Self-driving cars are the solution to nothing. We need much less cars and much more efficient transport in the cities.
if you look at the list, it just shows how much more REAL progress is needed. Most on that list is fake progress.
if you look at the list, it just shows how much more REAL progress is needed. Most on that list is fake progress.
And auto-taxis for the .50cent/mile cost of a personal car cut the Gordian knot of parking politics that often prevents new dense development in urban neighborhoods, since people don't need to own their own cars to take economical car trips occasionally.
And they shift the economics of vehicle ownership, so fewer people own cars, and thus fewer people identify as 'drivers' that are only concerned with roadway widening and parking construction, rather than public transit provision.
And, if nothing else, they'll make a big dent in the 30,000 people killed by automobiles every year.
Humans should not be operating cars or any other heavy machinery for that matter. Accidents caused by human error in cars are very prevalent, and self-driving cars at a macro-level would eliminate big risk factors for death and severe injury for a great number of people. Even if we don't get fully self-driving cars and just partially self-driving cars, it goes a long way towards reducing risk. So yes, REAL progress has and is being made.
http://www.iihs.org/iihs/topics/t/general-statistics/fatalit...
As our population ages, this will be an ever greater problem. Loss of mobility has economic consequences beyond the specific people it happens to.
More efficient city transport - you have my vote. But there's a growing population cohort for which self-driving cars may be really helpful.
For better or worse, they are the solution to the continued employment of drivers of various kinds.