[gaius]

Heh, I have a friend who is all rah-rah for self-driving cars. He also likes to go camping. So I asked him, when you show up at the site and the farmer says, top field, past the sheep, turn left at the tractor, what's your self-driving car going to do? Hmm, he said, well it would need some sort of touch screen interface for that. Or I said, some sort of "steering wheel"...

[elliottkember]

I don't think "self-driving car" and "driveable car" are mutually exclusive. Self-driving mode for roads, highways, parking, commuting... manual override for the countryside.

[dragonwriter]

> Heh, I have a friend who is all rah-rah for self-driving cars. He also likes to go camping. So I asked him, when you show up at the site and the farmer says, top field, past the sheep, turn left at the tractor, what's your self-driving car going to do?

I don't see any problem with that, even with no direct controls. That's probably a situation that requires more detailed navigational input from a driver than providing a destination for road driving and letting the system handle the routing, but doesn't necessarily require actually manual driving. And, even if it did, even fully automated cars that are designed for personal ownership and (especially) for off-road use are likely to have full-control overrides available for some time.

Of course, camp sites and other destinations that people are expected to drive to will probably also have navigation information or guides available that self-driving cars can follow when self-driving cars are common, rendering the whole hypothetical largely moot.

[gaius]

I can imagine the look on the average farmer's face when some city folk in their self driving car ask him to lead them up to the field himself. He'd probably just leave them there and drive off in his tractor, chuckling to himself.

[dragonwriter]

> I can imagine the look on the average farmer's face when some city folk in their self driving car ask him to lead them up to the field himself.

I think you've badly misunderstood what "nagivational information or guides" means.

[gaius]

And I think you've badly misunderstood what driving in the British countryside means :-p

[dragonwriter]

And I think you've badly misunderstood what "when self-driving cars are common" means.

Its not a change that leaves the rest of the world the same as it is today.