A couple of things about automated vehicles... The threshold for success is SO much higher than for conventional non-automated travel. We note that one incident in California shuts down a billion-dollar company, while on that very same day there were were no consequences from the likely dozens, if not over a hundred, fatalities due to non-automated "regular" travel. A Tesla burning up makes international headlines, while a "regular" car fire is noticed only by its owner and some passersby. We are in a situation where "perfection" is the enemy of "good".
Secondly, I still struggle to understand the role of bicycles, pedestrians, and motorcycles in an automated vehicle world. I haven't seen a "self-driving motorcycle" (indeed, what would be the point), it appears that cycling (including e-bikes, scooters, and the like) would ultimately need to be physically (and temporally) separated from automated vehicles, and I envision pedestrians simply crossing streets at will, safe in the knowledge that every vehicle on the road is programmed to avoid it. Certainly a good Friday night university party would involve a bunch of frat boys drunkenly strolling down a freeway or hanging out in the middle of a busy intersection while self-driving vehicles work their way around the obstacle.
On the other hand, I do look forward to the revolution in traffic operations, efficiency, and safety when all traffic signals are eliminated due to the ability of the vehicles to operate within a giant "cloud" of operational data that automatically pushes each vehicle through a limited space in the most efficient manner possible. Of course, our cyclists and pedestrians will have to have their own physical (bridge / tunnel) and/or temporal (ped crossing signal) separation devices to allow them to share the road corridor with motorized vehicles.
A couple of things about automated vehicles... The threshold for success is SO much higher than for conventional non-automated travel. We note that one incident in California shuts down a billion-dollar company, while on that very same day there were were no consequences from the likely dozens, if not over a hundred, fatalities due to non-automated "regular" travel. A Tesla burning up makes international headlines, while a "regular" car fire is noticed only by its owner and some passersby. We are in a situation where "perfection" is the enemy of "good".
Secondly, I still struggle to understand the role of bicycles, pedestrians, and motorcycles in an automated vehicle world. I haven't seen a "self-driving motorcycle" (indeed, what would be the point), it appears that cycling (including e-bikes, scooters, and the like) would ultimately need to be physically (and temporally) separated from automated vehicles, and I envision pedestrians simply crossing streets at will, safe in the knowledge that every vehicle on the road is programmed to avoid it. Certainly a good Friday night university party would involve a bunch of frat boys drunkenly strolling down a freeway or hanging out in the middle of a busy intersection while self-driving vehicles work their way around the obstacle.
On the other hand, I do look forward to the revolution in traffic operations, efficiency, and safety when all traffic signals are eliminated due to the ability of the vehicles to operate within a giant "cloud" of operational data that automatically pushes each vehicle through a limited space in the most efficient manner possible. Of course, our cyclists and pedestrians will have to have their own physical (bridge / tunnel) and/or temporal (ped crossing signal) separation devices to allow them to share the road corridor with motorized vehicles.
We'll see....