I would like to see driver less vehicles and trains and even planes. However, even after the bugs are worked out the confidence level would be very low for a very a very long time. I don't think it iwll happen in my life time. I did see the fellow who made a personal rocket pack is starting to seek investors. Who knows, Buck Rogers here we come!
There are going to be bugs (like the spectacular crash recently that killed the driver) but they'll be ironed out. My guess is that, given time, they will cause far fewer deaths than bad drivers. Or drunks.
I don't know, I rather enjoy driving myself. Even if there are dingleberries nearly causing wrecks with me, atleast I learned to be cautious and pay more attention. But maybe those not so cautious drivers could use a self driving car..
I'm all for driverless cars cos I'm sick of making small talk with cab drivers or ubers when Im drunkish.... I just wanna sleep ..... And if they go wonky and crash .... At least I'll die in my sleep. That's fine.
In theory at least, trains are not a problem: I believe the Docklands Light Railway in London is driver-less (or more accurately, the "driver" is remote from the vehicle). For many years Royal Mail operated a similar "driver-less" underground railway to convey mail between sorting-offices in London, "driven" from central control-points.
However these two both systems are/were closed and of modest speeds, so comparatively easy to control. I'm not sure how they might work on a national rail network with greater distances, many level-crossings and other hazards, and speeds routinely around 100mph. At that speed no driver, whether in the cab or in a remote control-station, can stop in time to avoid hitting a car or pedestrian stuck on a level crossing, or a fallen tree visible only half a mile ahead.
Nor would even fully-automatic system, assuming it possible to make a fool-proof, fail-safe collision-avoidance system that frankly can do no more than cut the power and make a full emergency brake application. That's all the human driver in the cab can at least attempt, if only from pure survival instinct as he's right at the front, with almost nowt between him and obstacle but a few bits of metal and a very thick, toughened-glass windscreen.
And no automatic system would protect the train from what is one of the most common, if not the most common, though largely unspoken cause of delays on Britain's railways: suicides.
The trains that serve my town from London have car-type headlamps, but a former railwayman once told me they would merely show you what you are about to hit...
The difficulty with road and air transport is that the variables and chances of the unexpected are far greater still. Most long-distance flights are under automatic control but the pilot is still there to take over if and when necessary - but there is usually rather more room in the 3D air than on a crowded 2D road.
I feel rather uneasy. Firstly, they have the potential to be hacked and overridden by people with the right equipment and secondly, the idea of me not being in control of the vehicle makes me uncomfortable. I guess my ol' school attitude and knowing that I can drive how I want, when I want and where I want will never change my mind.
Art Lover 