Would you buy a driverless car?

[abacucat]

I would. I love the idea. Being able to travel long distances while reading a book for example. Although I would wait a bit for others to buy them and check there are no glitches that need to be sorted first.

we are told that one of the benefits of driverless cars is their ability to communicate with each other and thus act en mass to reduce congestion etc. However, what happens when they encounter a driven car - will they yield to it? What if someone hacks their car to give themselves priority? Will their be a hierarchy, like the Zil lanes in Moscow, so those with deeper pockets will get to their destination quicker? How will they prevent a car being taken over and used as a weapon?

Absolutely l, outside of mass urban areas i think you would have to own one rather then rent one.

I commute 30 minutes each way by car at the moment, so i could do an hours work while commuting to work and back home. So hell yes, more time with family, less time
at work

It wouls be great for elderly, getting them out the house independently, disbaled, people who can't drive etc

I live in a small city and car renting has not taken off here. I can see this idea with driverless cars being a big success in London and large cities. Elsewhere, not so much.

But precisely why hasn't it taken off?

Because car renting at the moment isnt convenient. You have to pick it up, you have to drop it off and you've to drive a new scary vehicle.

With autonomous cars it gets rid of all of this. And i do expect some people to want to own their own car which is fine

However, what happens when they encounter a driven car - will they yield to it?

It will either be illegal to drive on the road, or illegal to use the road without some kind of radar beacon or device to communicate with driverless cars, buses, lorries etc.

Tiscold But companies have to be able to meet demand for commuters. No one wants to lose their job because there was not a car available.
Fine for a second car for leisure.

Will they yield to it?

Depends if it has right of way.

Driverless cars are very much being designed with the assumption that they will have to function on a regular road with driven cars (and trucks, and bikes, and pedestrians, and horses - actually I'm not 100% sure on the horses).

No. I don't like the idea of them, especially having to call one rather than having your own. I like being able to just decide to go out somewhere. I like being able to change my mind part way through a journey. I like being able to stay longer or leave earlier than expected. If the car isn't yours and someone else needs it before or after me, that's going to be difficult.

I don't want my every journey tracked either, or my behaviour inside the car being monitored.

I don't want a car that loads of other people use - I like something being mine.

What about if you want to go off the beaten track somewhere? How will that work if the road hasn't been mapped?

I can see it trapping us more than setting us free tbh

And I don't think it would be profitable to have enough cars to meet commuter demand. Because this would mean a lot of cars only being used twice a day. But people would expect to pay less than if they had their own car.

I live on a single car width country lane. You have to pull into verges & onto gravel driveways to let others by. I read that autonomous cars can't handle this environment, I'm not sure what they would do in it. Also, no kerbs, so poor road definition, especially if there's snow on everything. self-drive cars can't handle blanket snow either, yet (I read).

We used to hire cars when useful, but having our own car has turned out to be jolly useful. We have to get a kid to orthopaedics today (appt made late Monday). Without car, would take many hours using public transport & kid would have to miss school all day. With car, kid shouldn't be out of school more than an hour.

My local city doesn't even have Uber.

I didn't know autonomous cars could not handle country lanes like that. Pretty useless then for anyone who lives and travels in the actual countryside.

No, and I don’t drive due to medical reasons.

If it hits someone who is liable? if you’re only going to summon one then what happens if the person before you was suffering a hangover/drunk and vomits in it etc, people tend to treat others’ property with less respect than their own.

If people are planning to do work on the way into work they won’t be looking where the car is going, so it’s possible your driverless car could kill someone’s child and you’d never know...

The only way driverless would work anyway would be if there were no driven cars on the road.

But IMO they won’t be on the roads in our lifetime.

Sweet Jesus on a trampoline. Just the thought creeps me out. The thought of feeling out of control would totally freak me out.
Can you imagine how terrifying the roads would look full of driverless cars.

Because this would mean a lot of cars only being used twice a day.

I suspect when you are not using it, it will be in use by others. Take the example of a family with two cars, one is used by Adult 1 to drive to work, where it sits in the car park, whilst Adult 2 uses the other car for the school run, going to their work, shopping etc. There are a couple of people on my street who work at the same supermarket, but on different shifts, they both drive there and back.
Multiply this all up and I expect there would be an overall reduction of cars. However, like others, I think there's a long way to go yet before driverless cars are suitable for all, and all cars will need to have sensors etc fitted to enable mixed use.
If they are introduced, I would imagine they would initially be used in large cities, and a blanket 20 mph limit introduced.

I suspect when you are not using it, it will be in use by others. Take the example of a family with two cars, one is used by Adult 1 to drive to work, where it sits in the car park, whilst Adult 2 uses the other car for the school run, going to their work, shopping etc. There are a couple of people on my street who work at the same supermarket, but on different shifts, they both drive there and back.

There are still a lot of people who use a car to commute to from work/school at key times of the day. This is why rush hour is a thing. Some of those cars would be used at other times by other people, but a company could not meet all commuter demand, and not have some cars unused the rest of the time. So commercially I suspect a mixture of owned and rented cars makes most sense.

I imagine that companies would offer incentives for people to travel together at rush hour - it would be relatively easy to compute which colleagues could be picked up en route, and offer a discount for all involved. Obviously you could still get your own separate car if you paid more.

They could also have lots of single-seater cars for commuters; they might not be used much during the day, but at least they'd be easier to park. Presumably they also be cleaned during the day.

I think it's a terrible idea. Sometimes you have to not drive by the book, it comes down to a judgement call and computers can't do that. Also you have all these cars with people who cannot safely take control of them if necessary.

I'd love one. Can't wait.

I also reckon that driverless cars will be much more like "pods" than cars eventually. They'll only really need a seat and maybe a table. Everything will be controlled via a phone app, so no buttons etc. They'll be relatively easy to clean.

Eventually we could have pods that can be joined together, so for rush hour there are loads of individual pods, but when a group of people are traveling, then, say, 4 of them can join up so 4 people can travel together.

Can’t drive. Not sure whether to learn or just wait for driverless. Would love to avoid having to learn to drive.

All computer systems have vulnerabilities. In this thread I have also seen mention of them being on a network. Hackers, computer networks, hundreds of large 2+ tonne metal boxes... nope. I probably sound like some sort of conspiracy nut but I can assure you that I'm not but I would not willingly relinquish my control in this area.

No I think they are dangerous.
From what I’ve read you still need to concentrate on the road and car in case it needs you to take over.
But if you are sitting back chilling out then chances are you are not concentrating as much as you should.

I just like driving myself tbh. Don’t trust robots.

Well, as they are being used more in the US the accident rate it going up.

There's little point to them if you've got to watch the road and react, as you would driving a normal car.

The fatal accident was tragic and easily avoided. I wouldn't have got over it.

They will become safe, but possibly not for some time.

An interesting article about their safety rate.
theconversation.com/are-autonomous-cars-really-safer-than-human-drivers-90202

Basically they are not comparing like for like and can not anticipate dangerous situations. So decent drivers when they see young kids at the side of the road out of hand reach of an adult, will slow down and be careful. Autonomous cars don't. So they don't anticipate risky situations, which is more dangerous.

All computer systems have vulnerabilities

But even mechanical systems have vulnerabilities. Someone could put sugar in your petrol tank. Someone could cut your breaks.