northtexasbiker

That's not the government taking manual transmissions away that's the market. Auto manufactures are not going to waste time equipping manual transmissions to sell to a niche market.

bruce19

And, I don't want you swerving your bicycle in front of my car when you are chasing a Strava segment or acting like a racer wannabe. So, I want bicycles outlawed. How silly.When the comments get this foolish I'm out.

Daniel4

Bicycles are a minor inconvenience when compared against bad drivers.

Expedia Road Rage Report:
"Fifty-one percent of Americans report that they loathe sharing the road with bad drivers, more than cyclists, buses, taxis, joggers and walkers combined."


https://www.consumerreports.org/cro/2012/03/survey-reveals-top-gripes-among-drivers/index.htm?userWantsFull=true

You will still have your choice. The Insurance Industry will see which is the riskier choice according to their statistics of fatalities and claims and will apply premiums appropriately.

After Self-Driving Cars are implemented, they'll know that collisions will involve manually controlled vehicles or manual-override.

manapua_man

There's just something very sci-fi about that...

jefnvk

To be fair, your argument is that you don't care that you are arguing for a less safe mode of transport because you don't want some other entity telling you that you cannot drive. TO me, that is just as silly.

A large problem today is exactly that: people have proven themselves to be horrid drivers, but they feel an entitlement to drive. If you want to drive, fine. I want an actual licensing scheme that involves rigorous health and competency exams at every renewal, like pilots or commercial drivers face. As one who actually works in the automotive industry, it is astounding to me the number of deaths we simply accept because we hold this belief that it is every persons natural right to drive. When we get to the point of full autonomy, there is exactly zero reason to allow people who are anything less than perfectly fit to drive themselves, and even at that point, there is a very real case to be made that no one should be driving. There is very little argument that a human is a more competent driver than a machine, and most of the remainder of the legitimate ones involve off road courses.

Nermal

Bravo. Did you intentionally omit the advantages of vehicles that decide where you should be going?

f4rrest

Fixed

FlMTNdude

I want to drive where you live. I will finally be safe on the road.

I-Like-To-Bike

And there is very little evidence, other than speculator driven media PR, and techno day dreams, that so-called self driving cars will result in a safer transportation environment while proving transportation flexibility and utility equal to the current system.

jefnvk

You're right. No one could design a computer that gets tired, drunk or distracted. They won't be equal, they'll be much better than our current system.

Are there going to be corner cases where a human may be better? Sure. Off road is one great example that won't be cracked for a while (and believe me, the military has dumped a LOT of money into solving that). For the overwhelming majority of our transport needs? It is utterly silly to think that humans will remain the superior pilots for long.

unterhausen

the thing about this discussion is that there are obviously problems with human drivers, but people have some glorified idea of how their idea of a self-driving car would be a lot better. The problem is, those are just glorified ideas, not reality. Google says it will be decades, and they have a lot more time and money invested in the idea than anyone. The people with a lot more hubris and less experience will destroy the idea of a self-driving car before that.

My idea of autonomous cars is more like this:

jefnvk

You are aware that numerous OEMs have varying levels of autonomous vehicles on the road right now, and many of the technologies required have been in production vehicles for years in forms of crash avoidance systems, self-park, and hands free highway cruise systems? The University of Michigan is even deploying buses without pedals or steering wheels on public streets this fall: https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/21/na...nts-this-fall/

Level Four autonomy, generally considered to be the level of "set-and-go" in everything but corner cases, will be around with multiple OEMs by early-mid 2020s. I don't expect to go beyond 2030 without autonomy being commonplace. Here is a decent rundown of various OEMs plans: https://venturebeat.com/2017/06/04/s...op-automakers/

As for me, I am looking to find an auto job with a company or test site dealing with autonomous systems. It is coming, and coming quick.