In this case, the advantage is that autonomous vehicles have the real possibility to be significantly safer than human drivers (with some obvious exceptions - looking at you, Tesla).
I remember watching a video showing how increased reaction speed can virtually eliminate traffic jams (I believe it was this one?). It’d require nearly all vehicles to be automated, but someday city traffic might flow smoothly even during the busiest of rush hours.
Many cities have public transit in the form of busses and/or subway systems, but regular street traffic still exists and car ownership has so much cultural inertia that it’ll probably take decades to wean people off of them.
However, that doesn’t mean we should refuse to improve cars in the meantime just because they’re not the transport solution we’d prefer.
In this case, the advantage is that autonomous vehicles have the real possibility to be significantly safer than human drivers (with some obvious exceptions - looking at you, Tesla).
I remember watching a video showing how increased reaction speed can virtually eliminate traffic jams (I believe it was this one?). It’d require nearly all vehicles to be automated, but someday city traffic might flow smoothly even during the busiest of rush hours.
Anything but trains
Many cities have public transit in the form of busses and/or subway systems, but regular street traffic still exists and car ownership has so much cultural inertia that it’ll probably take decades to wean people off of them.
However, that doesn’t mean we should refuse to improve cars in the meantime just because they’re not the transport solution we’d prefer.
I understand that. I just found it houmous how similar self-driving cars all diving at a set speed to “eliminate traffic” would be to trains.
I keep forgetting that trains stop in front of every building!
I’m sure self-driving cars stopping in front of every building would solve traffic. /s
Last-mile runs to and from transit stations would.