Would you want a self driving car?

[lustindarkness]

No thank you. Maybe in the future if every car on the road was self driven.

Edit: Seedy had the same idea as me, but I don't want to be launched into orbit, unless I can pilot my own rocket.

[Berkut]

Owning a car right now is already an incredibly ineffecient use of the resource that is a car. The vast majority of the time, it is just sitting there, not transporting anyone.

[Eddie Teach]

Sure, but taxis require constant maintenance.

[Savonarola]

Sav, I wouldn't be so sure that self driving cars won't impact trains.

They could significantly reduce the demand for passenger rail travel, as uber like bus/van services could compete effectively.

They could also make trucking more efficient, as drivers are no longer needed.

Self driving cars could impact the demand for trains; that wasn't my point.  I meant that self driving trains (on public tracks) aren't going to be allowed in the United States due to restrictions by the FRA.  (Most likely they won't be allowed in Canada either since their safety rules are even more restrictive than ours.)

[Maladict]

It might make travelling by car more appealing.
I'll probably still prefer a train, though.

[Admiral Yi]

I don't see how robot trains are inherently more dangerous than human operated ones, and I don't see how a robot train accident is worse from a PR pov than a human error accident.

I can however see the Amtrak union fighting it tooth and nail.

[Grinning_Colossus]

When I retire, I want to own and live in a self-driving RV.

[Savonarola]

I don't see how robot trains are inherently more dangerous than human operated ones,

Robo-trains run on closed track right now.  They're probably not more inherently dangerous than a human operated one; but rail is an incredibly safety-conscious industry, any innovation must go through a very long series of tests before it can be approved to run on open track.

and I don't see how a robot train accident is worse from a PR pov than a human error accident.

In the long run it probably isn't.  The first several crashes involving robo-trains will make prominent mention of the technology.

I can however see the Amtrak union fighting it tooth and nail.

AMTRAK is small potatoes (though they make the news most often); it's the class one freight carriers and their unions that will drive the future of rail.

[Admiral Yi]

Why do you capitalize Amtrak?  Is it an acronym?

[Savonarola]

Why do you capitalize Amtrak?  Is it an acronym?

Sorry, deformazione professionale, they always capitalize it in their e-mails.

[Admiral Yi]

Sorry, deformazione professionale, they always capitalize it in their corresponence.

It doesn't show in your pictures. 

[Eddie Teach]

When I retire, I want to own and live in a self-driving RV.

That would be nicer if the toilets also cleaned themselves.

[Iormlund]

Being driven by a bot is a small price to pay to have everyone else taken off the wheel.

[DGuller]

Basically no one will own a car when self driving cars arrive.

What is the main incremental expense for a taxi? It is the driver's time. That goes away in a self driving car. Cabs will become extremely cheap. People will just take uber everywhere.

Car ownership is extremely inefficient.  The car spends most of the time just sitting there parked and rotting.  It's necessary when it needs to be near a driver, but otherwise it's an idiotic state of things.

[The Brain]

Being driven by a bot is a small price to pay to have everyone else taken off the wheel.

Consider that everyone's bot will become a Nazi after 15 minutes.