New Road Rules: There's No Steering Clear Of Elon Musk's Driverless Future

Posted • December 10, 2024: ‘Keep your hands on the wheel!’ Most of us have heard that shouted while driving our cars. Soon, the majority of us will be driving without using a steering wheel. Heck, there may not even be a steering wheel! Elon Musk foresees a driverless future for all us. He recently gave us a glimpse. -- Elon Musk @elonmusk: “There will ultimately be tens of millions of driverless Teslas throughout the world giving rides 24/7” -- There’s no fully-automated cars for purchase, but it could soon be the norm for everyone on the road. That has many drivers worried about what this driverless inevitably means for their jobs. How will over 15 million Uber drivers make money for their families after you put them out of business? The majority of these people don't have the income or credit to qualify for a $40.000 EV. The majority of Uber drivers own a used car worth around $15-20,000.

I mean if you’re working for Uber now and see this on the horizon, you should start preparing. If not you kind of brought it on yourself. This is at least 6-10 years out. It’s called technological progress. Has happened for centuries. They’ll find other productive lines of work. Imagine how many fewer traffic fatalities there will be each year when all these “taxi” cars that used to always carry a minimum of two people only have to carry one. The wheels of progress will keep moving, even if drivers are not in the driving seat. With the new technological reality hurtling towards us, many wonder who will be responsible if there’s an accident with one of these cars, and if it’s worth the risk. When we get a pedestrian fatality - who will be responsible for that? The 'driver' the owner or the manufacturer? Good point. We will have some but still much more likely to die by human drivers. I think the question is how many per year is an acceptable trade off.

Since ~40k die by humans I think two orders of magnitude would be acceptable so 400 or less. I’m betting libs only accept 0.0. It is literally the only thing that will save us from drivers who simply can't (or won't) pay attention. It looks like innovation could virtually end most car-related fatalities. A poster hopes the coming driverless Tesla vehicles are better than the current self-driving ones. He says they’re frustrating, but has a humorous observation. I'm just gonna be real here... Driving behind a self-driving Tesla sucks. They hesitate way too often at intersections, stop and go abruptly multiple times at stop signs and seemingly refuse to turn right on a red light even when able. It's like driving behind a Roomba. -- Imagine a car-vacuum hybrid that cleans the road while you drive. No, let’s stop there. We don’t want to give Musk any more ideas.

Twitchy: New Road Rules: There’s No Steering Clear of Elon Musk’s Driverless Future
https://twitchy.com/warren-squire/2024/12/09/elon-musk-driverless-cars-tesla-n2404901