[ExI] self driving cars

[spike]

>... On Behalf Of spike
Subject: Re: [ExI] self driving cars

>...Hey cool, I gave me a great idea...As these cars show up, there will be
a transition period where human drivers get accustomed to seeing them, a
process which could take perhaps five to ten years... spike

At the local high school graduation this evening I was given a whole new
insight which bears directly on the self-driving cars scenario.  I talked to
a group of 18 yr olds and discovered they have an entirely different
attitude towards cars than my associates had so tragically many years ago.
Back in those days of yore, driving was the hip thing.  Everyone got drivers
licenses at 16.  Anyone who didn't have one at 18 was a freak of nature or
some undescribable oddball.  I learned that plenty of these high school
grads either didn't have licenses or had only learners permits, and several
were in no desperate hurry to remedy that situation.  Naturally my next
question was about self-driving cars.  I learned that these freshly minted
adults would welcome the development, and wouldn't bother ever learning to
drive if given the option to skip that.  Several of them seemed a lot more
interested in texting their friends than in guiding the car.  

I already knew that the senior crowd will need self-drivers.  All six
parents (in-laws and steps) need self-drivers now, for various medical
conditions, most related to slow reflexes and/or degrading eyes.  But if the
young will embrace the technology as well as the old, I predict the market
penetration for self-drivers will be relatively fast.  The slowest to accept
self-drivers may be those of us in the middle, we who have had cars all our
adult lives.

spike