Lyft co-founder says human drivers to be illegal in America

[R.I.D.E.]

When ALL vehicles on the road are automated.
In theory they will interconnect and eliminate accident, injury and death.

At what point and under what authority are the remaining millions of NON automated vehicles declared illegal and obsolete and who compensates those owners for the value of their assets.

I checked the value of a used 2011 Nissan Leaf recently. With 43k miles, it's worth $5500. Basically $5k annual depreciation. Not many can afford that kind of cost per mile, regardless of the fuel source.

Not worth the replacement battery cost, so figure worth scrap.

One glitch away from automated mass murder.

Predictions of an automated traffic system, with the replacement of every one of the 600 million vehicles on a planetary scale, with flawless interfacing of every one of those 600 million vehicles.

50-100 years at a cost approaching the current worldwide accumulated debt.

Who wants to voulenteer to be the last casualty in the next war?

[R.I.D.E.]

Automated systems involving mass transit of large numbers of people have multiple redundancies to prevent a simple failed connection from becoming something that becomes a mass casualty event.

As a transitional system, I doubt it will ever be implemented. I DO believe mass transit may replace the current infrastructure with various levels of movement based on proximity. The current vehicle designs use far too much materials and other resources for their purpose and many better alternatives exist.

[ChewChewTrain]

Originally Posted by OliverGT

I would agree that autonomous cars are on their way, but it does raise an ethical question.

At the moment people are killed every day by bad drivers, there is no doubt that people will also be killed by autonomous drivers, we have already had the Tesla death for example.


So, how many deaths caused by machines driving cars is acceptable?


I'll give you my answer, if there are measurably less deaths being caused by machines driving cars than humans driving cars then that is acceptable to me.

Oliver.

Oliver, in war, they call fewer deaths "acceptable losses".

[Draigflag]

This will happen, maybe quicker than expected, maybe longer, regardless of anyone's opinions, incredible changes are happening. I mean we didn't think someone racist who threatened to ban 1,600,000,000 people for no apparent reason other than their religious beliefs could ever be supported by a Nation and elected President, but hey, it's a strange World sometimes.

[ChewChewTrain]

Originally Posted by cuts_off_prius

I get the benefits of self-driving cars and would love to see them used for the elderly, the handicapped and such, but I always find it funny when they assume ALL human drivers will simply disappear just like that without a fight. Very autocratic, these people pushing self-driving cars are.

You're right. Human drivers won't disappear overnight. Elon Musk says from the introduction of self-driving cars it'll take about 20 years to shakeout all the legacy, human controlled cars.

The new battle cry is "You can have my human controlled car when you can pry it from my cold dead hands." That's assuming you can get to my body with the Jaws of Life after a major car accident.

[ChewChewTrain]

Originally Posted by Draigflag

Computers will always be safer than humans, they can make thousands of decisions in a second, have superior reaction times and let's not forget the lidar systems they use can see 360 degrees in every direction with no blind spots, unlike a human than can only see about 180 and who's view is obstructed by large parts of the car. Computers don't need medication, they don't get hangovers or get tired, they don't sneeze and they don't get distracted by noisy children. They also don't get road rage. Tesla has already proven how safe autopilot is with only 2 or 3 fatalities in hundreds of millions of miles.

In the event of a detected mathematically unavoidable collision, I predict self-driving cars will deploy EXTERNAL airbags to provide an additional energy absorbing cushion. Perhaps, in some cases, undercarriage airbags forceful enough to leap your car high enough to allow a colliding car to pass beneath you.

[ChewChewTrain]

Originally Posted by Draigflag

And of the 55,147 incidents, 14,306 deaths, and 29,367 injuries in the US this year, think of all that money spent on funerals, life long medical treatment, medication etc etc. Murder is a very profitable business

Yep. You're right, Paul. The ripple effect of self-driving cars will affect MANY industries; car body repair, taxi/truck driving jobs, medical care, funeral services, and many more.

Interesting time to be alive. When horses were about to be displaced by cars the internet forums at that time were likely talking about the same thing.

[ChewChewTrain]

Originally Posted by Draigflag

...ask yourself about the quality of driving you saw on the road last time you drove, the mistakes you saw, and lets face it, it's hard to make a journey without seeing something stupid, were down to driver error/stupidity.

Paul, that was a nice, veiled confession. Hope you feel better now.

[ChewChewTrain]

Originally Posted by Draigflag

This will happen, maybe quicker than expected, maybe longer, regardless of anyone's opinions, incredible changes are happening. I mean we didn't think someone racist who threatened to ban 1,600,000,000 people for no apparent reason other than their religious beliefs could ever be supported by a Nation and elected President, but hey, it's a strange World sometimes.

I'm NOT racist. I hate everybody equally!

[R.I.D.E.]

Elon Musk is glad to sell you a car. Just fork over 100 grand and accept 10 grand a year in depreciation, if you're lucky.