[ExI] The Future of Car Insurance

[BillK]

On Thu, Sep 11, 2014 at 4:15 PM, spike wrote:
> BillK, in our lifetimes there will likely be a long span of time when the
> roads contain both robot cars and human guided.  That could go on for 3 to 5
> decades, as not all people will sign on.  I can imagine plenty of perfectly
> good non-robot cars on the market becoming so cheap that poor people will
> drive them, without insurance.  Your scenario of robot driven accelerated
> traffic cannot occur until the human drivers are out of the picture.  The
> problem might get even worse when the few human drivers remaining are poor
> and judgment proof.
>
>

I agree that it will take a while for the roads to be made 'robots
only'. I estimated 15 to 20 years.

But it might well be quicker than we expect. Don't assume that
governments will allow people to continue killing themselves and
others on the roads when a solution is found. Especially a solution
that causes a big increase in business profits. (Producing new robot
vehicles and scrapping old vehicles).

There are already many restrictive laws passed in the name of safety.
Helmets, seat belts, speed restrictions, no drinking or phoning, etc.
I suspect that as soon as robot vehicles prove that they don't crash,
there will be a progressive ban on manual vehicles. Starting with only
manufacturing new robot cars. Then scrapping the oldest cars first,
until all manual cars are gone.
Think of the children!   ;)

BillK