Chevy Volt a Failure - GM to Layoff 1,300

More on the tent and other Tesla manufacturing failures:

Tesla is building Model 3s in a tent. Elon Musk says it's 'pretty sweet'; expert calls it 'insanity'

Um, it has NO air conditioning? Work force has gotta love that!

 

Wall Street is not impressed by Tesla's Model 3 milestone; stock falls again on negative notes

 

When I went in to my local car repair place, the owner said he just came back from a conference where he was told to be ready for human-driven cars to be legislated off the roads in 20 years.

He said once 40% of the cars are driverless, then the government will step in. That is what they are preparing for in the automotive industry. I could see countries like France, Japan and England getting there in under 20 years.

 

Agreed.

The next step in this process has to be 'smart' highways. Autonomous cars and trucks alone won't work.

 

Where I live new signs have been installed on all numbered county roads, so drivers can coordinate with GPS.

I don't know about everywhere, but likely major cities will be the first to mostly exclude human-driven vehicles, especially if there's a quick buck to be made.

 

Wouldn't automated cars also be limited in their ability to any laws or regulations?
If a car cannot break a traffic law, is incapable of breaking a traffic law, you decrease the number of traffic cops necessary.
Those cops, or some of them, would be reassigned to pedestrian patrol, until such time as people become enculturated to understand that pedestrian rules are important to the smooth flow of traffic.

It is hard to imagine how long something like this might take. 20 year seems very ambitious but I do think it'll happen in my lifetime.
NYC traffic is crazy, but think of places such as Manilla and Lagos. I use those examples because I've witness the traffic in those cities firsthand.

In fact, when we were in Nigeria we were asked to attend a community meeting about traffic laws and their role in limiting accidents.
A gentleman asked me: If I came to a stop sign at a four-way intersection and saw now other vehicles and no people and no police, would I stop.
I said yes.
He said, what if you could see, unobstructed, for a mile in every direction. There are no other cars, no people, no cops. Would I stop?
I said, probably yes. I just automatically stop at a stop sign. I don't really think about it; I just do it.
And he laughed, literally, in my face.

 

37,000 people die on American roads each year. 2.35 million more injured each year.

1.3 million deaths and 30 million injured world wide.

Road Crash Statistics

Those are staggering numbers.

 

Elon Musk ordered Tesla engineers to stop doing a critical brake test on Model 3s

 

OK, I'm really not trying to diminish the emotion and tragedy of traffic deaths.
But statistically speaking, it's a matter of scale.
When you look at total population in the US and worldwide and the total hours of road time, considering it is an inherently dangerous activity ...

That is not to say that we should not strive to improve traffic safety, but there are a lot of people logging a lot of road time. When you look at volume numbers, the traffic deaths and injuries are going to look big.

 

In 1960, it was . . . 36, 399.

In 1969, it was 53,543.

Our population has nearly doubled since then, and the number of miles driven nearly quintupled.

Automobiles are safer than ever.