[ExI] self-driving cars again

[spike]

Slate ran a short article on a feature of auto-autos that I had thought of,
but they take it a step further.  The software will drive only at the legal
speed limit.  I doubt they will program them to go faster.  I went a
different direction than Slate.  I reasoned that if auto^2s will only go the
speed limit tops always, this obviates the need for capability of going
faster.  I took the typical mechanical engineers approach: speed limits are
very low compared to even slow cars, so we can save a lot of weight in
drivetrain and structure, as well as simplifying the control software and
hardware.

 

Slate went off in a different direction.  They reason that when auto^2s hit
the market, they will be expensive, and so they will be for rich people, and
rich people don't want to poke along at the legal speed limit which wastes
time and has its own risks: it blocks traffic.  The human occupants run the
risk of being shot by irate human drivers stuck behind the reprehensible
copulating couple in the auto^2.  

 

Slate reasons this is a show stopper for auto^2s: they only go the speed
limit always, and no one wants to go that slow:

 

http://www.slate.com/blogs/future_tense/2012/07/13/eric_schmidt_on_self_driv
ing_cars_biggest_problem_they_obey_speed_limits.html

spike

 

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