I drove a normal car yesterday

[Mike Sales]

. Like trains and modern signalling system , it will enable more cars to be on a given stretch of road. It should end road rage and tail gating

I'd think there would be whole strings of cars tailgating

My heart sinks at this vision of roads packed with even more cars.
I can't imagine the chaotic result of a cyclist mixed into this.
As T.C. says, the result could be a banning of incompatible elements like us.

[Bonefishblues]

I think it has the potential to be much better, but it's all about the design parameters, I guess.

[PDQ Mobile]

I hope the software is more reliable and long lasting than much of what is available today.

"After a break in a services in Central France Mr Biggs and his family jumped in their 2 year old electric wizz box hoping to be be whisked, eyes closed, South to the sun.
However an update was requested by the car's operating system and until that was installed the thing would not move an inch!"

[pwa]

I have driven auto and manual and have no preference. The only thing I have against auto is the feeling that there might be a bit more to go wrong.

[Mick F]

I think gearbox failures are a thing of the past. Auto as well as manual.
If nothing else has changed, reliability is excellent these days.

Cars are scrapped nowadays due to something else other than mechanical failure.

One thing that's better with a Hybrid, is that there are no drive belts. Water pump is electrically driven, so is the power steering and air conditioning. Valves are electrically driven too, so no cam belt or chain.

[Cugel]

I think it has the potential to be much better, but it's all about the design parameters, I guess.

The usual syndrome is:

This experiment with simple design parameters has revealed the technology is much more complicated than we thought.

Therefore we need to increase the number of design parameters to address all possible behaviours.

The complexity of the design parameters has created 573 unintended consequences, of which 87 are lethal

We will stick the the simple design parameters + some PR as we need to sell the items to make our profit.

The 2948 unintended consequences are really someone else's fault.

The infrastructure and whole society must be redesigned to take account of our wonderful new technology.

Cugel, watching the history of technology reiterate.

[Lance Dopestrong]

I have driven auto and manual and have no preference. The only thing I have against auto is the feeling that there might be a bit more to go wrong.

True autos, ie, proper olde worlde torque converter boxes, are far more reliable than manuals. The main stress bearing component is the fluid.

That said, modern "autos" with robotised manual gearboxes are indeed manufactured from used hand grenades, and can be very problematic.

[Bonefishblues]

Guy Martin nailed the key one in an instant in the episode about the autonomous racing car. In a case of who dies - the car inhabitant or the innocent road user, the car driver does.

[Mike Sales]

Guy Martin nailed the key one in an instant in the episode about the autonomous racing car. In a case of who dies - the car inhabitant or the innocent road user, the car driver does.

Why only autonomous cars? I have always thought that road interactions would be changed for the better if the car occupants were the ones at risk, not the vulnerable, innocent road user.

[Mick F]

Interactions would be better if we replaced seatbelts and airbags with spikes.

[Mick F]

One of the advanced driving thought experiments is to drive with a large bowl of water sitting on your lap.
Drive smoothly and gently, and you stay dry.

[Bonefishblues]

How about we invest to make it better for all.

Bob hope, mind...

[Mike Sales]

One of the advanced driving thought experiments is to drive with a large bowl of water sitting on your lap.
Drive smoothly and gently, and you stay dry.

Excellent. I once read that chauffeurs are taught to drive smoothly so as not to throw their very important cargo about.
In my very brief driving career, chauffeuring my aged mother, I tried to do that.

[Lance Dopestrong]

It's quite likely that an autonomous car will be the only thing Guy Martin will soon be allowed in.

[RickH]

One of the advanced driving thought experiments is to drive with a large bowl of water sitting on your lap.
Drive smoothly and gently, and you stay dry.

Richard Balantine(sp?), of Richard's Bicycle Book fame, proposed that drivers should sit in a glass bubble sticking out of the front of their vehicles with a long spike sticking out of the steering wheel!