Evidence self driving cars are safe. Thoughts?

I like the idea of self-dricing cars. As long as it's not a Tesla as those cars are shit

Also self-driving would make the need for a owned car smaller and I want a world of community owned vehicles

@Nysse Trains. What you are describing is trains.

@JaniSIr yeah you're right and I like trains. Problem is trains need tracks and normal roads can take people to more places. So trains but with wheels. Pretty much my dream commute

@Nysse That's just a bus. And the dedicated track is important, that's what makes trains fast, while buses tend to just get stuck in traffic in USA.

That's intentional, haha.

@JaniSIr

Considering we already widely use subscription model for car "ownership", I don't see a big problem to make the last step forward and abolish "ownership" in sake of subscription for a self-driving cab (not necessarily shared, it may be kinda private lease + service fee etc). You just tap the button on your phone and ride. No burdens - all charging, cleaning, service and storage is done by the service provider.

You keep your autonomy and privacy (what you actually need own car for), for the rest there is mastercard. Wanna turn your music loud and do something funny on the backseat - fine, the robot doesn't care. Better than "bus" and "train" altogether.

@JaniSIr okay I don't know about the US but here buses are not stuck in traffic. Maybe the traffic would go smoother there if more people used the bus instead of having a car of their own?

And also apparently some of your trains are slow af for long distance. Which is bonkers to me as the distances in the US are pretty big. But ye trains are goat even though the rails are a bit much for infrastructure inside a smaller city for example

few horrible accidents on the news and people will be conditioned to hate them just like how the news media portrayed nuclear energy as something dangerous when stats shows its not and same reason why people are more afraid of airplanes than driving cars when stats shows again airplanes are safer its just negativity bias at work

Waymos aren't human supervised. It's a taxi type service. So yeah, people taking Waymos are goofing off doing whatever they want. Yet so far, data indicates they are safe.

I would support more and better transit. However, public transit has some fundamental limitations that cars will always have an advantage in for most circumstances. Imagine if you could only start your car at a specific minute on a schedule. Now imagine the schedule isn't even accurate and the time you can actually start your car can be 5 to 10 minutes off. Now imagine the car is parked some number of blocks away and it will have to be some blocks away from your destination. Now imagine you can only drive through specific routes. I could go on more. A good exercise to try out: Take any city you think has good transit and check on Google Maps whether some normal trip takes more or less time. In most cases the car is estimated to take less time.

That said, bullet trains are neat. And people shouldn't need a car to get around most places in their city. That I can agree with.

I also think @LoveYourSmile makes some good points about privacy.

Buses do take up a lot less space per person.

That said, you'll run into this problem with us Americans:

There's a good economic solution to this though that Singapore, London and now New York are doing: congestion pricing. Drivers get to have better traffic and public transit gets increased ridership.

This is a major concern for me as well! I think you put your point beautifully.

I think we should be much more strict with DUIs if they become widely available. After all, we would no longer have to worry that someone can't get around as quickly.

For me personally, it's no-brainer that cars win over classic public transit, for many reasons.

What I find appealing in the concept of self-driving cars is that it can actually merge both concepts into one: just a smooth organized flow of many autonomous small vehicles that are 100% aware of each other, follow rules, park nicely etc. It's like with automatic traffic lights: the thing just works and you don't question it.

And that's exactly why I mentioned "abolishing of car ownership" as a step further - to eliminate anomalies that may ruin that order.

Waymos are a fully functioning service. I drive among them all the time in my city. They're driving in the same bustling streets I am and are also available during rain or fog. The roll out has not gone nation wide yet, so perhaps they are currently better trained for the cities they've been deployed in. But nonetheless the technology will only get better. If it's been well adapted to some cities, I'm sure it will be able to used nationwide then globally at some point with similar safety data around it.

That still leaves a lot of everyday uses where cars will be faster. Say for commutes that are only a 20 minute drive. My point has been that many typical trips are faster by car.

True. That's why I support congestion pricing. :p
There's many appeals to public transit. But there's also many appeals to private car use. So let people decide which to use, I say. While improving public transit, of course. But still, many people will want to use cars.

Nuh-uh, not for me. A ghost driving the car is too scary!


Oh no, not this. I live in a city infested with them and their ridiculous noises! I spent the last 15m trying to find a silly clip I saw about it a couple years ago but the coward deleted it. Now you know how to (lightly) torture me.


I'll drive for you~

Especially because I can't read in a car, I can't even look at my phone. I get motion sickness in about 10 seconds, it's horrible.

Look, it's really quite simple - it's a choice between two evils. I'm not afraid of a technological dystopia, because I trust my government to regulate it with at least some common sense. What I trust far less are the drugged-up teenagers in ShareNow cars swerving into oncoming traffic, or the bearded guys with alien cultural values whose driving licenses, for some reason, we still recognize here.

I'm a good driver, and honestly, I love driving. But I'm consciously willing to give up that precious privilege for the peace of mind of not worrying when my daughter jumps into some random taxi at night.

That's my choice, because I know that all real danger on the road comes from idiots. And in that sense, a robot secretly watching me grope someone or snort coke in the back seat is a secondary concern - let it watch, I don't care. All it takes is once - just once - to see a blinding pair of headlights appear in your lane out of nowhere to understand what you should truly be afraid of.