The Question of the Driverless Car
By celticeagle
@celticeagle (189792)
Boise, Idaho
January 17, 2023 4:44pm CST
At first, it came as sort of a joke, then a what if and, now, it could happen. Delivery and transporting merchandise could be an interesting establishment whereby there could be a lane just for these perhaps. I see this as an interesting future probability. This could bring prices down and get items to us even faster. I think this is a major interesting factor for me.
One of the cons I see as a major alarm in this is that they could raise the speed limit. That is truly a scary thought. So if there is a car accident it will be that much more serious. (Surely there won't come a time when there will be absolutely no humans in the driver's seat.)
The technology is there. This fact rather scares me. Just because we could do it do we have to?
Safety issues, rather than the one I mentioned first, make me feel this may never happen. I'm glad about it too. Aren't you?
They are saying autonomous vehicles could have one clear advantage. They could communicate with one another. Could certain brands communicate with one another for traffic ahead info and such things?
What about security? Remember back in 2015 when it was realized that Fiat Chrysler could be wirelessly taken over and 1.4 million were recalled? This could open all kinds of issues.
Liability laws and legislation come to mind too.
So, what are your thoughts on this issue?
9 people like this
8 responses
@DaddyEvil (174208)
• United States
18 Jan 23
Pretty wants our next car to be an electric hybrid but I'm not ready to trust driverless technology. There are still accidents happening with driverless vehicles and people have been killed because the tech driving the car didn't see a problem coming that a person might have seen.
2 people like this
@celticeagle (189792)
• Boise, Idaho
19 Jan 23
Me either. But when I hear that it costs about $40 on average to fill a gas tank and only $14 to charge a car I tend to lean more toward the electric one.
2 people like this
@DaddyEvil (174208)
• United States
19 Jan 23
@celticeagle Yeah, it sounds good on paper until you realize that there are two large batteries you're charging instead of a tank you're filling... When Pretty told me she wanted to buy a used (We buy used because I can't afford new.) hybrid vehicle, I did some checking. Those batteries, when they go bad, cost around $8,000 each and there are two of them that would need replaced if one of them goes bad.
I need to do more research but was thinking our present car will last for several years yet before we'll need to replace it. I want to know the odds of one of the batteries failing. Especially since we're talking a used car.
We have a 17 gallon tank on our car and it does cost around $40 to fill it up but we drive a month, roughly, on a full tank of gas. (Medium grade.)
1 person likes this
@porwest (112717)
• United States
19 Jan 23
@celticeagle At the same time, if the idea is to save the environment which is driving the push, then the idea fails, since the carbon footprint of the electricity and the batteries that have to be produced is greater than the footprint of the oil drilled, refined and burned.
This is not to say I am against electric cars. Not at all. I think the technology is better than a combustible engine.
But it is the mining of all the minerals and other materials that go into battery production. The battery production process also uses vast amounts of water, and it is polluted and has to be cleaned and filtered, which causes more impact. Then there's the life of the battery. Roughly 7-10 years, and then old batteries have to be properly disposed of and replaced. And then there's the coal that must be burned to produce the electricity to charge them...
The only issue I have is the REASON for the push. Not the idea itself of an electric car.
2 people like this
@LadyDuck (502189)
• Italy
18 Jan 23
I remember that I read a piece of news last year. A "group" of those "intelligent" wireless cars that were communicating among them, "blocked" a police car that was following one that was no more responding to the human instruction.
I think that they are dangerous.
2 people like this
@celticeagle (189792)
• Boise, Idaho
19 Jan 23
And there is the situation I mentioned in my post. This makes me think of one more way for terrorists to hurt us.
1 person likes this
@LadyDuck (502189)
• Italy
19 Jan 23
@celticeagle - Exactly, I do not trust all those automated devices that we are creating.
2 people like this
@RasmaSandra (97912)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
17 Jan 23
I prefer the old fashioned way a person who knows what they are doing physically behind the wheel,
2 people like this
@celticeagle (189792)
• Boise, Idaho
17 Jan 23
Me too. But what do you think about the transport of goods and delivery of same with the driverless auto?
1 person likes this
@RasmaSandra (97912)
• Daytona Beach, Florida
18 Jan 23
@celticeagle personally I would not trust that car to get things delivered right
2 people like this
@celticeagle (189792)
• Boise, Idaho
19 Jan 23
@RasmaSandra ..........Might be some issues.
1 person likes this
@Deepizzaguy (122070)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
17 Jan 23
I like the idea of an auto that can travel without a driver since drivers can make errors driving on a road or suffer an illness while driving.
The bad part is that I remember one former colleague saying that humans really in control of working with a machine. I prefer the human factor dealing with an auto.
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (189792)
• Boise, Idaho
17 Jan 23
I think that the human factor is the smartest way to go for so many reasons.
2 people like this
@Deepizzaguy (122070)
• Lake Charles, Louisiana
18 Jan 23
@celticeagle You are right.
1 person likes this
@porwest (112717)
• United States
19 Jan 23
@celticeagle We agree. Oh my gosh. lol
2 people like this
@RubyHawk (99367)
• Atlanta, Georgia
19 Jan 23
@celticeagle I don’t believe we will be here that far in the future.
1 person likes this
@LindaOHio (222288)
• United States
18 Jan 23
I don't like the idea of driverless or self-driving cars. All there has to be is a small glitch; and a catastrophic accident could happen.
2 people like this
@celticeagle (189792)
• Boise, Idaho
19 Jan 23
You're so right. Not something I want to worry about when I am in a car.
1 person likes this
@celticeagle (189792)
• Boise, Idaho
18 Jan 23
I agree. These things are so foreign to us.
1 person likes this
