More Than Half of Consumers Wouldn't Ride in a Self-Driving Car | Edmunds

Comments

• atlgaxt Member Posts: 501

  August 2017

  How irrational. Because we all know that now we live in a world that cell phones never drop calls, computers never crash, and automakers never build defective cars. All those recalls that used to plague the industry are thankfully a thing of the past.
  Ok. I am being facetious. I also realize that driver error is the primary cause of crashes and autonomous vehicles would statistically be much safer. But there is a belief that a person would rather take responsibility for their own safety and not rely on a machine. Of course, then there are all those other idiots out there who should not even have licenses. In the meantime we are heading towards Level 3 autonomous vehicles which is truly the most terrifying. Think of the picture of the guy driving a Tesla down the freeway while reading a newspaper. We are in for an interesting ride.

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• Mr_Shiftright Member Posts: 64,481

  August 2017

  No way I'm riding in one unless it's in a "closed system" roadway, like a monorail or airport train uses. I might consider boarding one in a low-speed urban setting (25 mph or less) but no way no how I'm getting in a car with no driver at 75 mph on a public road.

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• jwk1969 Member Posts: 1

  August 2017

  It would be a complete leap of faith, to be sure. While I am encouraged by the literally millions of miles that companies like Google and others have put on their driver-less cars, it still would feel very unnerving to be in a car with no driver. Having frequently driven the 5 hours between Duluth, MN and Madison, WI, which is boring as can be, I can see the advantage of having an autonomous vehicle so I could read or whatever and not spend 5 hours doing "nothing" but driving.
  
  But I agree that the middle ground of some autonomous functions (Level 3) is probably the scariest, as the car can't truly drive itself, but its owner treats it like it can. Unfortunately for companies like Tesla, they have already had to deal with negative press of drivers involved in wrecks blaming the vehicle for an accident when the car actually alerted the driver and the driver failed to take control. I think we'll see more of that in the near future, not less. And, @atlgaxt, the truly scary thing is that I see people behind the wheel reading the newspaper (or a book) on I-90 more frequently than I would care to admit, and they aren't even driving a car that has ANY autonomous function. You just can't fix stupid.
  
  About the only part of the progress toward autonomous vehicles I regret is the loss of the enjoyment of the driving experience. In a generation, car owners (can't really call them "drivers" any more) won't know the pure joy of ripping through twisting country roads. It's already extremely difficult to find cars with manual transmissions (and, no, the double-clutch transmissions like Porsche's PDK do NOT count). Pretty soon, the concept of driving for the sake of enjoyment will be a relic of the past.

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• atlgaxt Member Posts: 501

  August 2017

  To add to the comment about the loss of the enjoyment of the driving experience is that it is that it is sadly ironic that cars have become so good today, with mid-priced family sedans able to out accelerate and out handle the venerated muscle cars of 45-50 years ago and now it looks like we are tossing that all away.

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