[iSnow]

>Unless you change the only fundamental aspects of owning a car (driving, parking, and maintenance), all you're doing is polishing a turd.

I guess the real disruption in the automotive sector would be a focus on mobility instead of owning a car. Have a smartphone app where you could call a shared car from wherever you are whenever you wanted. It appears 10m later, takes you to your destination and then goes back into the pool.

At least in the big cities, a whole lot of people would forgo car ownership if such a service was available.

[abalone]

That service is available. You've exactly described Uber.

Driverless cars would be (further) disruptive but only if driverless cars are actually possible. That is mostly a tech press peak hype cycle fantasy right now. Even Google made a public statement throwing cold water on that, saying it could take 30 years.

Meanwhile the disruption we could actually face is with 10X improvements in safety and comfort via semi-autonomous driver assistance features. A car that mostly takes care of itself, but still requires a human pilot that remains engaged, aware and alert, particularly in situations that are more dicey. You know, like how airplane autopilot works.

[greedo]

Careful, your karma might not take the hit from the autonomous driving crowds at HN. I keep looking at the state of the art systems for autonomous vehicles, and shake my head. I don't expect to see them in use in the US in any serious numbers before I die. The obstacles are just too complex/difficult. We always denigrate people's intelligence, but the human mind is pretty incredible at processing things spatially, even when distracted in a minivan hurtling down an Interstate.