Why such a big push for self driving cars??

[Knicks2012]

Why are tech and auto companies making such a big push for self driving cars??

 

[USAFRet]

$$$, and because they think they can.

 

[steve1985]

so the isis dont have to blow themselves up anymore.

they are making self driving cars. or modifying them to self drive

 

[Maarsch]

Isn't something like 90% of all fatalities due to/in cars due to the driver.
I mean, there's trees that fall on cars, deer that come through the window, mechanical failure and all that, but the majority of deaths is due to the driver.
Eliminate that and you're saving a ton of people's lives.

Then there's the increase in efficiency to consider. There's a lot of traffic jams caused by driving behaviour (like this for instance).
I'm sure there have been studies into what kind of money is being lost due to traffic, and how much of that is due to driver behaviour/stupidity.

And companies will earn off it, of course.

 

[MU_Engineer]

Two reasons.

1. It is the next big expensive fad feature. The automobile is a mature product and has now become reliable enough that the average age of a vehicle on the road is about 12 years, compared to about two years in the 1960s. The automakers are running into the Microsoft problem where the biggest competition to new products is people hanging onto older, still fully functional products. Cars that allow people that don't really want to drive to not actually have to drive may be a feature that would spur a greater than expected number of people to get rid of their fully functional existing vehicles and pay a high premium for a new one.

2. There are elitists that do not particularly like the fact that the "unwashed masses" have the ability to easily, quickly, and inexpensively travel where and when they want to. Legally mandating autonomous cars and then pricing them out of reach of the unwashed masses forces them to live in certain areas and use public transportation which is at the whim of the government that runs it. Also you would have to expect that at some point some Orwellian government official would propose and probably get passed a regulation restricting peoples' travels in autonomous cars "for the common good."

You can pry the steering wheel and gearshift out of my cold, dead hands.

 

[Ralston18]

And the insurance companies will love it.

Who is actually at fault for an accident: hardware, software, firmware, the kids in the back seat?

No claims will be paid while the issues are fought out in the courts for years.....

But having some sort of insurance will be mandatory and just guess who will still be paying for that.

The "unwashed masses" (thank you MU_Engineer) is my bet.