Will Pedestrians Walk Freely

Why would pedestrians walk freely in a world of self-driving cars when we can't walk freely now (snark, snark, snark).  We see some definite comedy in this one.  (Science Daily:  Will pedestrians walk freely in a world of self-driving cars?)

The premise in the science is over time with self-driven cars and after standard cars have largely faded away or been legislated away, etc, people will lose automobile safety as part of their frame of reference and we will walk into the street with indifference toward whether any cars are on it since we will be safe in the knowledge their programming will force them to stop.

Immediately the Skeptic jumps to his feet, screaming, "I don't bloody trust their programming."

Naturally, we respond, "Right you are, Skeptical Sam.  You look for that Microsoft label just to be sure in the knowledge there's no fucking way it will work or at least not for long.  Believe it and you will soon be a deceased pedestrian."


Assuming Microsoft isn't allowed into the game and all these self-driving cars really will stop, it leads the authors to the Golden Future.

The ultimate impacts of autonomous vehicles depend not only on technological advances and market adoption, but also on how planners and policy makers respond, Millard-Ball concludes.  One approach would be to maintain traffic speeds by eliminating crosswalks, erecting fences between the sidewalk and roadway to corral pedestrians, and stepping up enforcement against jaywalkers.

Alternatively, planners could seize the opportunity to create more pedestrian-oriented streets, and relegate drop-offs to the fringes of urban commercial districts.

Autonomous vehicles could usher in a new era of pedestrian supremacy.

- Science Daily

Gee, I'm seeing Bambi and Thumper and all the cartoon kids after that one.

We don't want pedestrian supremacy, we want that cool anti-grav device so I can strap it on to become my own personal spaceship.  Eat your heart out, Flash Gordon.

The idea of self-driving cars is an unusual thing when it must have originated on university campuses and there's one thing we know for sure about such campuses that a self-driving car would never get anywhere on one because students would constantly walk in front of it.  University students do not accept cars exist or even should exist and will walk blithely in front of one without a second thought. Your frustrated little self-driving car will sit there until either all of the students go home or you can put the car into manual and put the fear of death into some of them.  They will move (larfs).

Frankly, we think self-driving cars just substitute one problem for another and the grid lock will still be a grid lock except then it moves in a unified flow of automotive molasses.  The cars are smaller but they will just make more of them for zero sum gain.  It appears much like Boston's Big Dig which has taken twenty years or so to transform Boston from a traffic hellhole to, well, it's still a traffic hellhole.  There's no expectation self-driving cars will substantively change automotive hellholes to anything more than smarter hellholes, possibly with better music but, given current trends, we doubt it.

(Ed:  well, thanks for sucking all the sunshine out of the whole fucking Universe!)

Well, not after five o'clock.