Courtesy of Mish.
I remain amused at skepticism towards driverless cars and trucks. Most believe the idea is at least a decade off. Some think it will not happen in a significant way at all.
My position has been and remains, driverless vehicles will be widespread before the end of this decade.
Please consider Self-Driving Cars Will Be in 30 U.S. Cities by the End of Next Year.
Automated vehicle pilot projects will roll out in the U.K. and in six to 10 U.S. cities this year, with the first unveiling projected to be in Tampa, Fla. as soon as late spring. The following year, trial programs will launch in 12 to 20 more U.S. locations, which means driverless cars will be on roads in up to 30 U.S. cities by the end of 2016. The trials will be run by Comet LLC, a consulting firm focused on automated vehicle commercialization.
“We’re looking at college campuses, theme parks, airports, downtown areas—places like that,” Corey Clothier, a strategist for automated transportation systems who runs the firm told, The New York Observer.
He explained that they’re focusing on semi-controlled areas and that the driverless vehicles will serve a number of different purposes, both public and private. The vehicles themselves, which are all developed by Veeo Systems, will even vary from two-seaters to full-size buses that can transport 70 people. At some locations, the vehicles will drive on their own paths, occasionally crossing vehicle and pedestrian traffic, while at others, the vehicles will be completely integrated with existing cars.
Death of Cars?
If you think this will stop with college campuses, theme parks, and airports, then you probably believed the need for keypunch operators would not go away, that autofocus cameras would never be reliable, that the internet would not make mincemeat out of many travel agencies, and digital would not replace film.
I would not go as far as to say this is the death of cars. Rather, this is the beginning of the end of personal car ownership for millions of city drivers.
But, it is also the eventual (and sooner than you think) death of long-haul trucking jobs, taxi drivers, and various chauffeur jobs.
Question of Timeframe
I have heard countless arguments many times over about lawsuits, about inner-city traffic jams, about ice and snow, about computer malfunctions, about road work and changing rood conditions, and about everything else including motherhood and apple pie.
I dismiss all those arguments just as I dismissed arguments that digital would not replace film. The only debate is how fast this happens. …
