[ExI] fuel economy vs danger

[Jeff Davis]

2010/4/1 spike <spike66 at att.net>:

> The big talk is about how much more dangerous these tiny cars will be,


Are you certain, Spike that you are not just expressing the inherent
red white and blue bias for "more vroom vroom is better"?  Isn't it
trivially obvious that a guy on a moped is outmatched by an eighteen
wheeler loaded down with rebar and cement blocks?  This is so
yesterday.

Google up "cars that drive themselves".   I've been waiting forever
for this.  I'm one of the worst drivers in the world, primarily
because I hate driving.  I have better things to do with my synaptic
resources, and cannot -- will not -- maintain the level of attention
to my driving that  maximizes safety for myself and my fellow
travelers.   I've been waiting for automatic lane centering ever since
I came to love cruise control.  It can't come too soon.  Naturally,
front and back automatic anti-collision capability will be a very high
priority.  And this is just the "hardly smart at all" easy stuff that
the Stanford winners of the Darpa Challenge have long since left
behind in a literal cloud of dust.

And with apologies to the "you'll never take my steering wheel away
until you pry it from my cold, dead hands" crowd, I would point out
that the vast reduction in deaths and injuries -- the vast improvement
in safety -- that will result from automated driving would be
compelling enough all by itself, but when you add the giant heaps of
money saved,... well, the writing is on the wall, "Auto-Chauffeur" is
on the way.

No doubt you will say "They can take our lives, but they can never
take our freedom!!!!!"  and insist on the right to manual control.
Fine.  But you'll have to pay for it.   Your insurance rate for
driving time in manual mode will be way high, and who knows what other
restrictions will be placed on someone with so little regard for the
safety and convenience of his (and it will most certainly be a guy)
fellow travelers.

YMMV. ;-}

Best, Jeff Davis

 "Everything's hard till you know how to do it."
                         Ray Charles