[dkastner]

Prior art: trains.

Seriously, though, this is a complete waste of time. Mass transit has been solving the problem of getting people from point A to point B without them having to do the piloting for a hundred years. What we really need to be spending our money on is rebuilding the streetcar and intercity rail systems that used to connect nearly every town in the country and electrifying them. This will drastically reduce our reliance on fossil fuels (because oil is the only portable energy source cheap and powerful enough for automobiles) and reducing greenhouse gasses. Instead, we're talking about an overly complex solution involving creation of an automated driving system on all our highways and compelling thousands of users to upgrade to driverless cars, which may or may not be electric.

In other words, Google's driverless car is to transportation as Dart is to DOM scripting.

[JabavuAdams]

So, I've been a life-long rider of mass-transit in Toronto, and Southern Ontario. I think I was 30 before I actually had to drive to a job.

You know what -- I hate transit during rush hour. It's uncomfortable, you don't get a seat. Ugh. During the off-times, it's great.

Traffic sucks, but at least you've got a little bubble of space over which you have control. This is psychologically significant.

Think of the difference between having a desk whose layout (or lack thereof) you control, versus working elbow-to-elbow at a long table with other people's jostling you and their crap falling in your space.

People need a certain amount of control over their space.

[thebooktocome]

Do trains use QR codes to park? I can't find a good source.

[dkastner]

Yes, I know that patent is actually more specific than "driverless car." I was just being snarky.

[omouse]

I don't understand why you would do that when patents are a legitimate concern and are a problem.

[hkolek]

I get the impression you think that electricity is automatically clean energy. Have you ever thought about how that electricity is generated? Ever heard about coal or nuclear power plants etc.? Do you think they're are environmentally friendly?

[dkastner]

Yes, I realize that most of our electricity comes from coal, natural gas, and nuclear. However, that fact doesn't preclude the idea of using solar, wind, tidal, and geothermal energy to generate all electricity. It's much more difficult to use these energy sources to power automobiles than it is for trains.