Five Big Ideas About Self Driving Cars

I have learned five important things about driverless cars since I published a blog post entitled “Cops may feel biggest impact from driverless car revolution.

1) Self driving cars get into accidents!  The head of Google’s self driving car program states here that the Google program has been in 11 minor accidents.  The reason why self driving cars get into accidents is clearly articulated by Holman Jenkins in his Wall Street Journal column. He says “Google cars drive like your grandmother.”  Google cars follow all rules of the road perfectly.  However, most drivers don’t.  For most experienced drivers, seeing a traffic light flip from green to yellow means speed up to get through the intersection.  For a Google car it means stop.  Google cars are programmed to wait 1.5 seconds once a traffic light turns green before going.  Where I live, that is a disaster waiting to happen, especially during rush hour, when all drivers take their foot off the brake the moment a red light turns green.

2) Sitting in a self driving car will make some people queasy!  The University of Michigan’s Transportation Research Institute did a survey and found between 6% and 12% of all people in self driving cars are expected to experience moderate or severe motion sickness at some time.  Being car sick is not an experience unique to self driving vehicles.  It is possible to become car sick even in the most luxurious top of the line vehicle available today.  Typically only passengers, not drivers become car or motion sick.  Since every one is a passenger in a self driving car the incidence of car or motion sickness will increase as self driving cars become more common.

3) Self driving cars might make us less social.  Dan Fink, a lieutenant with the San Rafael,  California Police Department wrote a very interesting piece.  In his article he points out there is no need for drivers’ licenses since no one is driving.  This will enable children to summon a car to get to and from school.  While few of us enjoy dragging our children to school or extracurricular activities, shipping them off in a driverless car means less time for socialization within the family.  Having cheap self driving cars means fewer school bus rides for children with their peers, resulting in people spending more time alone.

4) Bicyclists are likely the group most at risk when self driving cars become widespread.  National Tyre and Autocare, a large English chain of shops doing tire and car repair, created a wonderful, easy-to-read website that explains the technology behind self driving cars.  The 8th page talks about when “a cyclist gestures that he intends to make a manoeuvre, the driverless car interprets it correctly and slows down to allow” the turn.  While this sounds great, I rarely use hand signals while pedaling my bicycle and rarely see other cyclists use hand signals.  The roads where I live are in such poor shape that taking your hands off the handlebars to signal is more dangerous than not signaling.  Expecting cyclists to start using hand signals is not something that will happen in much of the world.

5) Self driving cars will boost fleet MPG, but likely will not reduce total gasoline consumption.  Modern cars have many components whose sole job is to reduce the extent of injuries in a crash.  Bumpers, air bags, seat belts, roll bars, and occupant cages all add extra weight to a car, but help prevent occupants from being hurt.  The need for many of these items will disappear as travel become safer due to self-driving cars.  Airplanes for example, have seat belts for each passenger, but no air bags since few airlines crash.  Reducing or eliminating items which reduce injuries is a simple way to make cars lighter and cheaper.  The lighter the car, the higher the miles per gallon (MPG).  While increases in MPG reduces gasoline consumption, self driving cars will likely travel more miles, negating the boost in fuel efficiency.  There are many people who currently avoid driving during some or all of each day.  Self driving cars will cause some of these people to use their cars more often  For example, many elderly people avoid driving at night because they have trouble seeing.  Self driving cars will enable them to travel at night.  Some people avoid driving because parking is difficult or the distance is too long.  Self driving cars will eliminate these issue, increasing the miles traveled and boosting demand for gasoline.

Overall, self driving cars will have a huge impact on our lives.  I cannot wait to try one out.

7 thoughts on “Five Big Ideas About Self Driving Cars

  1. Still, while some levels of automation are already in existing cars, completely driverless cars — with no steering wheels or brakes for human drivers.

  2. The biggest change will be the 5 year olds who drive themselves to the toy store and back. Even the drunk dad on father’s day will find his darling returned home before his baby bakes in the back seat. Amazing!

  3. Big idea #5 is a non-starter because by the time cars go driverless all cars will already be electric.

  4. Self driving cars are a very interesting concept. Many of the issues brought up have some merit but I have no doubt that these challenges will resolve itself in time, once self driving cars become frequently used.

  5. I was so excited and all positive about self driving cars but I recently came across an article which forced me to really think about the effects that we’re going to have as a result of self driving cars on the road.
    I never thought about it this way. I am a driving instructor and I can tell you that there are lots of people who don’t drive because either they are afraid of driving or they just don’t have the time to learn it.
    But if and when we will have access to self driving cars, it will skyrocket the amount of cars on the road because lazy and rich kids will most likely misuse this technology as they do with everything else.

    Hope government has some plans regarding this issue.

  6. Hi Admin,

    Just loved your information you have shared about self-drive car it seems very useful.If you want a safe driving in night it is good to tail. If you are driving in night and have another vehicle moving in the same direction, with a similar speed, then tailing it with some safe distance is very safe. If there are any obstacles such as speed breakers or traffic which is coming from the front will be intercepted by that vehicle.

    Thanks,
    Myles Cars

  7. Just short any url and Earn Money

    Minimum Payout: $3
    Payment Frequency: Daily
    Payment Methods: PayPal, WebMoney, Payeer, AirTm, PaySera, Perfect Money, Paytm, GooglePay, UPI and Bank Transfer

    Register here : https://bit.ly/3oXON4K

Comments are closed.