GPS, sensors, cameras, and wireless technology are available in many cars currently on the market, and are used in lane-departure, crash-avoidance, and navigation systems to make vehicles safer and more convenient for consumers to drive. But they're also the building blocks of autonomous platforms, and when used in concert with car-to-infrastructure communication, they open the door to vehicles that can operate on autopilot--a technology leap that isn't that far off from becoming a reality.
I would love to go out for dinner with my buddies and have a night on the town afterward without having to worry about getting home but I can't help wonder if this is just one more "it could happen" moment in the history of the automotive industry. Consider this
http://www.paleofuture.com/blog/tag/flying-cars
I can explain it to you but I can't understand it for you.
"Any man who thinks he can be happy and prosperous by letting the Government take care of him; better take a closer look at the American Indian." - Henry Ford
Corruptissima re publica plurimae leges; When the Republic is at its most corrupt the laws are most numerous. - Publius Cornelius Tacitus
There is a flying car. Nobody can afford it, but what the heck?
I would hate a self driving car. Cruise control is as close as I ever want to get. One blown fuse could really end your day in a self driver.
BTW, this concept has been tested for years and years. I stayed at a B & B many years ago--maybe ten or more--and two of the other guests were testing a self-driving car, had stopped along the way at the B & B. They had a trunk full of computer, sensor, whatever, that made the car drive itself. Never heard anymore about it, though.
I think that they need to re-think using GPS too since the broadband folk are going to trample the signals and make it useless if they succeed with their current battle.
We have a Tom-Tom and lose GPS all the time when we drive in downtown Denver, you have to think the same problem will happen here.
But since I see so many distracted drivers these days, maybe it is better than nothing.
Interesting idea about avoiding drunk driving charges, reminds me of the cowboys who would let their horses choose the way home after a long night out.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
