On Mon, 9 Oct 2017 22:37:43 -0400, Frank Krygowski
wrote:

I wasn't doubting that auto-cars will exist and become popular. I was
doubting that the government will "shove them down our throats."

Well, let's pretend that the "Smart Driverless Highway of the
Future(tm)" is funded with our tax dollars, in order to provide a
suitable arena for testing driverless vehicles. There's little room
in urban areas to build such a highway, so it will likely be carved
out of the existing infrastructure, such a replacing the car pool lane
or ripping up light rail. In order to use this highway, you need a
fully automated and instrumented driverless vehicle, which can be a
car, truck, motorcycle, IoT thingie, eBike, or maybe even a bicycle.
It should be possible to coordinate this mix of speeds and sizes with
proper programming.

The "shove it down our throats" would be at the front end, when the
"Smart Driverless Highway of the Future(tm)" is funded, probably at
the expense of diverting funds for existing highway construction on
the assumption that soon everyone will be driving or riding a
driverless vehicle. "Research" funding will continue in this manner
until the numbers become sufficiently large for a taxpayers revolt.

More simply, "If you want to play in my sand box, you need to follow
my rules".

All this begs the question "Why would the government do this"? Well,
the auto makers have quite a bit of pull in Washington and will not
hesitate to use it to promote their interests. Saving 30,000 lives
per year sounds really good during an election. Promoting the highway
of the future makes normally reactionary politicians sound progressive
which should fit in nicely with "Make America Great Again". More
mundane is that building a highway involves the movement of huge
amounts of public funds, much of which can be diverted for other
purposes. Of course, there's a substantial demand for a driverless
car, initially at the high end, but which will eventually expand to
less sophisticated vehicles, like bicycles. Nothings says "I want it"
more than paying for it in advance:
"Over 35,000 Tesla owners bought ‘fully self-driving’ feature despite
still being unavailable, sources say"
https://electrek.co/2017/10/10/tesla-autopilot-owners-bought-fully-self-driving-capability/

Bonus Drivel:
"Disney's Magic Highway - 1958"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwA7c_rNbJE (8:47)
The driverless car starts at about 3:30.

--
Jeff Liebermann
150 Felker St #D http://www.LearnByDestroying.com
Santa Cruz CA 95060 http://802.11junk.com
Skype: JeffLiebermann AE6KS 831-336-2558