Everyone will have 5 years to get their car off the road or sell it for scrap
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Re: Everyone will have 5 years to get their car off the road or sell it for scrap
#2what about the countryside?
Re: Everyone will have 5 years to get their car off the road or sell it for scrap
#3These transportation companies will be able to order modules of various sizes — short ones, medium ones, long ones, even pickup modules. But the performance will be the same for all because nobody will be passing anybody else on the highway. That is the death knell for companies such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi. That kind of performance is not going to count anymore.
If he's right, kill me now. I really don't want to live in that world.
Re: Everyone will have 5 years to get their car off the road or sell it for scrap
#4These transportation companies will be able to order modules of various sizes — short ones, medium ones, long ones, even pickup modules. But the performance will be the same for all because nobody will be passing anybody else on the highway. That is the death knell for companies such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi. That kind of performance is not going to count anymore. If he's right, kill me now. I really don't want…
We can always go to the track.
Re: Everyone will have 5 years to get their car off the road or sell it for scrap
#5These transportation companies will be able to order modules of various sizes — short ones, medium ones, long ones, even pickup modules. But the performance will be the same for all because nobody will be passing anybody else on the highway. That is the death knell for companies such as BMW, Mercedes-Benz and Audi. That kind of performance is not going to count anymore. If he's right, kill me now. I really don't want…
"kill me now"
That's exactly what's happening now. 37,000 deaths per year just in the US.
But it won't be the deaths that will cause the change to happen: if the US actually cared more about preventing fatalities than "freedom" it'd regulate guns. The trigger for outlawing manual driving in cities and on freeways will be the convenience factor: 150mph travel without slowdowns for congestion will cut travel time to less than half.
If you want to drive manually, go to the track, just like you do today if you want to drive over 100mph.
Re: Everyone will have 5 years to get their car off the road or sell it for scrap
#6what about the countryside?
You rock, rock.
Re: Everyone will have 5 years to get their car off the road or sell it for scrap
#7Re: Everyone will have 5 years to get their car off the road or sell it for scrap
#8There will not be an on-demand service for everything. How would one load up trash in the back of a pickup truck to take to the landfill? How would you take a fishing trip off road to the edge of the lake? A lot of what I read would work fine for urban environments. It would not cover all the use cases we currently have for our vehicles.
Re: Everyone will have 5 years to get their car off the road or sell it for scrap
#9Ridiculous predictions. Human drivers legislated away in 20 years max? Please, as if the police or public services would trust their transportation to an algorithm, publicly.
More likely the insurance companies will aggressively raise premiums on drivers who insist on retaining their option to drive themselves. Markets will price people out of the driver’s seat and into the passenger’s.
And the idea that people wouldn’t buy their own cars or that luxury cars would fall by the wayside is ridiculous. The FIRST major self driving cars are going to be in the luxury market, and the companies doing so are already there (Tesla, Volvo, Mercedes-Benz). Having a self-driving car will become the ultimate status symbol among the upper middle class. And you can bet that Hollywood and Madison Avenue will inundate the populace with scenes and ads of attractive young people stepping out of luxurious autonomous cars as soon as they’re on the market.
And of course no discussion whatsoever on rural areas or even people that don’t want self-driving cars. Personally I hate driving but most people I know do enjoy it and wouldn’t fully trust a self driving car not to get hacked and fling them off the nearest cliff.
Something the article absolutely misses is that cars are not simply a means of transportation. They are also a moving storage shed: Umbrellas, rain boots, an extra jacket, diapers, child car seats...
For an article chock-full of futurism, it was surprisingly low on genuine imagination...or even robust analysis.
Re: Everyone will have 5 years to get their car off the road or sell it for scrap
#10I read this same article in 1965.
I'll believe it when I see it.