With the invention of the automobile the travelling public lost a valuable safety feature– the common sense of the horse pulling the carriage. If the driver fell asleep or tried to drive off the road, the self-preservation instinct of the animal provided backup to the driver’s inattention.
The wheel of progress turns, and supplemental sentience has returned, magnified a thousand-fold. True driverless cars are on the horizon, artificial intelligence replacing human judgment as well as equine rationality.
And then what?
Will human drivers bully robot drivers, not being constrained by algorithms forbidding crowding or tailgating other vehicles? Will enraged human drivers routinely push automated vehicles aside or cut in in front of them?
Will noise levels reach unbearable proportions as delivery vehicles circulate 24/7, or will the combustion engine phase out along with human drivers, dropping traffic noise to an endless purr?
Will parking garages become a thing of the past, reconverted to movie theaters and shopping malls? And if yes, where will all of those autonomous cars go while waiting for their owners to emerge? Will they circle endlessly, creating monumental traffic jams, or drive to the mechanical equivalent of a coffee bar to wait?
Or will we simply give up our personal vehicles in favor of an “on-demand” system? What will happen to the status symbol of a Ferrari, a Rolls-Royce, a Bentley? Will some car brands gravitate to a courteous, refined driving style while others opt for speed and daring?
What happens if a driverless on-demand car arrives at its destination and its passenger refuses to alight? Or is unable to?
When human drivers are put out to pasture, will the human passengers become as obsolete as the buggy whip?
IMAGE:By Blodyn (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons