To bring this thread more or less back on topic, I suppose self-driving cars might have one intriguing benefit. When they know the exact route and conditions - as they probably would have to - they might have a better chance at predicting whether you have enough charge in your EV to get there, don't you think?
But overall, I remain skeptical. Unless we somehow create a totally closed system, excluding all human-operated vehicles, humans, and stray animals from the highway system, its chaos and unpredictability will be a dire strain on any computing system. Heck, it is for humans, and our brains are pretty sophisticated computers. So, they will inevitably fail - perhaps often. Humans barely accept fallibility from other humans, let alone machines that they pay for. They also have this propensity for insisting that when something goes wrong, SOMEONE MUST PAY. Besides, we've had cars without drivers for CENTURIES. Europeans use them a lot more than we do. They run on rails, sometimes above ground and sometimes below. They're pulled by locomotives, most of them ELECTRIC. Automated rail is a mostly closed and highly controllable system. That's where fully driverless transportation is practical, with a low accident rate. David Roden - Akron, Ohio, USA EVDL Administrator = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = EVDL Information: http://www.evdl.org/help/ = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Note: mail sent to "evpost" and "etpost" addresses will not reach me. To send a private message, please obtain my email address from the webpage http://www.evdl.org/help/ . = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = _______________________________________________ UNSUBSCRIBE: http://www.evdl.org/help/index.html#usub http://lists.evdl.org/listinfo.cgi/ev-evdl.org For EV drag racing discussion, please use NEDRA (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/NEDRA)
