Scary Thought
 

Just imagining what it will be like when the Google no-driver cars first appear in The Villages. I would probably get out my portable chairs and park myself within view of some of our most traveled round-a-bouts (ROB) and watch the action. You can program these cars to "do the right thing" when traveling the ROBs, but being a Village resident for 11 years I see what happens every day and it is never consistent, no matter what the rules dictate. Possibly a new business opportunity, round-a-bout only vehicle insurance? Scary but these cars are coming sooner than later.

yes, it will be scary when there's a mix of driverless and driver operated cars. from what I read, the no-driver cars do everything correctly but they don't account for the mistakes of other cars. the real freedom will come when it's all driverless cars. Frankly, I look forward to it. I don't like to drive so if a car can do it better, so be it.

Our son lives in Los Altos Hills CA and has a Tesla X (I think that's the model) which has the self driving feature. He was at the wheel, but the car was in self-drive mode and it was a bit unnerving at first but it did well on the interstate and in San Francisco city driving. I did wonder how it would do in our round-a-bouts and don't think I want to experience it.

I never felt comfortable using my speed control much less surrendering myself to a computer. But my interest is not in self-driving cars but the legal law/ liability cases that will grow all around them resulting from accidents. finger pointing is going to go from the auto manufacturer, vendors, distributors, suppliers car owners and anyone even remotely in sight.

Recall what it cost Audi and Toyota to defend themselves against "sudden acceleration in terms of liability, defense loss of business, etc

I have been driving for over a half century and about a year ago exiting a Publix lot experienced "sudden acceleration" and for a brief second I wondered why the mechanic of my car failed until it became clear that my foot was resting on both the accelerator and brake.

My guess is that is exactly what happened with Audi Toyota drivers but when a lawsuit entails well ............So many a driver is in for the ride of his/her life with self driving vehicles literally and figuratively speaking

This is probably a lot like the conversation that was had when them horseless carriages came out.

In my recent visit back to Los Altos I saw a few self driving vehicles and I'm hoping they get to the Villages soon. I believe in the technology, and believe it will be really helpful for an aging population. There are lots of people here that can't drive themselves, yet still have appointments and such. Self driving cars would enable them to keep their independence.

I've worked in Silicon Valley with brilliant minds from all over the world. I have no doubt there are engineers who are quite familiar with traffic circles, and have built their complexities into the software. There are even a few traffic circles in their beta testing area, with equally confused drivers, and the cars have been able to traverse them without issues.

my Subaru has adaptive cruise control. used it to drive to Tampa on I-75 then 275. I just set the speed limit and the distance I want to maintain to car in front of me and my car adjusts. I loved it.

It could be fun in our round-abouts. Kinda like bumper cars at the fair.

With tens of thousands people dying in car crashes each year, and with over 1 million miles Google cars have traveled with no accidents (except when a person took control), I'll trust Google.

I love cruise control. I use it anytime I'm going over 25 mph.

If the Russians can hack into one of our political parties who's going to protect us from hacking of the self driver software.
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That's actually a very good question.

Unlike hacked e-mails, a mass hacking of operating vehicles...could be catastrophic. :ohdear:

Listen, My car has adaptive cruise control, lane keeping, etc-I have driven hundreds of miles without having to touch the brake or gas pedal-- its smarter & more responsive than any driver on the road.

Heck, I would just settle for more UBER drivers

In my opinion there is not much difference between the driverless cars and what we have driving in The Villages today. Many of the people behind the wheel act like there is no one behind the wheel making decisions. Many act like the round abouts are their own private driveways and they don't need to pay attention to what they are doing