"cazzyodo" (cazzyodo)
05/29/2014 at 11:41 • Filed to: Autonomous Vehicle
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"cazzyodo" (cazzyodo)
05/29/2014 at 11:41 • Filed to: Autonomous Vehicle | 1
| 5 |
Update: To be clear, this conversation was based on a consumer having to CHOOSE between autonomy or not through a single vehicle. Owning two cars did not come as an option.
Kind of rambling...be prepared.
Look at it. Adorable, isn't it? Can you just picture how cute society would be with a bunch of these little things zipping passengers around? Need to go to work...whoosh! Texting and driving finally mix! Yay Facebook! I can practice 2048!
I had a conversation earlier this year with a friend who has a 50 mile round trip commute for work and, depending upon traffic, could spend over 3 hours in his car each day. He said he was all for self-driving cars because the traffic is mind-numbing and miserable.
When the traffic map looks like this
I can understand where he is coming from. But I just can't fathom not having control of the car and this has nothing to do with being a control freak or accountability.
My main issue is when he would NOT be sitting in traffic. I'm sure most of us here love to drive (I say most because there will be someone telling us how much money their mother makes by sitting in front of her computer...we don't know where they stand on driving).
I asked him how he felt about not being able to go out for a drive just because. Accelerating, braking, turning in. He wasn't overly concerned.
I asked him if he could live with not having access to a genuinely fun car to drive, whether it was my ST or his eventual G37 coupe...one that is appreciated by someone who doesn't just get a Toyota or Honda because their parents did. He paused.
I revisited the issue later in the week when we were planning on going to the Boston Auto Show.
He was debating between what transmission to look into and was leaning towards an automatic because of the traffic condition, which is understandable. He may not be knowledgeable about how cars run (full disclosure, I'm a noob as well) but he's an engineer at heart and used to doodle auto designs in his school notebooks. I constantly drop the manual option into our conversations and I think he's seriously considering it.
But what does the second part of my story have to do with self-driving cars?
"They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
I thought of this quote and although it is not 100% applicable (or even 50%) it made me think. Obviously driving isn't necessarily an "essential liberty" but it is a liberty. People look at autonomous vehicles, from what I've seen, with a narrow scope of traffic and removing the monotony of a task. It makes sense...that's what machines were created to do (remove monotony of a task from human hands). If autonomous vehicles come to full fruition (which they will) then we will have something like a privately held public transportation system.
Trains shuttle multiple people from one location to another so passengers just have to get on and off. That is what an autonomous vehicle will do but on a smaller scale.
I'll leave you with one final image and thank you for tolerating this rabble...if I had time to organize my thoughts and make a better piece I would.
R Saldana [|Oo|======|oO|] - BTC/ETH/LTC Prophet
> cazzyodo
05/29/2014 at 11:43 |
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FREAKING NAIL ON THE HEAD MOMENT
Jayhawk Jake
> cazzyodo
05/29/2014 at 12:21 |
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I just don't understand the line of logic.
Self driving cars = no regular cars
What? No it doesn't. It doesn't have to, and there's no way it will. Why would an automaker allow legislation outlawing normal cars to pass?
It's the same sort of shit that hurts a million other industries: people make assumptions and then outlaw everything to stop one thing. A good example is drones: there's a huge industry waiting to be born, but people immediately jump to the conclusion that if drones are legal people will be watching them in their backyard. That's dumb logic, you can make legislation specifically about surveillance rather than just outlawing drones.
We can make legislation pertaining to self driving cars themselves to allow human driven cars to coexist with them. Instead of freaking out about it and trying to stop driverless cars, support the technology but make it clear to lawmakers that you still want to drive.
William Byrd
> cazzyodo
05/29/2014 at 12:22 |
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Sign me up for one of those pods. Writing an article on it right now, although it's more of a counterpoint to the whole "welp, there goes the enthusiast community" which I disagree with.
I love driving, I hate commuting. DC traffic is terrible, we have crappy roads and crappier drivers. So if I have to crawl into my Googlepod in the morning and go back to sleep while I am shuttled to my office, great. When I wake up, I'll plan a track day and order up some 3-D printer designs to make my own aftermarket parts. Cool.
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cazzyodo
> Jayhawk Jake
05/29/2014 at 13:15 |
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I never said when or if they will completely replace cars, just the general conversation of the subject matter. The thing being that most people can't afford two vehicles so it would likely be a decision of exclusivity to one method of transportation.
The other thing would be one of the fears voiced in the AOTD being mandatory autonomous cars. So, yeah, that's a thing others have brought up.
I never said to stop driverless cars or anything regarding legislation. It was a recap of a conversation I was reminded of and the CHOICE between autonomous vehicles and driving oneself on the daily.
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cazzyodo
> William Byrd
05/29/2014 at 13:16 |
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There are definitely reasons for and against, no doubt. I was saying to someone else that this was a general conversation I had in which someone has to CHOOSE between autonomy or not. There's more to consider than just commuting in that case.