Google has announced that for months that they have been testing driverless cars on the streets and freeways of California. I for one am happy at the prospect of driverless cars. No, they will not be perfect, but I have ridden with and been hit by too many humans to know what sort of drivers most of them are!
There are legal hurdles to clear, but I suspect big business will push for this innovation when it become practical. Insurance companies will love them. It will give them a reason to jack up your rates if you insist on driving yourself.
Perfected this will save lives, time, and money.
Considering that in 2005 there were 6,400,000 auto accidents, results in 2.9 million injuries, 42,000 deaths, and 230 Billion doillars in damages I’d say that there are too many varibales in the problem. That is too many variable to be safely trust to flawed lazy and incompetent judgement.
Apparently the google driverless car has already passed 140,000 freeway and street miles with a single accident. (it was rear-ended by a human driven auto.)
The technical problems can be solved. This is not an area that will remain solely in the human domain in the near future.
I have my doubts about long term reliability. The amount of variables involved in just driving across town is astonishing, then throw in other drivers (whew!). I would just have to say “show me”.
And increase productive time!! If I wasn’t driving, I could use that time for other things, like reading or grading papers, or watching movies, etc.