Worry about this

[gbaglo]

Just been listening to CBC radio where people are predicting our future.
One distressing topic is "driver-less cars". Great advantages for commuters, but to be totally successful, people would not be allowed to drive their own cars.
Google has already run several vehicles thousands of miles over public roads without incident.
The expectation by the professor is that we may not be allowed to drive within a decade.

[escape artist]

Hi: gbaglo... Looks like I'll be retiring just in time... although "driver-less cars" can't be any worse than some driver driven ones!!!
I wonder how good they'd be at backing up a trailer tho? Alf
escape artist N.S. of Lake Erie

[Mary Strasser]

If I don't get my Escape soon, I'll be forced to ride in it while the tow vehicle drives itself down the road. Maybe Reece had best be planning seat belts in the trailer? We may have to rethink which end gets the best windows and bed.

[gbaglo]

I was wondering if the car would remember to hook up the safety chains. I'm also trying to imagine the government trying to force everybody in North America to replace their vehicle with a new one.
Got to keep the source in mind; a university professor.

[barry]

Back in the seventies they were predicting that we'd be driving flying cars by the turn of the century ................

Barry

[gabeck]

Back in the late fifties/early sixties they were predicting humans would start evolving without thumbs ..... imagine how hard it would be to text !

[LBaranyai]

Originally Posted by gabeck

Back in the late fifties/early sixties they were predicting humans would start evolving without thumbs ..... imagine how hard it would be to text !

Hmmm.

Maybe that's why hitch-hiking fell out of favor?

[dave macrae]

By nature humans are control freeks, a interesting idea but a long way away if ever in my opinion. Its alot more likely that the evoluntion of safety fail safes built into cars to asssit with safety, the only down side is this would enable the "poor" drivers to slip into being even worse because they are "protected" by all these safety features.

[Ruthe]

The drivers here are so busy texting and phoning that they can't be bothered to look at the roadd. What we need is a mass transit system so attractive that people would want to ride it, leaving the road open for people who don't mind paying attention to driving.

[Donna D.]

Honestly, I wouldn't mind driver-less cars during normal rush hour times. Zero accidents would mean I'd get home a WHOLE lot sooner.

[J Mac]

Originally Posted by gbaglo

Just been listening to CBC radio where people are predicting our future.
One distressing topic is "driver-less cars". Great advantages for commuters, but to be totally successful, people would not be allowed to drive their own cars.
Google has already run several vehicles thousands of miles over public roads without incident.
The expectation by the professor is that we may not be allowed to drive within a decade.

"...the sky is falling, the sky is falling"
-Chicken Little-

[Brian B-P]

Originally Posted by dave macrae

Its alot more likely that the evoluntion of safety fail safes built into cars to asssit with safety, the only down side is this would enable the "poor" drivers to slip into being even worse because they are "protected" by all these safety features.

That's already happening, on the roads all around us.

[Arathar]

Here in Pittsburgh there have been local news reports for a couple years about the driver-less research vehicles from CMU cruising our roads. Not even the CMU professors are saying 10 years, though.

I expect that interstate turnpikes will be the first to become driver-less roadways. It will be a feature, not a requirement. Like the transponders that let you skip the toll booths.

But I live out in the middle of nowhere on a dirt road. It will be a while before a computer can determine the difference between the road and the cow path that crosses it.