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About a third of those 42,000 dead are due to DUIs. US has historically been lenient here, resulting in many repeat offenders on the road causing preventable tr
by imglorp 1y ago
About a third of those 42,000 dead are due to DUIs. US has historically been lenient here, resulting in many repeat offenders on the road causing preventable tragedies. Distracted driving is around 3,000/yr, while drowsy drivers around 6,000.
If self driving cars do nothing better than on par with alert and sober human drivers, that might cut half of those deaths by itself.
- echelon 1y ago> If self driving cars do nothing better than on par with alert and sober human drivers, that might cut half of those deaths by itself. Self driving probably fixes the fatality rate entirely once most people use self driving modes. Self driving will be the US' economic superpower. We've got so much vehicular infrastructure and it's practically sitting latent waiting for this opportunity. When most of everything transits this way - food, goods, packages, people, instant fulfillment - it'll be one of the biggest unlocks of the century. Anything we lost due to underinvestment in rail will be dwarfed by the returns from self driving.