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How Much Will Autonomous Cars Really Help? (theconversation.com)

Posted by Soulskill on from the huge-help-for-skynet dept.

An anonymous reader writes: An opinion piece at The Conversation questions the common belief that autonomous vehicles will easily solve a host of problems with road-based travel, including safety and traffic. "Assuming autonomous vehicles were one meter apart and traveling at 100 kilometers per hour (an aim that has been stated as the ultimate hope) this would mean around 25,000 people per hour could be taken down a freeway lane. While impressive, this movement capacity is only half that of a train. But getting to this capacity means 100% of vehicles are under control of a guidance system, with none under independent control. As soon as one car does this, the whole system would slow down considerably, as is seen on freeways now." The writer argues that a better role for autonomous cars might be to take passengers to and from hubs for public transportation.

2 of 211 comments (clear)

  1. Re:There is more than transportation time by khasim · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I do not really believe that self driving cars will significantly reduce my transportation time.

    I do.

    But I expect them to reduce the number of traffic accident. In a traffic jam, drivers can frustrated and bump in each other. I highly doubt self driving car would do that.

    And that is why I believe that they will improve the commute time. Fewer accidents to avoid. Fewer accidents that the idiots have to slow down and look at. And if the idiots really have to look at the remaining accidents, the car can still do the driving.

  2. Saving time is the key - not safety or efficiency by kaur · · Score: 3, Interesting

    The authors misunderstand the point of autonomous cars.
    They won't be here for efficiency, safety or speed.
    They will free up the time for the driver.
    Instead of keeping my hands on the wheel, I can work, shave or have sex.
    THIS will be the benefit.

    It also means that the decision to drive or not to drive will be much cheaper. Today, a 30 minute drive will take 30 minutes off from my life. Tomorrow, it won't. I can still do what I want while being driven - which means that I will "drive" much more. The ones who can allow to own / rent robot cars will suddenly start moving around a lot more. This will create more traffic, maybe exponentially so. The green, eco-friendly vision of reduced traffic via autonomous vehicles is all wrong.

    It will also affect urban planning in ways that nobody can yet comprehend nor predict.