Originally posted by dbs The cramming of people into large and larger cities then yes autonomous vehicles will probably prevail.but only in the city.
The greater outdoors not yet..But if you live in the large cities where do you park your own vehicle,so you can go to the great outdoors?
Dave
I live right on the edge of a large city and I avoid driving downtown if I can avoid it. Living on the edge
as it were and being retired I can scoot out of town quickly....in about 7-10 minutes.
I live on the northern great plains of North America, but I'm also living on the edge here. About 100 miles away to the east, is the Canadian Shield ...a vast area of lakes, rocks and trees....about 120-200 miles northwest I'm in the Boreal forest.
I'm in the west and my favorite part of the west goes about 1200 files further west...through pure prairie...farms...then eventually cattle ranches the farther west you go....then after that the foothills to the Rockies...and then the Rockies. It's hot in the summer, can be very cold and snowy in the winter...fall is beautiful and so is spring.
Hard to beat. Gee hope I haven't given away the secret of how good it is out here.
The highways are for the most part...during the weekdays.... not terribly busy. I do a lot of back road driving in obscure and little traveled areas...summer, winter, spring and fall...I have a pretty good , general idea of this large western region and usually just use my in car compass to guide me around different areas. Of course being a Pentaxian I carry my K-1 with 28-105 and K-5 with Sigma 150-500, in case I see some forgotten iron (old machine), wild life (animal, bird) or old building in gracious decay...to photograph.
I do have a back roads map book (paper) and have never really gotten lost, as long as I have a compass, either in car or hand held. I don't use a GPS direction finder....nor do I want to, as the 'old' technology and my brain so far has worked out real well.
So how is the autonomous system going to work for guys like me, who drive down old back roads, farm roads...not all of them are mapped. I drive down steep inclines...shifting down to first or second...slowly plan where I plant my wheels as I go through badly rutted...or snow drift plagued roads , etc.
I'm generally in an old 6 passenger Buick sedan or a newer large Chevy sedan, not a 4WD pickup. As long as I'm careful...as long as I stop and assess the best angle to go...I've been fine...so far. Discretion is the better part of valor is my guide.
However if a vehicle is autonomous and I have no control over it...also don't know if the hidden away, little road is not programmed into the autonomous computers...just how will all this work out for a guy..admittedly oddball...in driving habits going to be able where he (me) wants to go ?
Will the autonomous vehicle refuse to go where I've...but no other man has gone before ?
Will... ACCESS DENIED...flash on my autonomous vehicle's dashboard...will the car lock up...will the system send an online message somewhere asking for someone to come out and 'confine' me if need be, as I don't have authorization to go where I want ?
I dunno ? But right now, I really do enjoy driving out and through some of these almost untouched spots that are difficult to find and wonderful to appreciate.
I think Dr. Seuss said it best and I quote :
"Oh, the Places You'll Go!" "You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose."
Well...maybe not in the age of autonomous vehicles.
I know, speculation on my part...but are any of us able to predict with certainty what the future holds ? I think not.