I'd be more impressed with a car-less society.
More cars, different cars, smarter cars aren't the answer. It just leads to more roads, more urban sprawl, more pollution on the planet.
More cars, different cars, smarter cars aren't the answer. It just leads to more roads, more urban sprawl, more pollution on the planet.
You are basically saying a society without need for any transportation whatsoever. That seems a bit of an unrealistic goal for anytime in the near future.
I'm not sure that autophil is advocating eliminating cars and roads altogether. Maybe he is. But it seems legitimate to be concerned about removing one limiting factor of car use--the patience and stamina of the driver. A 90 minute each way commute would be possible for more drivers, which isn't necessarily a net benefit for humanity given the increased road use, increased construction further from urban areas, and increased energy use, even assuming these self-driving cars become entirely electric.
I'm as fascinated by self-driving cars as anyone and believe self-driving cars have a useful place, but it's good to question the consequences.
Addendum: Not all unintended consequences are bad.
And if the increased energy usage is among the underlying concerns, then consider that a business person traveling for work, were they able to use the sleeper-car idea and arrive wherever the next morning (wasting no waking time with the traveling), will prefer that option in numerous plausible scenarios. So such cars can also reduce the amount of energy used on other forms of travel.
But even if the commutes do inch up somewhat, that should be offset by new opportunities to save energy via algorithmic collaboration. Future generation self-driving cars could organize in all sorts of energy-saving ways that human drivers aren't practically capable of doing (eg. self-driving cars could intelligently draft one another).
[1] http://www.autoblog.com/2012/06/23/parking-its-what-your-car...