California 1st to Allow Driverless Cars

[keyplyr]

Completely driverless cars could hit California roads as early as next June, if not sooner

[washingtonpost.com...]

The California Department of Motor Vehicles just proposed a revised set of regulations that will allow self-driving cars to operate without a driver behind the wheel.

On the federal level, the House of Representatives in September unanimously approved the Self Drive Act, which would allow automakers to deploy 25,000 self-driving cars in the first year, a number that would rise to 100,000 over a three-year time span

[businessinsider.com...]

[tangor]

The beginning of the end approaches. :)

The future is control of all transportation (hopefully a few decades from now!) Wonder how many will be off the grid when that happens?

One of those beware what you ask for you just might get it kind of things. When autonomous cars take over transportation who will have private ownership and how can gubermints tax all that lost private property revenue? Labor unions will scream foul. A zillion jobs lost by inches then miles. A new future coming soon. Sadly, it won't be the Jetson's version of the family flitter.

[engine]

You're correct, tangor, but it's up to the gubermints, as you put it, to work that out. You can be sure they will be looking at where tax income is going to come from in the light of these developments.

There's no doubt, it's going to be a challenging time to make it work for society.

When this first significant roll out reaches California it'll be a real-world test. Hopefully, it won't be just be yet another adding to the already busy roads.

[keyplyr]

Totally disagree. I see nothing that would indicate a Gov't take-over of private transportation. Sorry, that smells of conspiracy theory.

[edited by: lawman at 10:51 pm (utc) on Oct 12, 2017]

[LifeinAsia]

You can be sure they will be looking at where tax income is going to come from in the light of these developments.

Yup- raise taxes on drivered cars to force people to go driverless (and optionally make drivered cars illegal to operate- call it a "safety" issue). Then, once they suddenly realize all the revenue from those taxes has dried up (since no one is driving any more), quickly raise the taxes on driverless cars to make up for it. At least that's the way we do things here in California.

When this first significant roll out reaches California it'll be a real-world test.

Using "California" and "real-world" in the same sentence- now THAT's funny! (Or would be if it weren't so sad...)

[RhinoFish]

Transportation will become easier and cheaper for everyone (which includes a lot of folk). Yes, some pockets of activity will be negatively impacted - change always does that. But overall, increased prosperity will spread to everyone in far greater amounts, than the suffering in certain corners.

[lucy24]

It didn't take long to figure out they were asking the wrong question at the beginning. It isn’t “How can the human test pilot safely override the automation?” Instead, it’s “How can we prevent passengers from taking control of the vehicle?”

Wide range of futures, here. Envision a world in which the very term “driverless vehicle” is as comically old-fashioned as “horseless carriage”. Envision a US in which the solution to great numbers of driving-license applicants failing some aspect of the road test is not simply to eliminate that part of the test--because you can no longer say that driving is a necessity of adult life. Car, yes. Driving, no. What happens to state laws that currently allow people as young as 14 to get driving licenses under restricted circumstances? (Exactly how restricted depends on the state.)

How old will the passengers have to be? Old enough to drive? Old enough to babysit? (Not explicitly codified in the US.)

But gosh, those little cars sure are cute aren't they.

[lawman]

Endangered species:
Municipalities whose existence depends upon traffic fines
Speed traps
DUI/DWI lawyers
Traffic court
Personal injury lawyers
Traffic enforcement units of police departments
Road rage
Gasoline stations
The thrill of driving around in a car with loud pipes and way too much horsepower

[keyplyr]

Endangered species:
The thrill of driving around in a car with loud pipes and way too much horsepower

nah

[engine]

Endangered species:

Truck and bus drivers.
Train drivers.

Tax is one of the challenges I see. In simple terms: If you have a job you pay tax, and if you're a cab driver that loses their job because of automation, the cab driver isn't paying tax. That results in less income to the state, and therefore, less for social welfare. The cab driver has less income so they spend less, which results in less income for the state and social welfare.

nah

Agreed - that won't change for quite a while yet for those that enjoy it. :)

[lucy24]

which results in less income for the state

Oh, great. Another excuse for California to claim they simply can’t afford to rank better than 48th in per-capita spending on {important function of your choice}.

[selfmastery]

Just thinking about all the deviant hacker groups ready to exploit software bugs, high profile assassination attempts, car mysteriously drives off a cliff, into a crowd etc. A brave new world!

[keyplyr]

Hi selfmastery and welcome to WebmasterWorld [webmasterworld.com]

Yes, a frightful thought.

[iamlost]

The potentially dystopian future is all too obvious, as somewhat commented above. On the other hand I rather like the thought of inputting shopping list(s) and sending cute little rover (a brand is reborn!) to fetch.

Of course, around here the deer, elk, moose, and bison might find them much more enjoyable to tangle with, less crumple and more banked shot or 'fore'!

[LifeinAsia]

The thrill of driving around in a car with loud pipes and way too much horsepower

Just because a person isn't driving doesn't mean this can't happen. I can see that many people would be willing to pay for a software "upgrade" that would handle this. And imagine the fun of hacking that upgrade into a lower end model that barely has enough horsepower to move the car itself (let alone any passengers).

[lucy24]

imagine the fun of hacking that upgrade into a lower end model that barely has enough horsepower to move the car itself

I could see that as a future generation's class marker. If you currently drive a car whose rims cost more than the blue-book value of the vehicle, and the sound system cost more than both combined, your son will have a car whose CPU is primarily devoted to making the appropriate loud noises.

[lawman]

As long as it sounds like this. And yes it was making HP all the way to 7200 rpm.

[youtu.be...]

[lucy24]

Goodness. I half expected it to become airborne at one point.

[ken_b]

Local news here (Metro Minneapolis, MN) today was about a self driving shuttle bus test.

It stalled and stopped when it couldn't tell what very light snow flurries were.

[Shepherd]

It stalled and stopped when it couldn't tell what very light snow flurries were.

We saw that very same thing here in Ohio today from several thousand human drivers...