Self-Driving Vehicles, Are You For or Against Them? Take the Poll!

Are you for or against self-driving vehicles?

  • Total voters
    42
SeaBreeze

SeaBreeze

Endlessly Groovin'
Location
USA
GM is working on a car now to put out on the roads in 2019 with NO steering wheel, NO brake pedal and NO gas pedal. I am against self-driving cars, from all I've read I don't trust them because they can react badly to something as simple as street sign that has been altered, etc. I don't want to ride in one, and I don't want them on the roads and highways, definitely don't want driverless big rig 18 wheelers on the highways either.

Are you for or against self-driving vehicles? Take the poll to share your answer. :drive:


 

Most of my working years were spent in the auto business. I learned that man-made products do malfunction. What do you do when that happens?
 
Not a heck of a lot Manatee, you have no options but to hope for the best.
 

There would probably still be accidents with self driving vehicles....after all, anything built will eventually malfunction...however, such vehicles should eliminate most of the hazards caused by drunks and cell phone users, etc. On balance, traffic accidents would probably decrease substantially. The Dangerous period would be during the "Transition" phase...when driven and self driven cars are both mingling on the roads, and trying to "outguess" each other.
 
At this point in time, I had to vote "no opinion" because I need to be more informed of it's safety record versus the human safety record. Neither are perfect so it would have to be based on which is less perfect and which is moreso....

...especially considering humans text while driving, talk on phone, drink and drive, fall asleep at the wheel, are distracted by passengers and scenery and buttons on the dash, prone to emotional reactions of road rage, have mental health issues, slow reaction time, eat food, forget to use their turn signal, speed, take their eyes off the road, run stoplights and stop signs, etc.
 
I also voted no opinion. For now. Also for the same things Lara listed which are dangerous and many. Just going out to the bars alone puts many others on the road in danger. Sometimes I think if police set up checkpoints near some local bars, breathalyzed every few drivers that came out of those bars, many tickets would be written. So, that's at least one peril down.

I need to know more about the technology and would insist on manual brakes and steering as a backup in either case. I don't know enough about it yet to be dead against it or for it yet.
 
Bring 'em on! My promise is to quit driving by the time I reach 80, and hopefully by then (9 years from now) I will still be able to go when and where I want thanks to self-driving cars. Even if they aren't 100.00000% perfect, they will still be safer than the typical driver, especially if that driver is elderly (over 80).
 
RadishRose said:
I also voted no opinion. For now. Also for the same things Lara listed which are dangerous and many. Just going out to the bars alone puts many others on the road in danger. Sometimes I think if police set up checkpoints near some local bars, breathalyzed every few drivers that came out of those bars, many tickets would be written. So, that's at least one peril down.
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A cop told me when police try to breathalyze people coming out of bars, the local Chambers of Commerce and bar owners associations go to their city councils who prevail upon them to stop. Apparently they believe it would unfairly destroy those businesses. Too bad about the people who get killed by the drunk drivers; obviously bar revenues are more important than human life.
 
Smiling Jane said:
A cop told me when police try to breathalyze people coming out of bars, the local Chambers of Commerce and bar owners associations go to their city councils who prevail upon them to stop. Apparently they believe it would unfairly destroy those businesses. Too bad about the people who get killed by the drunk drivers; obviously bar revenues are more important than human life.
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Aha! So that's what's been going on. Off topic , but thanks for the insight.
 
I can't wait!!!

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Manatee said:
Most of my working years were spent in the auto business. I learned that man-made products do malfunction. What do you do when that happens?
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People 'malfunction' far more often. Drunk, distracted drivers scare me. There isn't a week that goes by around here that someone doesn't drive into the oncoming lane because they are distracted or drunk, or drive off the road for same reasons or driving too fast for conditions. There will be accidents, probably fatal, from self-driving cars that have malfunctioned, but the number of malfunctioning drivers right now seems to be on a steady increase.
I'm in an outlying, semi-rural Chicago 'burb, and we have 2-laners here with 45-55 mph speeds with crashes every day. Just had one yesterday where 29 year old woman went into oncoming traffic on a clear day and clear road, and she and other driver killed. Bring on the self driving cars.
 
I'll bet there'd be a way to have these self-driven cars made terrorist proof so they can't drive onto sidewalks and mow people down on purpose. And maybe have a sensor that detects tampering like planting explosives. I know it rarely happens but to save even one life would make it worth it...except maybe the terrorist's...oops, I didn't say that, did I?
 
HiDesertHal said:
Self-driving vehicles are OK as long as they are restricted to the testing track.

They should never be permitted on public highways.

Harold
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Okay. So then what would be the point of testing them in the first place? Just "fun" for boys and their toys? Are the taxpayers paying for the design and testing?
 
My vote was no.

I don't see a practical use. Thinking that with no manual control sounds good until the way a vehicle gets from point A to point B is considered. Direction, speed, stop start, emergency situations all being controlled by a computer system. I'm guessing for interstate and high use freeways the navigation would be controlled by a computer system linked to a satellite. In town maybe a system embedded in streets.

As it is now we have a system of highways and streets maintained by fuel taxes and that isn't being handled very well is it? I don't think I'll be around to see how adding the kind of infrastructure to maintain a vehicle control system will be managed.

Just for grin & giggles Google youtube Los Angles freeway traffic. Then imagine some hacker shutting down the system that controls you getting from point A to Point B.
 
For people like me who don't like to drive, it would be wonderful. However, I don't have a reason to trust them yet. And, by the way, if your driverless car went bezerko and a person was killed or injured or there was property damage, who would be liable?

If I saw a car without a driver coming down the street, I'd get way away quick!
 
I have been a passenger in one (granted under test conditions) and felt safer in the car then if many of my friends or relatives were driving the car.
 
Driverless cars would basically become pseudo public transportation with the 'owner' choosing which options/luxuries they want. Even though people could 'malfunction' at they can attempt to compensate, adjust or correct. I've lost count of the number times I've had to suddenly evade, elude or avoid a hazardous situation and/or drivers. But I, a person did it, not a machine or technology. Also computerized driving can lead to situations like what happened with a driving app sending drivers into residential neighborhoods.

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/12/24/nyregion/traffic-apps-gps-neighborhoods.html

Also keep in mind 'driverless' cars would be the proverbial foot in the door when it comes to control mobility in a society. Driverless cars would eventually start following computerized protocols like where, when and how you drive. Who will set those parameters.
 
There are driverless trains in use all over the world. Why do we trust them, and yet are so afraid of driverless cars?
 
Sunny said:
There are driverless trains in use all over the world. Why do we trust them, and yet are so afraid of driverless cars?
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Most trains still have an engineer or motorman which responsible for speeding up and slowing down. And on a fixed permanent track. Trains still derail and collide. Or hit cars at crossings.
 
I had to vote, no. I'm against any machine that tries to do my thinking for me. Having said that, the above posters do make an excellent point re drunk/distracted drivers.
 
Traveler said:
I had to vote, no. I'm against any machine that tries to do my thinking for me. Having said that, the above posters do make an excellent point re drunk/distracted drivers.
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It is a good point but they are frequently a hazard that can be avoided. Im a big believer on making eye contact or looking at the driver's head to get an idea of where they are going, are they acknowledging your presence and/or are they distracted/talking on a phone. At this point they are an acknowledged but not accepted hazard like a pot hole, storm, fallen tree etc. They are out there.
 

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