8 ms·

I am eagerly looking forward to a day when all vehicles (or the vast majority) are autonomous. Not only would that allow drivers to get back all the time they

by jawns 4y ago

I am eagerly looking forward to a day when all vehicles (or the vast majority) are autonomous. Not only would that allow drivers to get back all the time they would otherwise devote to operating their vehicles, but also it opens up a world of accessibility to blind people, the elderly, and others who (for whatever reason) can't drive themselves right now. And there are network effects! If practically all cars are autonomous, they can talk to each other in sophisticated ways that are not feasible for manual operators, who largely rely on very rudimentary signaling (e.g. turn signals, flashing your brights, one-finger salute, etc.). This is fantastic for both safety and efficiency. That said, what I think we should fear right now is not autonomous cars themselves, but misplaced expectations by drivers about how reliable the technology is right now. As long as everyone accurately understands their limitations, we can both limit our own risks and prevent the sort of backlash we're seeing now.

pclmulqdq 4y ago
We're going to have to isolate those cars to separate roads that don't have pedestrians on them. Of course, those roads will need entry and exit points for people, but it's a lot safer if they are mostly isolated. And maybe we can have those cars join big convoys that are traveling to the same place so they save energy by speeding up and slowing down as a group. And then eventually we will start calling those autonomous cars "trains."
- Uw7yTcf36gTc 4y ago
  but the infrastructure for trains is too costly. what if we could reuse the existing infrastructure and everything else you said. we could call these autonomous vehicles 'busses' or something like that.
rhn_mk1 4y ago
It's not good for efficiency because you still have to keep those rudimentary signals for non-digital users of the streets. Like, you know, humans. While ths might work on closed tracks, it also means that "all vehicles" will never be autonomous, and unless you ban vehicles from cities, you'll not get close to "vast majority" either, so you'll never reap the complete benefits of this efficiency.

by jawns 4y ago

pclmulqdq 4y ago

We're going to have to isolate those cars to separate roads that don't have pedestrians on them. Of course, those roads will need entry and exit points for people, but it's a lot safer if they are mostly isolated. And maybe we can have those cars join big convoys that are traveling to the same place so they save energy by speeding up and slowing down as a group. And then eventually we will start calling those autonomous cars "trains."

Uw7yTcf36gTc 4y ago
but the infrastructure for trains is too costly. what if we could reuse the existing infrastructure and everything else you said. we could call these autonomous vehicles 'busses' or something like that.

rhn_mk1 4y ago

It's not good for efficiency because you still have to keep those rudimentary signals for non-digital users of the streets. Like, you know, humans. While ths might work on closed tracks, it also means that "all vehicles" will never be autonomous, and unless you ban vehicles from cities, you'll not get close to "vast majority" either, so you'll never reap the complete benefits of this efficiency.