Trust a self driving car?

old medic

Senior Member
Location
Western NC
With the cars being made "smarter" I dont trust the technology, and feel it allows dumber drivers to be out on the roads.
Sure it makes it "safer" for them but more dangerous for others, have seen many incidents over the years.
Just the other day our Daughters friend and boyfriend got banged up.... thankfully not seriously injured
His self driving Tesla decided to swap lanes on the interstate and pit maneuvered itself on the front of a tractor trailer at 70 MPH.
 

I don't trust them either, however I might go for the one that parallel parks automatically. I am not good at that and figure the car is going slow enough that I wouldn't be killed if it messed up.
 
Never, no matter how evolved and reliable the technology gets.

If people are too lazy to sit their butts down in the seat, grab hold of the steering wheel and drive, then stay off the roadways.

It's my understanding that no legal provisions are in place for owners of Tesla cars to rely on the self-driving mode feature, so for those that do, they should A, lose their driver's licenses for good, and B, be slapped with a stiff fine/penalty.

Failing the above, insurance carriers should cancel out any/all coverage on the vehicle, leaving owners responsible for any/all repair bills, both to their own vehicles as well as other vehicles involved, as well as any property damage that may have occurred.

We live in a day and age of slow learners and people bent on doing their own thing, regardless of laws, so I say bring the hammer down on them and bring it down hard.
 
I just gave up driving a manual transmission a couple of years ago since I don't even like the car to change gears for me so pretty sure I won't be buying a self-driving car. I still would have a manual transmission but my husband doesn't like them and they are hard to find.
 
Self Driving cars Might make driving safer, IF/When they become the norm. However, during any "transition" period, where half the cars are self driving, and half are not, I can just imagine the number of wrecks increasing as people and technology "compete". Personally, given the possibility of computer "glitches", I would much prefer to have full control when driving.
 
There's the risk of somebody hacking into your car and causing you to drive over a cliff or into a brick wall. I've seen stories of cars already being susceptible to that kind of attack but I don't know of one that's actually happened. That would be pretty scary, though and maybe a good plot for a novel. How long before somebody mounts a gun to a drone and goes out on a killing spree?
 
There's the risk of somebody hacking into your car and causing you to drive over a cliff or into a brick wall. I've seen stories of cars already being susceptible to that kind of attack but I don't know of one that's actually happened. That would be pretty scary, though and maybe a good plot for a novel. How long before somebody mounts a gun to a drone and goes out on a killing spree?
The thing with the gun on the drone, I'm surprised someone hasn't done that already. Maybe for someone wanting to use a gun to kill people, operating a drone too is just too much, if you get my drift.
 
Self driving car-- no.

However, I do have an idea for a drone that would be nice, albeit available only to the super car owner class. A high performance car with it's own forward scout drone that could be deployed and land back on the vehicle. It's purpose would be to rise high enough in the air and send a video image of the road ahead so some one could pass a line of slow moving traffic safely. I didn't say legally. After all, when one buys a $400,000 car what's an extra 20% for safety feature that allows you to use it to its full potential?
 
I don't trust them completely yet but I would in certain situations. I'd definitely trust it in rush hour traffic here. It would be wonderful to turn on "traffic mode" and let the car drive itself while I was doing something else. However I don't think I'd trust it for anything above 25 miles an hour.

I test drove a Tesla for the first time a couple of weeks ago and was amazed at the display of traffic around the car while I was driving.
 


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