How Are The Rules Of The Road Going To Change When Driverless Cars Are The Norm?

By the time Driverless cars are the "NORM" - it won't make a difference - because drivers will have virtually NO control of the car anymore anyway. Speed limits will be enforced electronically from outside the car - as will acceleration rates - space between cars - and even slowing down on curves because ALL cars in the line will have to be the SAME for this to work. Since acceleration - and braking and turning speeds will all be controlled outside the car - AND - the car will already keep you in lane - the only thing needed will be to key in your destination - and sort of GUIDE the car without much control except direction. Eventually - the car will even force you to turn - when a detour would be better too.

Since the cars will be of no Joy to drive - there will be no WANT to drive them - you will not have Manual controls. ANd - that will be the end of the Performance car business too. IF you can only accelerate as fast as the SLOWEST car sold - why would you want a car that "Could" go fast - but only on another planet!

How will the rules change? It's conceivable that:

1) Governments will issue a set of ill-conceived (but well-intentioned) "rules" (AKA laws) for autonomous cars.

2) Manufacturers will implement these legal rules as literal rules, which exist in computer software (computer code).

3) The autonomous cars' computers will obey the rules -- and *only* the rules -- to the letter. They will not make inferences or employ human-like "common sense."

4) Deficiencies in the rules will be identified as having contributed to the problem (...Well, the computer did *exactly* what the law required of it, and vehicles collided and people got hurt). Car companies will prove that the government mandated rules are being followed, but the outcome was inconsistent with the rules' creators' (lawmakers) intent.

5) Governments will add more rules (laws), as they have in the past, believing this is the answer to all problems. It won't be, as lawmakers are not systems engineers or code-jockeys.

6) We'll be in this spin for quite some time, muddling our way through this new way of life, as we work to figure it out.

The tragically amusing time will be when large numbers of driver driven cars share the road with large numbers of autonomously driven cars. The former group rarely follows speed limits and the latter must. The former is totally unpredictable at times and the latter totally within predetermined parameters. The former can be tired, moody, drunk, high, angry, distracted, etc and the latter only clinical and precise. What will happen when some doped up drunk driver and his friends decide to mess with cars they know cannot hit them? While driver driven cars may be outlawed one day there will be a transition period where and when unforeseen consequences will occur.

traffic cops will be obsolete.

"What will happen when some doped up drunk driver and his friends decide to mess with cars they know cannot hit them?"

I love comments like this. Guy is worried about some ridicuous imaginary future problem when the reality is 40,000 people in this country were killed in traffic accidents last year.

No, he was just worried about being on the road with you.