Re:India will ban driverless cars in order to protect jobs
by danenania on Monday July 24, 2017 @09:52PM
(#14844458)
Fracking, for all its controversy, does not outright kill random people when something goes wrong. Whenever there's a problem, it's going to be front page news, and people (old people in particular) are going to call their political representatives and complain. This is going to become a massive political football. There's no way it gets introduced smoothly and quickly--that's just a futurist daydream.
Re:India will ban driverless cars in order to protect jobs
by nradov on Monday July 24, 2017 @10:56PM
(#14844760)
No that's not how auto insurance works. It's a commodity with high competition and low profit margins. Insurance companies set prices based on expected losses. There's no reason to think that the arrival of level 4 autonomous vehicles would cause an increase in losses on human driven vehicles. If one insurer jacks up prices then the others will undercut them to gain market share.
Normally, you would be correct. However, there will be so much at stake that there will be huge amounts of money greasing the skids on any required legislation.
Real Level 3 Autonomy will displace 75% of truckers almost immediately--that's 1.5 million jobs lost. You will have one or two drivers in the front truck and a half-dozen trucks running autonomously but slaved to the front truck. WalMart will almost certainly lead the charge.
Level 4 autonomy will allow the insurance companies to jack insurance rates on normal drivers through the roof. You will get a massive insurance discount if you never touch the wheel (removes human driver error--total monitoring so always other driver's fault).
With that much money at stake, the obstacles will melt like ice in the summertime. See: Fracking in Pennsylvania for an example of how fast legislation can move with enough money behind it.