[Hatman]

Many interesting points of view in the articles I've read today:



Could Autonomous Cars Increase Pollution And Sprawl?
http://gas2.org/2014/07/22/autonomou...lution-sprawl/

Though we’re only at the dawn of the self-driving car era, many people are more than ready to welcome our new autonomous automotive overlords. Autonomous cars are being hailed as the solution to urban sprawl, pollution, and of course traffic congestion. But what if autonomous cars have the opposite effect, increasing fuel use and encouraging people to live even farther from their place of employment?

That’s what Ken Laberteaux, principal scientist of Toyota’s future transportation team, fears will happen. According to a speech Laberteaux gave at the Automated Vehicles Symposium recently in San Francisco, autonomous vehicles could pander to humanity’s never-ending quest for convenience, and the crux of his argument lies in the simple fact that most people are lazy. In an era where fast food, fast internet, and short attention spans are the norm, it’s hard to argue his point.

“U.S. history shows that anytime you make driving easier, there seems to be this inexhaustible desire to live further from things. The pattern we’ve seen for a century is people turn more speed into more travel, rather than maybe saying ‘I’m going to use my reduced travel time by spending more time with my family.”

Harsh but true statements I’m afraid, though it’s important to recall the many benefits autonomous cars could offer as well. Vehicle-to-vehicle communication could reduce or practically eliminate traffic accidents, one of the number one killers of Americans of all ages, and it could make traffic congestion nothing more than a distant memory. Far from vaporware, even non-automotive entities like Google realize the important of autonomous cars.

The future holds a lot of promise, but just as many pitfalls. Autonomous cars could be a blessing or a curse, though that has yet to be decided. Good thing we probably have a few decades left to figure it all out.

___________________________________________________
Are We Ready to Give Up Driving?

[...]

In his blog, [Roger] Lanctot compared highway fatalities with deaths resulting from gun violence (homicides and suicides combined). "Both figures hover around 30,000, or about 100/day."

The analogy is brilliant. At a time when so many people resist gun control in the United States in any shape or form, can we really expect those Americans to abdicate the freedom of using their own steering wheel, accelerator, and horn?

In his blog, Lanctot brings up Charlton Heston, five-term president of the National Rifle Association, to make his point. I couldn't help but picture Heston taking the stage at an American Automobile Association convention, holding up a vintage (Model A) steering wheel, and defying the federal government to rip it "from my cold, dead hands."

In a subsequent email exchange, Lanctot told me, "My point is that this touches on the very emotional attachment drivers tend to have with their cars." In his opinion, it will take a lot of disruption in people's emotional and even intellectual attachments before they embrace self-driving cars. As Lanctot pointed out, drivers will inevitably ask: "Are you questioning my driving skills?"

Just as any kid remembers the summer he or she learned to ride a bike and discovered the world beyond the home neighborhood, many drivers won't so easily forget the exhilarating sense of freedom -- not to mention the rite of passage -- of being alone on the open road, handling two tons of steel and 380 horses with nothing more than a steering wheel and a flick of the wrist.

Read More here:http://www.eetimes.com/author.asp?se...&page_number=2
___________________________________________________
Wait Six Years to Buy Your Next Car

[...]

Most people agreed that autonomous cars combined with Uber-like smart-phone apps would increase car sharing. But this wouldn’t necessarily decrease car sales, though it might decrease the size of the average car sold.

“Most people buy cars that are as big as they sometimes need, even if they don’t need a car that big all the time, which is why so many F-150s are sold,” said Brad Templeton, who has been thinking about what he calls robocars for longer than most. “If people can use an app to summon a large car on the few times they need one, they’ll buy a smaller car for their daily use,” he suggested.

Templeton also made a point for urban planners: “The Internet succeeded because the people who built it use a stupid infrastructure, rather than trying to design intelligence into it. The stupid infrastructure was easily adapted into all kinds of uses. Urban planners need to realize that because they don’t know what the future will be, they need to provide stupid urban infrastructure, for example, bus-rapid transit instead of light rail because bus lanes can easily be used for something else if large buses turn out to be unnecessary.”

Read more at:http://hplusmagazine.com/2014/07/22/...your-next-car/