Your Sunday Morning Jet Noise
4 hours ago
Tuesday, November 4, 2014
The end of the private car
Self driving cars will become common in 10 – 20 years. The technology pretty much works right now. When self driving cars are the norm, it will be the end of car culture. It will be the end of the private car.
Computer driven cars will be safe. Insurance companies will take notice. Before long they will charge a premium for those who drive their own vehicles. There will be a push to outlaw human piloted cars from most places.
By the time that happens, it will be stupid to buy your own car. A self driving car will be as much fun as public transportation, which is to say, none at all. At that point, might as well ride public transportation. It's not fun, but it's cheaper than maintaining a car.
This might seem like science fiction, but technology moves quickly. People will realize that it's inefficient to keep a personal car in your driveway. Just call one up when you need one. With more people sharing cars, there will be a lot less of them on the road. The need for more and wider roads will also disappear.
Of course, this will all work best in dense urban areas. It will get even more difficult to live out in the country. People will naturally gravitate to the city. Hmmmmm, now the self driving car looks like an instrument of social planning.
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My generation has had the best of the world and I'm lucky to be able to say that...
ReplyDeleteIndeed you are. Looks like a rough patch ahead. Should be interesting.
DeleteIt's all part of the plan. Control, control, control.
ReplyDeleteSome of us have other plans.
DeleteIcy road.
ReplyDeleteKid on a sled.
Do we really want a computer making that decision, whether to avoid the kid and risk running off the road?
They'll just outlaw kids on sleds.
Deleteself driving autos using alcohol fuel in an accident
ReplyDeletecan an auto be charged with drunk driving?
and with more automation, who needs silly useless humans...?
Wildflower
Who's at fault? The car builder? The programmer? The AI? The owner who might not even be anywhere near the car at the time?
DeleteA few years a back I had a dream that I was going to meet my brother at the train station in Berlin, and it was like 30 years in the future. It was weird, cause I remember walking to the station, and then seeing him as a man in his 50's with only some gray hair on the sides. Kinda freaky, but could come to pass. Someday we might see bicycles become more the norm for travel (happening in big cities all the time, while better buses and trains can handle the other travel. This is more useful in urban settings though
ReplyDeleteYou might have gotten a glimpse in the future.
DeleteCan you say "Christine'.....?
ReplyDeleteChristine . . . huh, I can. Creepy thought, isn't it?
DeleteLooks like they only alternative for the future will to be living on a few acres, grow and raise your own food and only own a bicycle! :-)
ReplyDeleteWe'd be lucky to have such a good outcome.
DeleteBut that would be so freaky. I can already think that terrorist groups would create a virus that will control the cars and bump them into each other. o_O Would you mind if we follow each other?
ReplyDeleteI think I'll walk.
DeleteMy world view refuses to accept society will be around long enuff for such a contraption to be seen other than in the movies. I do like my bike, but something with an engine that I drive is in my near future, along with a boat.
ReplyDeleteI've given up on guessing how and when it'll will all fall down. Who's to say we won't have a dystopian future with driverless cars and people living like serfs?
Delete