Thoughts on Autonomous cars

I figured AI drivers were coming in the not too distant future. I was shocked to learn just how many autonomous cars we have in our cities and trucks on our highways or even the pilots who fly in our skies.

It is no surprise to me that the greatest hurdle for these AI cars is public perception and acceptance. I did not know that human drivers are currently safer drivers but AI crashes are generally less severe. I maintain my position on autonomous vehicles. Unless the vehicles are safer than human drivers, I see little need for them. Once we pass that safety threshold, we can start deploying more vehicles and expanding their roles in society.

Just because the current safety setbacks are a major concern, we shouldn't hold back from trying to predict future scenarios. One area I had not thought about at all is the impact on our cities. Obscure things like property value going down because parking lots can be developed are precisely why we need people thinking outside the box now.

I won’t pretend to have all the answers because I don't. I can fully support the future and the possibilities it gives to people who need better methods of transportation. I hope at the end of the autonomous tunnel is the option to adopt and not a mandate to accept. For some people, like myself, there is no greater feeling than driving a manual transmission vehicle through a winding canyon on a sunny Oregon day.