ME:: All the benefits sound plausible but I still think self driving cars won't work in 2034 and we'd be better improving 'low tech' non self driving trains and buses ; The Economist:: Self-driving cars will transform urban economies
Discovered: Dec 7, 2025 02:29 (UTC) ME:: All the benefits sound plausible but I still think self driving cars won’t work in 2034 and we’d be better improving ‘low tech’ non self driving trains and buses ; The Economist:: Self-driving cars will transform urban economies <– QUOTE: San Francisco may not yet have seen job losses, but that is likely to change as costs fall. America is home to 1m taxi and bus drivers, as well as over 3m truck drivers—adding up to 3% of the working population. Other potential losers are less obvious. Without car accidents there will, for instance, be less demand for personal-injury lawyers. If people stop buying cars, dealers and used-car salesmen will go. Robotaxis might compete with short-haul air travel and even hotels if some are kitted out with beds. Although new jobs will be created—in, say, managing fleets or manning depots—they will hardly make up for the losses. Social disruption is likely; at the same time, job losses will be an opportunity. Workforces in the rich world are shrinking as populations age. Freeing people to work elsewhere might be invaluable. ... Productivity in the transport industry would surge. The rest of the economy ought to perk up, too. An average working American spends just under an hour commuting each day, against eight hours on the job. Turning even a sliver of that into work could boost output appreciably, says Will Denyer of Gavekal, a research firm. Self-driving cars offer a smoother ride, which, along with better suspension, should make it easier to get work done onboard. And fewer accidents not only mean fewer human tragedies—they also mean lower hospital and rehabilitation bills.
- COUNTERPOINT to me :-) :: Jonathan Slotkin neurosurgeon:: NYT: The Data on Self-Driving Cars Is Clear. We Have to Change Course: QUOTE:
Federal leadership is essential. Current regulations require companies to report crashes, but not the number of miles driven or where. We need the denominator, not just the numerator. Data-reporting requirements should include crash rates, miles driven and where, and safety performance. Independent auditors should verify this data against police reports, insurance claims and privacy-protected medical records. ... This transformation will happen. We can guide it toward a safer, more equitable future or let it unfold haphazardly around us. There’s a future in which manual driving becomes uncommon, perhaps even quaint, the way riding horses is today. It’s a future where we no longer accept thousands of deaths and tens of thousands of broken spines as the price of mobility. It’s time to stop treating this like a tech moonshot and start treating it like a public health intervention.<– I still think the full data with the denominator will show it’s not safe and barring a breakthrough it won’t be safe by 2034. Love to be proven wrong :-)