A Test-Drive of Self-Driving Car Technology

Edmunds.com

A Test-Drive of Self-Driving Car Technology

Here's what it's like to be behind the wheel of a car equipped with self-driving features.

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horsepwr1

I am surprised that these cars are being developed. I can see many bad uses for them if put in the hands of terrorists.

They are like drones on wheels...

meteor10

anyway it is a very good progress for the humanity. but somebody really needs to solve the problem with the security somehow. otherwise we will see lot of crashes on purpose(

Mr_Shiftright

I only see the autonomous car in a livery service. Owning one yourself so that you can sit there in heavy traffic with all the other autonomous cars doesn't strike me as a Great Leap Forward. But if you can just get out and walk the rest of the way crosstown, how neat is that? And in the evening just call one up to come get you and/or take you home.

I also see the autonomous car as a gentler form of tearing up bad drivers' licenses. They still get to ride around in a car, but not as a driver.

stever

Mary Barra on car ownership via the WSJ:

"We do believe the traditional ownership model is being disrupted. To what extent, no one really knows. But it is being disrupted by the sheer fact that 94% of the day the car sits idle. So we have car-sharing pilots running with Google and [a separate one] in New York. We’re going to see more change in the next five to 10 years than we’ve seen in the last 50."

My wife and I share one car so our usage is a bit higher than average. Our van is only idle 92% of a typical day.

Mr_Shiftright

Well some of that is semantics. I mean, if you live in a rural area and drive to work, then park, your car isn't actually "idle"---you need it to get home, so it's more like "static use".

Now in heavily populated metro areas Ms. Barra might be correct. Cars are sitting unused because people just don't have a need for them, what with public transportation or walking to work. As for those weekend escapes, Zipcar makes a lot of sense as opposed to garaging an unused car. Heck, in San Francisco you can rent out your garage for weekday parking and pay for your Zipcar rentals twice over.