Autonomous Vehicles Won't Give Us Any More Free Time, Says Study (dailymail.co.uk)

An anonymous reader writes: People hoping that the driverless cars of the future will give them more free time while travelling may be in for a disappointment. Increased productivity is one of the expected benefits of self-driving cars, but a new study claims that they will have little impact. The study showed that nearly 36 percent of Americans say they would be so apprehensive using a driverless vehicle that they would only watch the road. Meanwhile, UK drivers were even more cautious at 44 per cent. "Currently, in the US, the average occupant of a light-duty vehicle spends about an hour a day traveling -- time that could potentially be put to more productive use," said Michael Sivak, research professor at the University of Michigan Transportation Research Institute. "Indeed, increased productivity is one of the expected benefits of self-driving vehicles."

Comments

what a load of shit

[Anonymous Coward]

What people say they will do in a situation and what people do in a situation rarely have any correlation.

Re:what a load of shit

[chispito]

What people say they will do in a situation and what people do in a situation rarely have any correlation.

Bingo. Study can be summarized as "X percent of people with no experience with new technology have strong opinions researchers inexplicably value."

Re:what a load of shit

[jellomizer]

Autonomous vehicles currently is a new untested technology. So naturally people currently will be more invested to double check for their safety. However as the technology matures and has a long track record then people will be more willing to do other things while the car is driving.

Heck we have people doing stupid stuff in a 80k Tesla car, which isn't fully Autonomous just because it can keep in the lane.

Re:what a load of shit

[barc0001]

Ding ding ding. Plus, what some people will actually do in a given situation *the first few times* vastly differs from what they will do afterward. Examples:

When I first flew in a plane I was glued to the window the whole trip. Now I take aisle seats.

I have a fear of heights and rented an apartment in a high rise on the 11th floor with a small balcony. When I first moved in I didn't even like going out the door onto the balcony because of my fear of heights. The railing looked too low and it didn't "feel" safe. By the time I moved out I would walk out onto the balcony without a second thought and even lean over the edge to look down without concern.

Nearly everyone who has anxiety about self driving cars will go through the same sort of process. What at first terrifies will quickly become boring when nothing bad happens. Then they will start looking around when they get driven, then they will get bored of that and engage in other diversions - watching video, reading, catching up on paperwork, etc.

Plus, even more importantly the statement "Autonomous Vehicles Won't Give Us Any More Free Time" is patently wrong. Once the roads are filled with autonomous cars, even the miniscule percentage of people whose anxiety doesn't get blunted by the boredom of familiarity will still get more time back in their day as the sheer number of automated cars cause traffic flow to be more efficient. I lived in a place once where it was a 45 minute drive downtown without traffic and 2 hours during rush hour. It would be entirely reasonable to expect that trip to be less than 75 minutes during rush hour once automation takes over so that guy gets a straight 1.5 hours of his day back.

Re:what a load of shit

[Verdatum]

"I'm pretty sure if I ever took a trip on an airplane, I'd be far too busy looking out the window making sure we don't fall out of the sky to get any work done!"

Motion Sickness

[rockmuelle]

I get motion sick if I try to read anything (book, map, phone, computer) in a moving car or train. I'll get zero productivity gain from a self driving car. Not sure what percentage of the population has the same issue, but I doubt it's insignificant.

More importantly, what's with the continued obsession with maximizing productivity? How about pitch it as a way for people to have more time to relax and recharge? Self driving car, some good music, a comfy chair, and some good scotch for the win.

-Chris

Re:Motion Sickness

[DahGhostfacedFiddlah]

Motion sickness can be caused by the dissonance between the what you see (fast movement) and what you feel (no rushing wind, your legs aren't doing any work, etc).

Autonomous vehicles could eventually allow us to darken the windows, which could prevent motion sickness.

I expect to be *entertained* not productive

[unfortunateson]

Working while traveling isn't high on my list of priorities. Watching an episode on Netflix, playing a VR racing game (admittedly slower on the highway than on the track), whatever.

And the comfort level will get there. The first generation will only be a little bit better than human reactions. The next version (hopefully a free software upgrade - funded by an auto-manufacturer/insurance alliance) twice as safe, the next version four times as safe, etc.

If it can't just be software upgrades, it's going to be a long, slow adoption: cars get replaced every 2-10 years - but then they get resold, so the average age of cars on the road is over 11 years.
(REF: http://www.usatoday.com/story/...)

Eventually, insurance lobbies will get the government to require autonomous driving: first on certain highways and city centers, then eventually everywhere. Just like seat belts, air bags, rear-view cameras.

I see another issue.

[SuricouRaven]

Your work day shall begin an hour before you arrive at the office, and end an hour after.

"What, you didn't read all your daily meeting notes and emails and answer your voice mail while on the way into the office? You slacker! Now you're going to waste an hour of your paid company time catching up. If this happens again, your future here may not be secure."