[rubicon33]

> "If you've ever been to those countries, the first thing you notice as a westerner is that the streets are chaos, traffic rules are barely obeyed, and aggressiveness is required to get anywhere."

I'm going to get down voted for this, but it has to be said.

The whole "well it couldn't drive in X country" scenario is ridiculous. Driving in unruly, chaotic, unregulated environments is NOT a problem for self driving cars to solve.

That type of driving environment certainly IS a problem, but one that has already been solved by good governance, including laws, rules, and regulations for improving safety of traffic. Countries like the United States, among others, have developed a set of rules and regulations that make self driving cars possible within their domain. It's foolhardy to assume self driving cars can, or should, work outside of that domain.

[hueving]

If you're solution to the problem is to not solve it under the constraints offered, then you're not really solving it. Someone could easily use your argument to say we shouldn't have self driving cars in the US either when we can just use automated trains.

[rubicon33]

> "If you're solution to the problem is to not solve it under the constraints offered, then you're not really solving it."

That is of course, unless, you DO solve it under other constraints. Sure, you haven't solved X problem with Y solution, but you've still solved X problem. Self driving cars may not be the solution to ALL kinds of traffic problems, but it turns out, they don't have to be.

[taneq]

I partly agree with you but I feel population density is also a major contributing factor here.