Would you want a self driving car?

[Tonitrus]

It would far more efficient if all restaurants were Taco Bell.

[DGuller]

The simple reason why we need seat belt laws is that too many people are just too dumb to use them voluntarily.  Not because they're making a rational cost/benefit decision, they're just too dumb or too macho to do it.  And this macho behavior can be contagious, and make other people now hesitant to appear weak.

At that point you can either choose to stick religiously with the ideology, even though it clearly results in suboptimal outcomes, or make a pragmatic policy choice that saves thousands of lives each year.

I think most people use their seatbelts because it makes sense to, not because it's against the law not to.  And the idea that "people are too stupid to do it voluntarily" is the worst reason to pass legislation regulating private, individual behavior.

As I said, you can stick to ideology, or you can stick to what saves lives.  In this case, can't do both.

[jimmy olsen]

I would at least like to have the option.

[derspiess]

I love how you guys assume a self-driving car will be glitch-free, and immune to viruses or hacks.

[Berkut]

I love how you guys assume a self-driving car will be glitch-free, and immune to viruses or hacks.

I love how you assume that "those guys" assume things that they have not assumed.

[Habbaku]

I love how you guys assume a self-driving car will be glitch-free, and immune to viruses or hacks.

Link?

[derspiess]

Your support for it is enough.

[Habbaku]

Retraction accepted.

[Tonitrus]

Being able to control your car for fun drives/off-roading is essential.

There is also great utility in being able to sit back and relax while your car self-drives that 3-hour Thanksgiving trip to grandma's.

Car layouts will have to change considerably, though. I imagine that 3-hour trip still being pretty tedious if you're stuck in the current, standard car seating position.  Cars will have to become bigger to allow for captain's chairs and moving-about space (and this will extend that seatbelt/safety debate, no doubt).

[Iormlund]

I love how you guys assume a self-driving car will be glitch-free, and immune to viruses or hacks.

Cars are already vulnerable to glitches and hacks. Self-driving or not, pretty much everything that happens in a car goes through a computer.

[Josquius]

No.
If I need to commute by car it is a sign I have failed in life.

[Monoriu]

Cars controlled by humans kill, what, hundreds of thousands of people every year on a worldwide basis?  I think self-driving cars won't be perfect, but they should be much better than humans in avoiding accidents.

[Tamas]

Your car driving you home when you are drunk. Enough said.

I love driving, it actually relaxes me, but I am also not an insecure male, so I wouldn't feel like my dick gets chopped off if I have a software as my chauffeur.

[Richard Hakluyt]

Cars controlled by humans kill, what, hundreds of thousands of people every year on a worldwide basis?  I think self-driving cars won't be perfect, but they should be much better than humans in avoiding accidents.

1.3 million per year.

http://asirt.org/Initiatives/Informing-Road-Users/Road-Safety-Facts/Road-Crash-Statistics

[Richard Hakluyt]

Re the efficiency savings. On longer trips cars could form virtual trains and drive very close to each other in the slipstream of the car in front, this would greatly increase fuel efficiency. It would also increase the carrying capacity of the road..............fewer traffic jams and less new roadbuilding required.