Self driving cars and beyond

First, you would still be able to drive on private tracks; plenty of car enthusiasts already do this today. If your enjoyment is derived from driving fast, or taking curves, this should be able to satisfy your requirements.

Second, if your satisfaction is derived from aimlessly driving, simply enjoying the scenery and the zen of the road, this is not something that is incompatible with self-driving cars. Hell, there could be a "Scenic drive" button that randomly takes you on different routes every time.

If you are concerned that you will no longer be able to combine these activities (driving aggressively on long, rambling courses), I think this is something you are likely to lose out on. On the other hand, if this is the case, is it even appropriate for you to be doing this on public roads today?

If your argument is that you don't want to invest the time or money to use tracks or private courses for this purpose, then I think you should reexamine just how much enjoyment you derive from driving, and where it comes from specifically.

Ultimately, it goes to a core discussion of whether roads are for transportation or for recreation; I imagine similar discussions have occurred in the past between wagons and horseback riders, for example, or later, between horse-drawn vehicles and cars. Today, I would argue that more than 50% (and probably much more) of the cars on the road are being used for transportation rather than recreation, which suggests that modifications that streamline that use will eventually crowd out the remaining percentage through the tyranny of the majority.

In a discussion forum, people are free to form their opinions and rebut anyone, who they think is being incorrect. So, I don't understand why do people say this forum is unfair to x,y and z, stuff like HN in general doesn't like "cryptocurrencies" or "cars" etc doesn't help the discussion.

As for self-driving, when I read stuff like this:

But the final one speaks loudly about what city roads of the future could look like: “that autonomous vehicles (AVs) in dense urban areas should be operated only in shared fleets.”

https://www.popsci.com/self-driving-car-fleets#page-2

I can't help but get worried.

Basically "nothing".

Sure 3D printers came out much cheaper (talking of FFF Fused Filament Fabrication or FDM Fused Deposition Modeling ) and much more precise/accurate, but still they are way too slow for any practical "final customer" use, outside the pure fun of it.

Other technologies are still too expensive (or again still too slow) to get anywhere soon in "every household".

In the professional world, set aside the "quick prototyping" field, and possibly a few other "narrow" fields, like jewelry and dentistry they can make "products" that either miss the mechanical capabilities of the "real" thing or that - if you can make them with suitable characteristics or materials - still cost tens of times as much as a same product manufactured industrially with more traditional means.

One thing I would like to add is that public transport is too very difficult to scale. For example, the Northern, Central and Piccadilly lines on London Underground are massively overcrowded to the extent where it’s borderline dangerous.

I don’t really know what TFL can do about it, because the lines already operates at maximum capacity. They could build more lines at £15Bn each (http://www.cityam.com/279301/gbp148bn-crossrail-project-face...), but even if money grew on trees these projects take 5-10 years to complete, by which time population has grown so much that they too are overcrowded by the time they open.