Since I took my driver's license in 1999 I expected to be in the last decade of human driving.
Right now here is the status :
http://www.virtualworldlets.net/Resources/Hosted/Resource.php?Name=SelfDrivingAI2010
We are not there yet .
Why we need less human drivers ? There are thousands of reasons but here are a few
1) Driving is a very error-prone repetitive task ..with deadly consequences. The number of deaths due to car accidents is about 40.000 in US only.
Let's not even mention the wounded and disabled ...
2) Huge ineffectiveness in traffic. My opinion is that AI cars can be able to coordinate better without traffic jams and less damage to
car components.
3) Lost time : I used to do about 2h/day in my car listening to the radio .. now I am spending only 1h 20 biking. Most of the time I was very upset
and angry. Looking for a parking space and walking to work sometimes took 30 minutes.
4) Last but not least : Some people really are unable to drive , they are too old , too drunk or too young. Few of them are unable to bike or walk (the elder) . Some people are
too scared to drive (mostly women .. but I won't generalize) and can't use the car. They are unable to go shopping or to leave their area and are disadvantaged when looking for
better solutions to their problems because the roads are made for cars and the distances are sometimes huge.
Don't get me wrong , I used to be a car lover , I could name every BMW , Audi or VW car made in the last 20 years together with engine characteristics , top speed , 0-100 km/h .. it just seems so .. 20th century right now ..
I used to love driving fast too .. but learned better. Not even the simplest solution of limiting the top speed in cars was applied.
In my country you are supposed to drive with 130 km/h on the highway , 90 km/h on national roads and 50 km/h in residential areas. Too often cars speed sometimes twice as fast on these roads. It's true some people are ticketed but the rest are unharmed. Why can't we at least limit the top speed in vehicles ?
Right now I am a bike commuter (almost year-round) and I am a lot more relaxed . I still drive but only for long distance trips or on holidays. Still I would love to not loose my 4h driving but instead reading a book and still getting there.
I am looking forward to just telling my car : Take me to Paris and get some sleep on the way.
As a side-note .. what happened to the Skycar project ? (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moller_Skycar_M400) guess it never took off.