Self driven cars to eliminate countless jobs.

Could have fooled me that a lot of people like to drive, by the sales of crappy handling vehicles, and the amount of other activities "drivers" perform while operating a vehicle.

Well, it would save the lives of chickens. ;)

There is plenty to go around, but criminal greed interferes with just distribution.

I think there is a small minority of people who really like to drive, and that will probably continue. I think those people will keep driving on manual, or else they will get motorcycles (which are also fun to ride).

However, I do think the vast majority of drivers at least in the US do not enjoy driving, and aren't any good at it, and not only will they be pleased to have the task taken away from them and automated, but their safety will be greatly increased in the process.

An automated car may not be 100% reliable, but it's probably better than a driver who is talking on his cellphone, and I encounter a dozen of those every day on my commute. The problem is that the courts are much more likely to hold the manufacturer of the automated car liable for the accident than the manufacturer of the cellphone.

I think we're always going to have some manual drivers on the road and I think there is also going to be a long, long cutover period during which manual and automatic vehicles are sharing the road. It's that process of sharing that is going to be difficult to work out.

--scott

I have not seen this Kevin Costner epic flick. We did have a weird pontoon thingie land on our beach that the experts believe was part of his trimaran. I guess I should have grabbed a piece and sell parts of it on eBay. People like crap like that.

If you really hate to drive, you can't do better than to drive a 70s AMC "vehicle." This practically screams "I hate cars!"

Back in the 1980's, I knew of a AMC Pacer that was being raced.

I have been thinking about getting a motorcycle next year, but do I really need six of them?

Mostly, they were trying to be funny. OTOH, a late 60's AMX would be OK with me, I guess.

These days, the only people driving Pacers would be old dudes with funny hats and hipster geeks.

I'd rock a Hornet... something went wrong in the 70s though, if you want a powerful small RWD coupe/sedan today you have to look to Europe or the Far East.

nate

That Pacer was "unique" looking. These was a TV ad for - can't remember what - a few year ago, where a guy was talking to his sister. Had a brick-sized cell phone and he was driving a Pacer. Maybe a Gremlin. Think he had bell-bottoms and platform shoes. Funny. In the '70's I worked with a kid who had a Gremlin. It went down with a bad head gasket. Almost was going to put a new one for him, but since he didn't seem to like the car, I passed.

I used to have a 72 Mazda RX-2. That was a fun car. The rotary engine was so smooth that there was a warning buzzer that went off if the engine went above 6500 RPM. I let my sister-in-law use it and she asked me why the car kept alarming when she was driving. That engine liked to rev! The carb on those cars were big, four-barrel, two stage, two float, monsters. It was a beautiful thing.

I've been driving my Hornet for nearly 40 years now. I really have to laugh at the idiotic young "doodz" who think they have the standing to dictate to me what it's really like.

Sometimes I can really understand why some animals eat their young.