Driverless?

Before we get led down the path of a driverless society, I think ordinary people should take a step back and look at matters from outside the Driverless Village.

It seems to me that everyone supporting the idea has either a vested interest or is ideologically anti driver. So on whose driving standards will these cars be programmed?

Top road drivers like police advanced class ones who are taught to make progression on the road and down marked if they fail to spot and make a good overtake or will the programmes be written to suit the anti car,  amateur, ideological and emotional ideas of BRAKE, 20’s Plenty, PACTs, RACF with no driving expertise? Why not program in the best driving standard there is?

If this is progress, surely we must define who must be on the road and then program the vehicles on that basis. Don’t tell me that they will be programmed to deal with the obsolete and totally recreational horses who would prefer to be in fields anyway, and pelotons of cyclists out for a social surely? So let’s ensure that the usual rag, bag of anti driver, ideologistic amateurs have no say in the matter at all.

The fact is that there are now only two types of road user society must have now and that is walkers and drivers, so these vehicles should be programmed for that reality. If they are not programmed to the optimum then they will be an economic disaster just like wind turbines are.

From a drivers’ perspective, these gadgets will of course be able to sense certain things and impress politicians with their tricks but will they spot the child at the corner of a building? See approaching cars around a bend from across a field? See things happening a mile ahead?

And to whose speed limit will they react? I can verify that most speed limits are poorly set by non expert drivers too, so will we ensure the most efficient cost effective speed limits before we let these things loose?

How well will they perform when 2^nd and 3^rd hand vehicles or will ordinary folk just be unable to afford to keep them on the road?

Driverless cars is a way of controlling people and their freedom to move. So much so that, for them to be viable, we would all need to live centrally and perhaps suffer a mass cull before they could cope with a population that depends on the motorcar..