe even thousands of driverless cars find parking spots at malls on Black Friday or during Christmas holidays. Or even sporting events, concerts, or even Costco on weekends. That would be a sight to see.
Of course the driverless car proponents argue that their driverless car will just drop them off at the store and then drive around for as long as it takes to find a parking space. Of course all of these extra trips by unoccupied cars driving around looking for parking will have absolutely no effect on the road infrastructure. Cities that are already totally gridlocked, will have no problems accommodating all these extra trips by unoccupied cars driving around in circles.
Don't forget the Google self-driving car that saved a sandbag's life by swerving into the side of a 60 foot long bus, to avoid running over the poor little sandbag. But they are still better than human drivers. Because human drivers choose everyday to crash into a bus rather than run over a sandbag... Oh wait, there is no evidence that a human driver has ever done that.
So the topic of harsh winters has been briefly discussed. Now how about summer season, where the city does a lot of repair work on roads? Will driverless cars be able to merge correctly when there's a long line up as two lanes become one? Or will the driver have to take over?
How about when cars are on the freeway? And they are driving at great speeds but have to merge? Again does the driver take over?
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