i’m not convinced yet that autonomous vehicles will actually fix this
the main argument i can see in favor of autonomous vehicles is that they don’t get tired, ill, or drunk, but would they outperform on other kinds of situations across a larger uncontrolled ecosystem? is it worth the expense to develop?
the main reason to develop them is to make military capabilities more mature, which i don’t support. the military would love to have unmanned convoys that are guarded by drones.
that way they can have an easier time doing invasions of sovereign countries
yes but what is worth more to the sanfranciscon 400000 mostly non-sanfranciscan hu-man deaths, or 1 outrageous death of a beloved san francisco cat
It is of course such an emotional vs rational argument, so extreme, so ridiculous, what can you do but grab a picket sign and say to ban all cars and combustion engines for the sake of poor kit kat. A very easy sell since combustion engines are already viewed as the devil
Flexible, I get. Safe, affordable and clean? Nothing moves more people more efficiently than subways. Take it from a Parisian who owns a car but never feels the need to use it, I've never felt such freedom.
Cars are noisy, take a lot of space, are crazy expensive, dirty (even electric ones leave tire particles in the air) and are involved in 99% of road incidents. Them being self-driving wouldn't fix any of these issues. Maybe they'd be a little safer? But even that is doubtful.
I understand US transportation is in a dire state right now. This shouldn't be a reason to make it worse, quite the contrary IMHO.
Sorry but cars are the worst form of transportation. Not even a "worst except for all the rest", just straight terrible. The US has finally realized how colossal of a mistake it's made over the past few decades and is starting to fix the problem.
We've grown numb to it, but 40,000 US traffic fatalities is an obvious need.