pp000830

The day will come that with all the driver so-called aids such as adaptive cruise control, lane departure warning, stability management in conjunction with smart phones and entertainment systems that the typical driver will have little situational awareness.
At that point, a federal government study will show that humans driving cars are less safe than self-driving cars when actually it is a matter of the public's driving skills had degraded over time to the point where unsafe self-driving cars look like a safer alternative.
Automotive technology, that was originally attractive as a symbol and fact of mobility and personal freedom at the beginning of the 20th century will become neither. Just another step in training citizens in becoming subjects.

It all started way back when Lee Iacocca proved you can sell a crapy extremely cheap, and uninspiring car, the Omni/Horizon by putting the first air bag in the US made car selling safety. All the other car manufacturers jumped on the band wagon with DOT urging and off we went in the direction we have today.

I have become acutely aware of this evolution now driving a 993 & my Harly Davidson that have minimal or no driver/rider aids and are used on the same roads as the car drivers with degrading skills. In a vintage 993, it is all about situational awareness and personal responsibility and that seems to be part of the joy of driving where to be safe and enjoy the process one must be in the moment and totally immersed in what one is doing.

BlackSnake99

LuftKopf

I'm ordering my Momo Prototipo "steering wheel shaped" starter button today!

pp000830

What caused the evolution in our society's perspective on safety? Could it be the transition from a Patriarchal society of the first half of the 20th century that valued the "rugged individual" with an emphasis on individual risk taking and personal responsibility for the greater good to a more Matriarchal view? A view where protecting, as in protecting children, in a technology driven collaborative world has become more prominent as the Women's Movement has become a more dominant player in our society and government.

With this rebalancing are we teaching our children to prefer to be subjects of a nanny administrative state as adults rather than citizen individuals with all the responsibilities being a citizen entails, things such as situational awareness in life and all one does, including driving on the public roads?

Tlaloc75

Without getting all philosophical... technology improves, time marches on and there's not much we can do to change that. Self-driving cars will be safer than human-driven cars, there is no doubt about that. For the small percentage of us that truly love to drive, we may bemoan the loss. But for everyone else who just wants to get to work on time and see their family safe and alive, it'll be a net benefit.

All of us have known people who have been seriously injured or killed in a car accident. Sometimes at no fault of their own, sometimes because they did something stupid. Self driving cars will make transportation significantly safer and that's a good thing.

I wouldn't want my airline pilot to fly without automation, even if it would make him a manlier man

I think we are a long way from seeing human-driven cars illegal or anything like that, but maybe eventually that'll happen too. Our grandchildren will just have to take our cars to the track to stretch their legs.

chsu74

Self driving aids are just that; to help you drive. You still need to know how to drive in the event those electronics fail.

People who have no interest in learning how to drive should buy a bus pass.

Tlaloc75

This is true today.

Fully self driving technology is in our future. There will come a time when human driving is no longer necessary or maybe even desirable for most situations.

chsu74

Name anything invented by humans that don't fail.

Tlaloc75

Lol, that's true. But humans fail too and they fail often.

Detoxx

I truly see this happening sooner than later and totally agree. I believe it will come around in 20 years or less due to how quickly advances in autonomous driving are rolling out. These advances seem to be making state governments work at a rapid rate in developing regulations governing autonomous cars. I wonder if my 4yr old son will even need to learn to drive or have the desire to drive even though he loves the 993 at the present time. Some questions that I've been pondering with respect to this, if you have an older car (non-autonomous) will there be retrofit kits, areas that still allow people to actually drive themselves, does a non-autonomous manual car such as my 993 become pretty much worthless at some point in time?

Tlaloc75

I think non-autonomous cars will slowly phase out due to age alone. There will continue to be hobbiest cars but they will make up such a small percentage of the fleet that it won't really matter.

There may be requirements for additional insurance or training to use a non-autonomous car. Within a couple generations it will be like seeing a horse out on the streets. Possible, but unlikely.

jfischet

no matter what the percentage of self-driving vehicles ends up being, axiomatically, they must go through the middle of the bell curve on their way to a majority percentage. meaning they must coexist safely for an extended period of time. and in doing so the technology will improve to a point that it won't be necessary to ban human-driven cars. it's just that the majority of the population will look at human-driven vehicles as a curiosity; just like we do now when we see some dude fly by in a '32 hot rod with no seatbelts, no air bags, no headrests, etc. your grandkids will most likely be able to drive your 993 all they want as long as they're willing to take the trouble to find the gas at the remote station on the edge of town.

pp000830

Do you think there will be a way to hot-wire a self-driving car 50 years from now when big brother sky-nettishly thinks you shouldn't have the privilege?

chsu74

Yes but there is a psychological issue at heart in all of this. How many people are afraid of flying or getting on boats?

Also there is the legal issue. Who will be responsible if the self driving aid fails creates an accident? Manufacturer, dealer or driver?

Lastly, the privacy issue of being tracked everywhere and that information sold to buyers. We hate cell phones that do this today.

I just don't see all this happening/resolved/compromised in 20 years.

goofballdeluxe

By and large, a large amount of Americans in 2017 have proven themselves incapable of taking on the responsibility of operating a motor vehicle. Many would rather be texting etc. Automated cars solve that problem.

As others have said, true enthusiasts will bemoan the arrival of automated cars, but they cannot come soon enough, as the 30K preventable deaths per year in the U.S. due to DUI, texting and other human error would drop significantly upon their arrival.