[Hong Wu]

There's always some new technological panacea around the corner that's supposed to keep us from getting old or make our lives better. A big one lately is driver-less cars. I suppose that people imagine themselves to be shitposting or even sleeping during their commutes but if driver-less cars become common, I figure this is a pretty unlikely outcome. What would actually happen is you'd be expected to use the internet, your free hands and your free attention to turn your car into a tiny mobile cubicle and to get work done while on your way to the office. Those who do this would certainly outperform those who don't, that's the way these things work.

So how excited are you about driver-less cars?

[quetzalcoatl]

Don't worry. By the time all of this happens, the yahoos without jobs will outnumber those with. And most of those with jobs will be fake jobs. Paper pushers (electron pushers?), consultants, gig workers, middle management trying to justify their existence by firing as many people as possible, and the few remaining government workers not eliminated by austerity. Fake jobs, fake news, fake Presidents, whatever.

Quite honestly, there's no reason to give it a second thought. In 20 years half the jobs now in existence will be eliminated. Yeah, if you have a job, you will be expected to work whenever and however directed. "When you're slapped you'll take it and like it." Or so Sam Spade opined and he should know.

[mikema63]

Driverless cars will also massively reduce traffic and decrease the time it takes to get to work, so you can leave later and get up later.

As qatz pointed out there will also be more pressing issues than people doing paperwork during their commute rather than sitting bored in traffic.

[One Degree]

I find humans amusing. The more we create a world that does not require travel, the more we concentrate on travel. Why exactly am I taking a driverless car to work? Can't I control the robot from home?

[SolarCross]

I'm currently engaged as taxi driver and am training to become lorry driver. Driverless cars will make me unemployed and unemployable!

[Potemkin]

I'm currently engaged as taxi driver

That explains a lot, actually.

[SolarCross]

That explains a lot, actually.

Yes indeed it does!

Taxi drivers' brains 'grow' on the job

[AFAIK]

I don't get the hype about driverless cars. The Japanese are building a train that can go 310mph and Americans are excited about sitting in traffic fantasising about hyperloops for slightly less time each day.

[SolarCross]

I don't get the hype about driverless cars. The Japanese are building a train that can go 310mph and Americans are excited about sitting in traffic fantasising about hyperloops for slightly less time each day.

Trains don't and can't provide a door to door service. Why does anyone get wet about trains? Yay let's all walk 20 miles to the nearest train station, pile into a glorified cattle truck with a bunch of drunk, aggressive, boorish, noisy, screaming, groping, dull, smelly strangers for a few hours then when the suffering is over, walk another 20 miles to where we wanted to go.

I want a pilotless helicopter.

[Stormsmith]

Handsome Jock the ninja springer spaniel loves the idea of driverless cars, or dogmobiles, as he calls them.

[MB.]

What would actually happen is you'd be expected to use the internet, your free hands and your free attention to turn your car into a tiny mobile cubicle and to get work done while on your way to the office.

Far be it from me to disagree with Hong Wu. This is of course what would happen. The car is in fact a mobile isolation space in which to broadcast advertising. The routine of driving is a highly dangerous actualizing experience that is rarely experienced in the virtual environment by middle class office workers and the rich have been auto-driving in taxis and limousines for many decades now. Literally building a computer so miniaturized and complex that it has the ability to replace the human driver of an electric car is of course a bourgeoisie novelty WHO WOULD HAVE THOUGHT? Personally, I suspect most people won't use the autopilot since in trucking, busing, you'll require the assurance of a driver anyway, and in the case of small commuters in sedan models, the only real agency they experience all day is driving to and from work when they can listen to their music, NPR or Republican talk radio and go fast down the highway, an experience like flying, racing into the future which of course you actaully are doing the faster you go due to the law of relativity.

[Hong Wu]

Trains don't and can't provide a door to door service. Why does anyone get wet about trains? Yay let's all walk 20 miles to the nearest train station, pile into a glorified cattle truck with a bunch of drunk, aggressive, boorish, noisy, screaming, groping, dull, smelly strangers for a few hours then when the suffering is over, walk another 20 miles to where we wanted to go.

I want a pilotless helicopter.

The metro systems in places like Tokyo, Seoul and Taipei are pretty amazing but these are exceptional and funnily enough, groping on the subway is a major issue in Japan and Korea. I've witnessed groping attacks and watched the men run away afterwards like they just killed someone, it's the weirdest thing ever.

[MistyTiger]

My mom took the bus all the time when she worked in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. She said that women would carry umbrellas and whip perverts with them.

I like driving to work. And in my area, many commuters only have half an hour's drive and that is not much time to get a lot of work done. Now if it was a 2 hour commute, then lots could be done but it all depends on the nature of the work.

[Thunderhawk]

Driverless cars.
Imagine you and your spouse/SO work in opposite directions, and start work at different times. Normally you each have your own car, drive to your respective work places where you car sits, and then drive back. You have 2 cars making 2 trips each, so the 2 of you produce 4 "trips" on the road. With driverless cars, you go to work (1 trip) and the cars goes back home (2nd trip) to pick up the other person and take them to work (3rd trip). Near the end of the work day your car goes to you (4th trip) takes you home (5th trip) then drives to your spouse (6th trip) and bring them home (7th trip). If the two of you work in opposite directions, one car going back and forth will double the amount of distance spent on the road then when compared to the total from 2 separate cars. Thats right, sharing a self driving car may increase road traffic.
But wait, there is more.. Imagine your going out to a party but cant find cheap parking, everything is $10 or higher. Thats ok - you get out and tell your car to drive home or drive around until you call it back when your done for the night. Even more traffic.
The future is bright, yes. But congested.

[Saeko]

I can't wait for self-driving cars. Finally, I will be able to tell my car to hunt down and run over cyclists while I'm eating at an expensive restaurant and drinking $500 wine and listening to Bach.

[Pants-of-dog]

I can't wait for self-driving cars. Finally, I will be able to tell my car to hunt down and run over cyclists while I'm eating at an expensive restaurant and drinking $500 wine and listening to Bach.

Apparently, you would hit more if you just told it to drive around.

Driverless cars are not good at seeing bikes.

[AFAIK]

The future is bright, yes. But congested.

What if we put the automated driving technology in a bus?

Yay let's all walk 20 miles to the nearest train station

What if we built the train stations 1 mile apart?

[quetzalcoatl]

...racing into the future which of course you actaully are doing the faster you go due to the law of relativity.

An accelerated frame of reference will experience a slower time rate compared to one that is not. Relatively speaking, that is.

Either acceleration or frame-switching is the culprit, depending on whom you ask. They amount to the same thing, probably.

The lost nano-seconds in the accelerated self-driving car will be docked against your wages.

[MistyTiger]

I can't wait for self-driving cars. Finally, I will be able to tell my car to hunt down and run over cyclists while I'm eating at an expensive restaurant and drinking $500 wine and listening to Bach.

I wonder if this would classify as involuntary manslaughter. It would be interesting to see how authorities would prove that the self-driving car killing cyclists was in fact caused by the owner of the car when said owner was nowhere near the scene of the crime.

[SolarCross]

What if we built the train stations 1 mile apart?

Everywhere? How about we put train stations on every street corner? Outside every door? Or how about we ditch stone age technology and get with times? Also gropers...

Pilotless helicopters is the future for a 100% grope free experience.