The push toward autonomous cars strikes me as something they want to solve as opposed to something that needs to be solved. The old adage just because something can be done doesn’t mean it should be done.
They are presently trying to sell us a future of electric autonomous vehicles where in many cases the vehicles are shared rather than owned by individuals.
Presently electric vehicles, on average, are expensive—too expensive for the average buyer without government subsidies. The infrastructure still has a long way to go to support vehicles with limited driving range compared to gas powered cars. A big elephant in the room everyone is ignoring is what to do with expensive batteries when they need to be replaced.
Hardly anyone really wants a self-driving car. We like having control of where we’re going and the idea of surrendering control and entrusting our lives to imperfect technology is a hard sell.
Shared vehicles are a form of public transit and few people really like public transit. Public transit is something people endure unless they can afford the alternative of private transportation. At present the idea of shared autonomous vehicles is to limit or eliminate our choices.
while I'm mostly agree with your point, I also knows tech is as good as how comfortable is to use.
there is need only a few tweaks to differentiate a successful device (iPod) from another not so good (Zune)
surfing web, making video calls and sending pics phone to phone was a thing before the iPhone, but it isn't the same isn't it??
I'm not agree with your claim of anyone wants to drive, on the contrary, going from one place to another in
your own car, looking trhough the window or watching "tv" is a dream (which would take ages to come really true). BUT as you say, current tech (with current I mean middle term 10 years from now tech) is far from being ready to such a huge responsibility.
sharing autonomous cars is just like taking a cab, but with extra problems, so what's the point?? less jobs? more money for Apple and Google?
No virtual assistant is able of understand comand better than another human being. An no GPS knows navigating European cities as a taxi driver with a GPS assistant at his service to check routes or traffic. NEVER. An AI can't see if a truck is blocking the next street and turning right at time, or doing some little cheats as invading opposite lane for few meters to surround a stopped car.
Car sharing is a bit cheaper than a cab, but nothing else, you have to drive, you have to find the car and walk to it, the car sometimes smells, or is low on battery, or whatever…
it gives you some independence which is great sometimes, but I have my own car which I park at my door, and I use it
80% of times, 18% taxi/uber/cab, 2% car sharing