President Trump: The NEW one and only politics thread

Old people, technology and cars - that's a winning combination.

 

The problem isn't the talk. It's the ability to enforce your intentions if you live far away. You can take the keys, but what if the parent simply goes to a locksmith? If you don't live close enough to monitor, you are limited in your abilities.

 

Simple fix is to allow drivers to set the braking sensitivity level from Canadian (will stop on a dime for a rabbit) to New Yorker (will mow down pedestrians who aren't fast enough to get out of the way, and flip them the bird after running them over). Problem solved.

 

The TV script that I'm working is set about 20 years in the future. We had a "learning to drive" scene before realizing that it might be a moot point. Decided that a responsible parent would still want his or her children to learn how to drive, just in case. Also wanted the goddamn scene.

Either way, it feels like we're a long way from nobody driving. Never mind all the people who will still want to drive. Like me. I would not be happy in an autonomous vehicle.

 

The rules in Tennessee. where my dad lives: "Licenses are renewed every five years, with no special provisions for older drivers. A bill introduced in 2006 to require vision and driving tests for seniors never advanced in the legislature."

And what do you envision these cars costing?

 

I just have to accept that I will never understand America.

 

I'm half with you. For certain trips - driving to the cabin on dirt roads or running errands on a spring day with the top down on my Jeep - I'd never give up the steering wheel. But driving across Kansas to Denver? Or through the traffic nightmare that is Mobile to Gulf Shores on a Saturday in June? Give me the robot car.

 

What will be interesting is if autonomous vehicles result in, say, 20 percent fewer accidents, but still have plenty of accidents. I'm not sure people would accept them, even if there was a provable reduction. It's like they need to be perfect or won't happen.

 

I think the primary reasons autonomous vehicles will never catch on are psychological. 1. Many people like driving . 2. One reason they do is that it gives them control over a part of their life that consumes a good deal of time, maybe the only part where they have control. 3. Autonomous vehicle equals total loss of said control.

 

What if the person with a robot car is inexcusably lax about routine maintenance?

Car senses its tires are bald or that its brakes are about to go and won't start?