LE Thoughts on Autonomous Cars

[Joe in PNG]

I wonder how many lovebugs* it would take to clog one of those stop sensors.


*those bugs endemic to Florida full of fast setting epoxy who love to fill our roadways twice a year

[LOKNLOD]

Every time I see a car commercial touting the automatic braking thing, I think, "But what if I WANT to ram something?"

Well, now I know there are at least two of us.

[Tamara]

Wishing the car technology genie (or the database/ubiquitous camera panopticon/lost privacy genie) would go back into the bottle is no more realistic than wishing the gun genie would go back in the bottle.

[Nephrology]

As someone who just finished ~40 hours of driving in 72 hours of daylight, I would love automated cars. Especially if they can maintain a reaction distance worth a damn. This is my biggest pet peeve - I don't think exceeding the speed limit is dangerous per se, but if you're doing it 6" off the bumper of the car in front of you then I will hate you and your whole family forever. Takes nothing but a dropped cigarette to turn that situation into a 2+ car pileup. If computers could maintain a proper 1-2 car length following distance that would be worth it in and of itself...

also, not LE. but an angry driver!