rossb2

zoetmb said:

knowitall said:

AppleInsider said:

"We want to understand each step," he said. "How are people responding? How are people feeling? Then, as people are comfortable with that, it means we can broaden out."

Boy are they in for a head on collision with reality.

As soon as there are a few serious accidents or deaths, politicians will get involved because they love issues like this - they're easy to understand and they prey on the public's hatred for large companies and their fears about technology (whether valid or not).   And if a car gets hacked? - it's all over.    You'll start to see local legislation banning autonomous vehicles.   And you'll probably also see huge support for such legislation from the few unions that are left in this country - in fact, this might wind up being an issue that brings the Right and Left together.    Once autonomous vehicles are banned from some locales, they'll fail because who is going to buy or lease a car that can't go everywhere and there isn't enough of a business just making cars to replace taxis and delivery vehicles.  

Furthermore (and at the risk of sounding both sexist and buying into stereotypes), I don't think macho male drivers in the U.S. will accept autonomous cars that can't exceed the speed limit and they also won't want to give up control to the car.    I have serious doubts whether autonomous cars can ever be a success for ordinary people (with the possible exception of being able to such things as put your kids in such a car, have the car drop them off somewhere, automatically return home so other family members can use the car and then the car autonomously returns to pick up the kids and drives them home).   But then the question becomes as to whether autonomous cars are going to put more cars or the road or fewer?   We already have gridlock in so many places.    On the other hand, I think all of these new accident avoidance systems are something that consumers want and will accept.