We keep forgetting that in the 1920s they said -all- cars would be flying in the year 2000, and it never happened... Heck, some could say we still don't have ca

We keep forgetting that in the 1920s they said -all- cars would be flying in the year 2000, and it never happened... Heck, some could say we still don't have cars that can fly realistically, we only have flawed prototypes, and they aren't safe. It's not being pessimistic, it's being realistic. Most of the hype surrounding the self driving car discussion is generated and promoted by people and companies on the profit receiving end of the discussion. Right now it's primarily based off of cameras watching painted lines on roads. Also not a solid practice. If someone wanted to cause accidents all they'd have to do is paint the lines off the road on a section above 60 MPH. Another problem is maintenance of these vehicles. Accidents are caused a lot by owners not properly maintaining the car's subsystems like brakes, fluids, and even keeping sensors and windshields clean. Too much performance unpredictability is introduced into the equation by things like this to make self driving cars a reality, and makers cannot reliably answer who will own up to responsibility in case of an accident. There's also the concept of "free will", i.e. how will these cars work around human drivers, what about everyone relinquishing their personal rights to own cars, will drivers be able to go off the maps and radar routes, etc. And none of those questions can be answered. For planes, boats, large haulers and buses maybe, provided they stay in designated lanes, but for cars? I don't see it happening any time soon unless all of the questions can be answered acceptably.