Driving causes over 30k.

Can we just nuke the entire argument in this thread about vehicle deaths and push self-driving cars as hard as possible?

Pot. Alcohol. Texting. Talking on the phone. They all impair you terribly while driving. That does not require prohibition. That requires taking the human out of the loop for driving ~2.5 tons of metal down the highway.

For starters, I heartily agree. Full stack vehicle automation will save a great deal of lives and property damage.

And then we need to look at "What happens when we have 5 million people unemployed in a short time, due to rapid advancements in automation?" The Democrats aren't looking at this, and nor are the Republicans. Really, no party is looking at this. We have a few economists and scientific-y types talking about Mincome, but aside some experiments in Europe, it's being drowned out.

What do we have that can absorb such a hit on our financial system and not drop in a recession? How do we make sure these people don't simply sink when the 'bots come to take their job?

> How do we make sure these people don't simply sink when the 'bots come to take their job?

They won't so much sink as they will just never float.

I'm a terrible driver, it's just hard to drive when I'm on ADD 100% of the time, and it means that I must live in the city. I look forward very much to self-driving cars.

Sure lets hand the keys to a robot.

Probably better at driving than any human I've ever met.

we really should though

No we shouldn't. It was an unmitigated disaster the first time. Might I recommend Ken Burns excellent documentary on the subject.

Yes, but that was almost a hundred years ago. We've figured out how to ban substances now, as the huge success of the War on Drugs demonstrates. So we should try alcohol again.

(Big, fat /s on that, just in case it's somehow not obvious.)