a thoughtful web.
Good ideas and conversation. No ads, no tracking.   Login or Take a Tour!
comment by user-inactivated
user-inactivated  ·  4352 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Fasten Your Seatbelts: Google's Driverless Car Is Worth Trillions

Hmm. We're at polar opposites on this.

I don't see how driverless cars could fail to be a panacea. You say they won't alleviate our commuting headache. Somewhere down the line, why on earth not? The article gives a handful of valid reasons why they easily could, and speaking from personal experience I could add a few more.

    I mean really, what kind of amazing lifestyle advancement do you think would be achieved by you being able to still sit down and buckle up,*still* enter the on ramp, and still stop for pedestrians, but all without having to magically pay attention to any of it?

More time, pure and simple. You keep saying that driverless cars will compound the evil that cars apparently already are. I don't get why.

As far as the stats go, even if you assumed they were wildly optimistic and cut them in half, you'd still be talking the most significant change in transportation since the highway system was built.





sounds_sound  ·  4352 days ago  ·  link  ·  

    More time, pure and simple.

Not to digress, but that reminds me of a funny David Cross bit about electric scissors.

    You keep saying that driverless cars will compound the evil that cars apparently already are. I don't get why.

Question: Do you drive often? Do you spend a lot of time in traffic where you live?

user-inactivated  ·  4351 days ago  ·  link  ·  

It varies with the season but yes, when I drive, it's invariably in traffic.

thenewgreen  ·  4351 days ago  ·  link  ·  

According to Bill Ford, driverless cars are the answer but then, I think he may be just a bit biased. Still, it's an interesting TED talk.

sounds_sound  ·  4351 days ago  ·  link  ·  

So he says "I'm driving on 94 and my car alerts me that there is traffic ahead and starts calculating a different route." Of course if all the cars were talking to each other, this would never happen because they wouldn't create the traffic in the first place.