[LINK] itN: Reckless MPs okay Driverless Cars

[Ivan Trundle]

Turn this one around in its head and there are significant limitations to the concept of ‘driverless’ cars.

For one, we don’t have the road infrastructure to cope (sealed roads alone are nowhere near well enough marked for the concept, forget about non-sealed roads or roads under repair). Secondly, we don’t have the overall connectivity to allow for full autonomous driving, both in cities and out of town, and thirdly, we have constraints over the application of the technology which impede the delivery of the technology (not just being out of range, but things such as vehicles with signage on the back inferring that the speed limit is what it is not, road marking indicating other road rules which are flexible depending on the region and time of day, and other circumstances), and the difficulty in dealing with situations which are not ‘ordinary roads’.

In other words, there are enough variables to make this a nightmare scenario, and not just because of congestion (which in some ways is easier to deal with).


> On 5 Apr 2016, at 2:28 PM, Jim Birch <planetjim at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> David Lochrin  wrote:
> 
>> 
>> Call me over-cautious, but it will be a while before I entrust my nearest
>> & dearest to a driverless car.
> 
> 
> How do you feel about them getting in a car with a human driver?  It's not
> like they are accident proof.  People have all kinds of irrational fears,
> eg, fear of flying (which is actually incredibly safe.)  We are certainly
> hard-wired to find the unfamiliar stressful.  If the numbers says
> driverless cars are significantly safer, I'm going with that.  There may be
> some new and different problems but overall it's a benefit.  However, it
> looks like it might be going to take a while to convince everyone.
> 
> ----
> 
> Congestion is a complex issue.  I'm not expecting modern cities to return
> to a state of pastoral calm, I was just saying that driverless cars have
> advantages in terms of traffic throughput for a number of reasons, eg, they
> don't have egos.  The fact that there will always be death and disease does
> not make improving the health system a crazy idea.
> 
> Jim
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