And all this makes the stupid assumption that the smart driver isn't at one point or another a bad driver. Simply educating doesn't solve the problem. Getting rid of the possibility of human error is a much more effective way of making roads safer than insisting that humans not make mistakes.
You'll never get rid of the possibility of human error. Who do you think programs these safety features? Who works on these autonomous or near autonomous cars?
Ridding humanity the reliance of its slow reaction speed in comparison to a fully automated fleet that of vehicles that is completely synced together is ridding the possibility of human error to a vast degree. Having a human design and program the vehicles doesn't mean it's not almost infinitely safer.
Plus, what good is it to have said safety features when they price people out of buying new cars, so they end up getting used "unsafe" cars?
Ive almost wrecked a few times in our van. Has no collision detection warning. Newest car will almost break for you and i get used to it, then find myself rolling up on people by accident. I expect lawsuits to come about when the collision protection shorts out and people start ramming each other
Have you ever worked with anything autonomous on a big scale? Things go wrong, simultaneous inputs corrupt an output. A bad sensor sends a corrupt signal. You're talking about a perfect world that doesn't exist with autonomous drivers or human drivers. You know what else could rid the possibility of human error to a vast degree? A better licensing system and driver education that starts earlier and lasts longer than a year.
What good is it to have safer vehicles on the road that protect the people who purchase them? What good are they when they devalue and become affordable and resold like all other cars? What good is the technology now so that it gets built upon and ultimately improved and its production gets cheaper and the next generation of released vehicles is affordable with the safer features? What's the point of technology in general, right?
Your approach is just stupid. It shits on an ultimate goal and calls it ultimately ineffective because we haven't yet reached the endgoal. No shit there are issues. That's no reason to advocate for current system of humans being the best drivers as superior or will be superior indefinitely. In addition, at no point has anyone said education shouldn't be present, but that it's not the ultimate goal.
So the ultimate goal is for roads with no human drivers? If that's the case why not use public transport? Why not make it more efficient? Why not start the autonomous driving there?
How are autonomous driving and public transport mutually exclusive here? How is this your "gotcha" moment?
OK, and who's going to fix these cars when something goes wrong as they do on used cars? A mechanic can be trained cheaply to change an 02 sensor, hell you can do it yourself if you can get to it? A sensor module? An energy recovery system? You'd need a technician with much much more training to work on it. And that increases cost. Secondary cost that many won't be able to afford.
Why not start with public transport, though. The routes are already set, local governments can take on the cost much better than an individual, more consistent run time is better for R&D. So why are luxury car companies the first ones to jump on this?
I want to get right up on someone's ass when they're going 55 in the fast lane, I don't need my car hitting the brakes for me 100 feet back
Ideally, the design would be that of a universal Uber in both a public and private setting where the vehicles are government or privately owned and you go to the closest bus stop to hop on the automated bus/trolley route, or if you want more individual freedom, you call the self-driving Uber car that takes you exactly where you want. Those costs are incurred by the large corporations, obviously, and its ultimate goal is to eliminate the individual possession of cars for the majority of people. Most people realize how far away that pipe dream is given Americans' desire for individual freedom and a general resistance to change that mankind, in general, is cursed with, but I can't help but think a generational change will begin to take place and in cities especially, you'll begin to see automated transportation take hold.
Some people don't realize that with increased urbanization, the current traffic way of life is doomed to increasing gridlock.
