Rocket Ship, Flying Vehicle or Driverless Car? Guess Which Americans Fear Most

June 20, 2017

  • June 20, 2017 at 2:43 pm
    Israel Silverman says:
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    Wise. I remember when the joke was cars running on Windows, and you have a crash. And now we have it.

    In space, there are no unusual objects.

    • June 20, 2017 at 4:49 pm
      Counterpoint says:
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      Unfortunately, space has tons of unusual objects. These objects are worse because they are small, hard to see, and moving at hundreds of meters per second. A small collision with one of these pieces of inter-planetary junk can cripple a spacecraft and render it unable to re-enter the atmosphere if it isn’t destroyed out-of-hand.

      • June 21, 2017 at 12:21 pm
        UW says:
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        Yeah, anybody that thinks they are safer of space might already have their head there. The technology in driverless cars is nothing but advanced cruise control now, but at least you can pull over and get out and it doesn’t blow up when you pull out of your driveway.

  • June 20, 2017 at 3:26 pm
    Agent says:
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    Something about that Tesla not being able to recognize an 18 wheeler gives people pause on autonomous vehicles. That and having a few thousand of them on the road dealing with 200 million texting while driving is a dangerous prospect.

    • June 20, 2017 at 4:54 pm
      Counterpoint says:
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      The accident record for self driving cars, even with the recent publicized crashes, is still far better than humans. In fact, humans are the cause of Tesla cases like this.

      The issue with the Tesla cases that people often cite is that the systems in those cars are level 3 which means humans aren’t able to fully disengage from driving. Experts believe that these systems are probably more dangerous than level 4-5 systems (almost full autonomy) or level 1-2 systems (nearly no autonomy) because drivers feel like they are just safe enough to relax but actually should have the same attention they would if they were normally driving.

      • June 20, 2017 at 6:07 pm
        UW says:
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        No, the accident record is not better. The only semi-official numbers we have are from the industry, and compare all their miles driven to the total accident rate. Most of their numbers were on rural and /or relatively empty roads while the rates they compared to included heavy urban driving. They compared apples to oranges. That’s before you even consider of they lied, which is likely based on their history.

        This technology could be good for rural driving and highway driving, but it’s nowhere near working in heavily populated areas where the benefits would be best, and they won’t work there without massive public spending which would be better spent on other things, like public transportation.

        But, people love their vaporware and will keep pushing their “stats.”

  • June 20, 2017 at 6:56 pm
    Autonomous Hopeful says:
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    I fear the texting manual drivers, not the autonomous vehicles. Toll roads would be a great place to start – with only autonomous vehicles allowed. All vehicles would move at the same speed with no passing. All vehicles would need to have airless tires so a blow out wouldn’t cause a major disaster. All vehicles should also be equipped with well-tested deer whistles. Next to implement could be epicenters where access can be controlled, like Manhattan and downtown Las Vegas – only autonomous vehicles allowed.

    • June 21, 2017 at 9:05 am
      UW says:
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      Should the government spend the billions of dollars needed to build these roads running right next to existing infrastructure, intended for a couple companies to use technology that doesn’t work right now?

  • June 26, 2017 at 11:25 am
    Interested says:
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    I feel I would be more inclined toward driverless vehicles if the current vehicles being released on the roads were not being found with so many manufacturing errors. Since issues have been revealed in that past that vehicle corporations have been known to cover up vehicle defects for profit, it does concern me that we are supposed to trust driverless cars even when coming from companies like Google and Uber. I think it is important that safety is a primary concern in this new territory. Eventually, I would be inclined to purchase a driverless car once the technology has been perfected and other people have become the guinea pigs of any technical errors. I would like to see the vehicle perform flawlessly for maybe 5 years at least before considering upgrading.



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