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What is it about self-driving cars that has HN readers so incredibly excited? Sorry if it's a little off-topic. The reason I ask is there are plenty of other c

What is it about self-driving cars that has HN readers so incredibly excited? Sorry if it's a little off-topic. The reason I ask is there are plenty of other countries in the world where cars just aren't that important, let's take Netherlands for example. If you have automatic cars, society here is not just going to be that excited AFAIK. Public transport here is great and most people cycle everywhere, because it's fun, easy and good exercise. Not to mention a lot of people are employed as drivers. Same for many Asian countries where population density is high, people just don't have the money/room for cars. Scooters are the way to go because of traffic congestion. Besides, don't people enjoy driving? I don't own a car but when I get behind the wheel, it's a lot of fun. Will people really be able to handle the car doing the speed limit? I understand technologically it's pretty interesting, but we've had commercial airliners that fly themselves (mostly) for a long time, same for ships and drones and we don't marvel over those things all the time, though I agree they are great innovations. So apart from the tech what is the actual excitement about? - Concern for those who will lose their jobs. - Concern for others safety. - Privacy concerns. - Excitement about the safety benefits. - Economic opportunity. - Fundraising hype. - All of the above? As a Silicon Valley outsider sometimes I read HN and it feels like some context is missing. Sure it's going to change industries, but is this really good progress, necessary progress, or just the next thing we're told we need? I mean can a self-driving car really replace a delivery person yet, a person who can do things like leave packages with a neighbor and build relationships, trust etc? Sorry if this is a little off-topic, but I'm genuinely curious because it's hard to understand, to me as an outsider, it really looks like some kind of ride-sharing turf war hype battle more than anything else? I dare to say it, but it's the same for machine learning, a lot of it is fascinating, interesting, exiting tech, but how many product recommendations does one need? How good do my friend recommendations have to be? How smart does Siri need to be? Will a patient really feel better without being treated by a human? Are we really going to trust these things handling nuclear warheads? Maybe I live a strange life and have unusual views, but I just don't really see the need most of these things when so many problems could be solved using other means. Using this stuff to help people is great, but how much of this effort is actually being put towards that end? If I'm a little naive, apologies. I'm not having a go but these are just honest questions I often find myself asking when reading HN lately. Agreed this might not be the place to ask but I'm prepared to wear the down votes :)

abawany 10y ago
In my opinion, you mentioned the core reason why you find the excitement baffling, i.e. that you don't drive often but you find it exciting when you do. Now imagine the scenario for most of the US, a public-transport-hostile country for the most part, where millions upon millions of people burn their precious lives waiting in traffic and sucking in traffic fumes. In my mind, this is one of the most appalling wastes of human potential that has ever existed. Sure, some try to make lemonade out of lemons by educating/informing themselves as they see fit but by and large, it is a huge waste. Not to mention the many thousands of people who die every year in car accidents during the daily commute. So from my point of view, the self driving car is a thrilling concept: the ability to disengage from a useless, pointless, and hopeless daily grind and engage in something that I want to do, whether it be work, reading, watching a movie, etc. is cool. The closest I have come to this dream in my transit-unfriendly Texas city is the one job where I had an opportunity to take the train/bus into downtown: while this made my daily commute very long, I loved it because it freed me up from the drudge of driving. Some might ask that perhaps I just hate driving. That is not true. I love taking road trips or autocrossing when I can. But to equate the daily commute with enjoyment is a bridge too far, in my opinion. Banish it, I say, banish it.
- pmyjavec 10y ago
  Thanks for the response and totally agree with the sitting in traffic, wasted time thing ,but with all due respect it still seems inefficient, wouldn't public transport and telecommuting be better options in a connected world? How will there still be no traffic jams, or the car will be like an office? In that case why not just work from home and come to work for meetings here and there? Might flexible / less work hours help? I mean people will still be driving around in vehicle which often makes people motion sick if not paying attention to surroundings , cars requires a lot of energy, take up space etc. I used to travel to work via train, it was 1.5 hours one way, it was highly productive time for me, but for some reason trains don't seem to make people as motion sick? I guess one other thing to note is that in Australia, where I'm from originally, some see people think of others using public transport or biking as kind of peasants or feel it's inferior, that might be part of it too ? They're also the kind of people who often like to drive fast and own expensive cars as a status thing, so I'm still note sure it's going to take?

abawany 10y ago

In my opinion, you mentioned the core reason why you find the excitement baffling, i.e. that you don't drive often but you find it exciting when you do. Now imagine the scenario for most of the US, a public-transport-hostile country for the most part, where millions upon millions of people burn their precious lives waiting in traffic and sucking in traffic fumes. In my mind, this is one of the most appalling wastes of human potential that has ever existed. Sure, some try to make lemonade out of lemons by educating/informing themselves as they see fit but by and large, it is a huge waste. Not to mention the many thousands of people who die every year in car accidents during the daily commute. So from my point of view, the self driving car is a thrilling concept: the ability to disengage from a useless, pointless, and hopeless daily grind and engage in something that I want to do, whether it be work, reading, watching a movie, etc. is cool. The closest I have come to this dream in my transit-unfriendly Texas city is the one job where I had an opportunity to take the train/bus into downtown: while this made my daily commute very long, I loved it because it freed me up from the drudge of driving. Some might ask that perhaps I just hate driving. That is not true. I love taking road trips or autocrossing when I can. But to equate the daily commute with enjoyment is a bridge too far, in my opinion. Banish it, I say, banish it.

pmyjavec 10y ago
Thanks for the response and totally agree with the sitting in traffic, wasted time thing ,but with all due respect it still seems inefficient, wouldn't public transport and telecommuting be better options in a connected world? How will there still be no traffic jams, or the car will be like an office? In that case why not just work from home and come to work for meetings here and there? Might flexible / less work hours help? I mean people will still be driving around in vehicle which often makes people motion sick if not paying attention to surroundings , cars requires a lot of energy, take up space etc. I used to travel to work via train, it was 1.5 hours one way, it was highly productive time for me, but for some reason trains don't seem to make people as motion sick? I guess one other thing to note is that in Australia, where I'm from originally, some see people think of others using public transport or biking as kind of peasants or feel it's inferior, that might be part of it too ? They're also the kind of people who often like to drive fast and own expensive cars as a status thing, so I'm still note sure it's going to take?