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      07-15-2016, 03:56 PM   #6
PINeely
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Quote:
Originally Posted by David70 View Post
Only way this works is when really close 100% of the cars have it, considering not one has it now, the average car is about 10 years old, this is way in the future. Then the question of it really being a benefit to ban the 3% becomes questionable when virtually no one wants to drive. Then we have never banned a car as long as it met the requirements when it was built.

My father in law and I still take out his Model T's, we are welcome to drive them up to the speed limit (reality is to their top speed), they have no seat belts, horrible brakes, horrible tires, no air bags, no crash protection, no traction control, etc. If someone pulls in front of us we will hit them and the odds of being killed are massively greater than with a current car, and the modern car would go around the car or stop. The safest thing for us and the people around us would be to ban these cars but it has never even been considered. If we run into someone because we can't get around them or stop but we weren't drunk, driving too fast, etc. we might get a ticket but can probably take out a different Model T tomorrow.
I feel like this is a matter of two eras. Before self-driving technology there was always a driver in the car, and therefore room for driver error. I think this makes driving older cars and accidents in older cars a bit more understandable/explainable to most people. If two cars collide right now at least one of the vehicles was driving improperly. The Model T example assumes that the Model T and the other cars on the road have human drivers. Eventually people will point and say "that other car wouldn't have pulled out in front if it were autonomous." With the advent of self-driving technology there should be NO error (in theory). So if we ever get to the point where cars can reliably drive themselves 99.99999% of the time, but your average driver can only drive safely 95% of the time, people will try to close that gap.

You raise an excellent point with older cars. This is a LONG way down the road, mostly due to older cars hanging around. You can't just ban the vehicles we all currently have and then insist that everyone buy an autonomous vehicle. Most people would go broke overnight either because they couldn't afford the switch or could no longer get to work.

Last edited by PINeely; 07-15-2016 at 04:01 PM..
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