PT commenter Geof put up a response to this post that’s worthy of bringing forward – mainly because he nails an issue that isn’t getting enough attention: what will happen to our streets if we priorize the needs of autonomous vehicles.
I have said before that I don’t think self-driving cars will work in mixed urban traffic unless roads and rules are changed to keep pedestrians, cyclists, and so forth out of the way. There has already been a proposal that pedestrians should be required to wear beacons to avoid being killed by self-driving cars.
I am certain that if the AIs are actually safe, pedestrians and others (call them “road trolls”, even though I would consider them heroes) will fool them, slowing them down substantially, leading right back to separate ’em, tag ’em, or ban ’em policies aimed at everyone not encased in a tonne of steel.
Woz doesn’t buy the hype either:
‘It may only be one man’s hot take on the issue but Steve is a tech icon and likely someone others will listen to, despite his not being an expert on autonomous systems. . . . the brunt of Wozniak’s ire seemed to be targeted at Tesla’s AV program. “Tesla makes so many mistakes,” he said. “It really convinces me that auto piloting and auto steering car driving itself is not going to happen.”’
I do think that self-driving vehicles will do fine on segregated highways, despite their current habit of accelerating into stopped vehicles. Self-driving BRT might be possible too. I don’t think making trucks and buses more like trains is the revolution people are anticipating.
