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Self driving cars are going to be a defining point of our generation. I don't think people realise how disruptive this will be. The way cars look will be great

Self driving cars are going to be a defining point of our generation. I don't think people realise how disruptive this will be. The way cars look will be great to see evolve as mobile lounges or offices once the driving position is not needed. Or even a bedroom so you can travel medium distances while you sleep and not waste time on this any more. And as systems get better we might see allowable speeds increase greatly. And beyond personal cars this is going to be huge in the transport and delivery industries. It will make it easy to car pool by being a member of a group of cars that stay around the city and I think owning one car for one person will be much less common. It will be a boon for online businesses as the cost of delivery will be reduced with the removal of drivers. Combine this with faster warehousing systems and when we order that product online it could be delivered in the time it take to deliver a pizza today.... unless you decide to just 3D print it. I find this quite exciting.

electromagnetic 15y ago
I've realised who disruptive this will be, and have pointed it out to my wife many times. The first that comes to mind is that driverless cars can literally end drunk driving. I've seen many bars close down due to lack of service, because no one wants to spend $40 in a night just on cabs. I know people whose cottage is almost 12-hours away through rural roads, and go up every other weekend. It would entirely change their time if they weren't stopping in motels and getting there mid-day on a saturday. If they had a driverless vehicle, they would get there at 6 in the morning and be fully rested. Greatly increased speed limits is what excites me the most if only because it's the next step in making our physical world that little bit smaller. When you double vehicle speeds, you're changing the world. There would be less overloading on urban centres due to the convenience of short commuting distances.
- FreeFull 15y ago
  One thing though, when you increase the speed that cars go at on a road, you decrease the bandwidth of the road (due to the way halting distance increases with speed, the cars have to be further apart).
  - orangecat 15y ago
    Throughput still increases because each car won't need to be on the road as long. And computer-controlled cars can potentially have less spacing and still be safer, because they'll have much better effective reaction times.
  - Gustomaximus 15y ago
    This can be offset by the reaction time of computers (assuming braking distance being equal between cars) as the gap is really for reaction time. Or driverless vehicles could take it even further where a lead car could communicate with a following vehicle so when the lead cars brakes are applied simultaneously the cars behind do also reducing the delay even further.

electromagnetic 15y ago

I've realised who disruptive this will be, and have pointed it out to my wife many times. The first that comes to mind is that driverless cars can literally end drunk driving. I've seen many bars close down due to lack of service, because no one wants to spend $40 in a night just on cabs. I know people whose cottage is almost 12-hours away through rural roads, and go up every other weekend. It would entirely change their time if they weren't stopping in motels and getting there mid-day on a saturday. If they had a driverless vehicle, they would get there at 6 in the morning and be fully rested. Greatly increased speed limits is what excites me the most if only because it's the next step in making our physical world that little bit smaller. When you double vehicle speeds, you're changing the world. There would be less overloading on urban centres due to the convenience of short commuting distances.

FreeFull 15y ago
One thing though, when you increase the speed that cars go at on a road, you decrease the bandwidth of the road (due to the way halting distance increases with speed, the cars have to be further apart).
- orangecat 15y ago
  Throughput still increases because each car won't need to be on the road as long. And computer-controlled cars can potentially have less spacing and still be safer, because they'll have much better effective reaction times.
- Gustomaximus 15y ago
  This can be offset by the reaction time of computers (assuming braking distance being equal between cars) as the gap is really for reaction time. Or driverless vehicles could take it even further where a lead car could communicate with a following vehicle so when the lead cars brakes are applied simultaneously the cars behind do also reducing the delay even further.