Automated cars were first introduced to me by my brainy husband. Cars that you can get in and will essentially drive us to where we need to go, no steering or foot on the pedal required.
Sound scary or weird?
Well how is this for both as David Strickland, the head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, points out: human error was a factor in about 90 percent of the more than 33,000 traffic deaths in 2010.
90 percent!!!!! We have nothing to lose.
Strickland says, “We have the chance of … saving thousands and thousands of lives as” cars in use today are replaced with automated vehicles, he said.
That is hopeful.
I don't see it happening for a long time due to government sticky tape and red blooded Americans saying, I'm an American, it's my right to drive my car, dang gummit.
So let's say it passes in 10 years, we will only lose about 1/2 million more people to car crashes, because that's how many we have lost roughly in the last 10 years.
If it passes in 40 years, we will lose a mere 2 million more people to car crashes.
My anger aside, it is hopeful and you should click on the link to the article. As the article notes it will be great for the elderly, which we will probably all be by the time this passes. Sounds great to me!
I'm learning as I go and it turns out one of the inventors of the driverless cars is fueled by his passion to save lives. Google's Sebastian Thrun speaks about it here.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp9KBrH8H04]