[PopeRigby]

I think self driving cars are a ridiculous solution to a problem we created and doesn't need to exist. The US building out the country for cars wasn't a good way to do transportation. If we just had trains going from city to city and subways in the cities, we wouldn't even need self driving cars.

[tiborsaas]

I never owned a car, but going anywhere, anytime, at will is a very real thing and cars are the obvious solution. Humans are terrible at safe driving and self driving will eventually solve this. I don't see how this is not the future of transportation.

[reyqn]

The obvious solution often isn't the right solution.

[emiliobumachar]

We can go anywhere, anytime, at will after the roads have been built and the pedestrians cleared away, no? The occasional neighborhood also cleared away for a freeway.

All that money and energy could have gone somewhere else.

[0x262d]

anywhere there's a road, and not forest, park, building, garden, trains, or people...

[hugh-avherald]

> Humans are terrible at safe driving

I'd dispute this. I'd say humans are excellent at many aspects of it. The high mortality is simply because driving is inherently dangerous and we do a lot of it.

I imagine the solution is basically what has happened over the last 60 years: gradual changes to improve safe driving.

[fulafel]

We're going to lose the global warming battle if we don't reduce personal cars in transportation. (And no, EVs don't solve it, they still have way too big CO2 footprints)

[choward]

I think it's pretty absurd that we don't have automated trains and light rails but somehow we think self driving cars are in the near future. Compared to cars on roads it should be trivial to automate trains on tracks. Why don't we go for the lower hanging fruit first?

[cesarb]

> I think it's pretty absurd that we don't have automated trains and light rails

We do have them: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_automated_urban_metro_...

[mrits]

Not everyone wants to live in a dense population.

[ironmagma]

Call it speculation, but most people don’t really want all the consequences that come with the distinct lack of it in the US. Especially when you consider the economic effects of walkable areas.

[asdff]

True, but why not build out transit for existing dense populations which are congested?

[maeln]

This is true. But what I wish for is better public transport in countryside. Automated train that can run also late at night and more bus would have relieved most of my woes when I was living in the countryside.

[SirZimzim]

If you visit Europe you can see this system working with a much less dense population and connections for small towns.

[ironmagma]

This is true, but there’s no rolling back history. We’re quite locked in to our current situation and the best we can do is work within the constraints that have been established.

[nonbirithm]

I sometimes wonder, from a science fiction point of view, how cities would be designed if we somehow had foresight of the consequences (social, environmental, etc.) of building infrastructure centered around the usage of cars for daily transportation. We don't really hold much resentment for how things started since people just didn't know about the problems that over-reliance on cars would cause decades down the line. Would people still consider the convenience/economic opportunity the automobile afforded to outweigh the problems?

(Also, there is a body of fiction set in a future Earth where, since people several decades ago did have knowledge of the problem of climate change, they end up being collectively resented by their descendants for their inaction/ignorance in addressing it.)

[asdff]

Or set the clock right and invest in road diets and protected bus lanes. These are solutions that any city can implement but doesn't, because they aren't politically agreeable to local electorates. Nearly all american metros were laid out around the street car, anyway.

[kkhire]

it's becoming more and more clear. self driving technology will only put more 2000 lb machines on highways clogging up space. USA NEEDS TRAINS!

[tenacious_tuna]

Trails will help highway traffic between major cities, but it doesn't address how spread out suburbs are from people's jobs and support infra (grocery stores, doctors, restaurants, etc). It's a chicken-and-egg problem, now:

- people are spread out because they've owned cars, so the distance doesn't bother them

- If you take their cars away, they're too spread out to support themselves, because of how the towns were built.

[quickthrower2]

Not necessarily: a self driving car takes you to a self driving coach for the long distance, then back to sdc for the last miles. All electric. Very efficient.

[liability]

The 'problem' doesn't even exist; non-autonomous cars work fine in America. Autonomy is a luxury product.

[lazyasciiart]

Aside from those massive numbers of dead pedestrians. (Edit: not that I think autonomous cars is the answer - but it's clear that regular cars are a problem)

[bananabreakfast]

lol, there is a serious car accident in America every 3 seconds. People die every day in car accidents. Is that what you consider "working fine"?

[v7p1Qbt1im]

Owning your own car seems lime the much bigger waste in the long run. Imagine only needing a fraction of vehicles in total.

Owning your own car will become a luxury for many people. Kinda like owning a horse.

I‘d still rent one every once in a while for road trips and camping though.