PMF.... When the electronic calculator replaced the slide rule, people forgot how to use slide rules. You rarely see a slide rule anymore except in museums.
When television became popular, radio was nearly abandoned until rescued by talk radio and music stations.
The self-driving car has the same effect - people will forget how to drive a normal car, losing valuable skills of remaining alert to our surroundings. People will happily text away while ignoring traffic lights, pedestrians, and danger - in fact, they already do that now even with normal cars. It will be much worse with self-driving cars. They won't see any danger ahead.
The self-driving car will invite government to install programs into its computer to limit where people might travel, programs to tax people based on future plans for travel, and tax by the mile traveled. It becomes a human control mechanism, a means to approve and disapprove internal movement of populations. It is a trap.
Self-driving cars can lock humans inside the car so they cannot get out. Imagine a government tax collector locking a delinquent taxpayer inside his car until he comes up with more tax money. Imagine a citizen wanting to leave the country but finding himself automatically locked inside his car when he crosses the border without official permission.
Imagine the police wanting to talk to a witness or victim, taking control of their self-driving car and by remote command, driving the car to the police station with the people locked inside until they arrive.
It's a trap. It is not a convenience.
Poster Comment:
Think of self-driving car as a co-pilot. Two drivers better, safer than one; humans subject to momentary inattention,distraction, syncope.