This isn't even about cars (self driving or not) per se. It's about someone doing something different and all the comments amounting to this isn't how I'm used to things working, and I don't like change anyway. As Elon Musk puts it, you can't necessarily ask people what they want because the answers will be incremental updates to the status quo.

Since you insisted on cars: the short answer is that theres lots of evidence humans can't drive cars. It goes well 99.9% of the time and the rest ends up being 30000 people dead every year, many of them not in a car at their death. So they died for somebody elses convenience, and that turns out to be a rather common occurence with cars and all the things they bring along (just look for the free parking debate below). So the sentiment in countries that have had cars for a long a time and have seen the effects of that is shifting to no longer put up with it, certainly in cities where suburbia descends every morning.

> 30000 people dead every year,

It's worse than that: the annual global estimates are 1.2 million dead, 50 million injured. [1]

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Epidemiology_of_motor_vehicle_c...

You are blowing the post you are responding to far out of proportion. (Who said anything about self-driving cars becoming mandatory?) Your whole comment seems to be spoiling for a fight where none was sought, which is much more disagreeable to me as an HN reader than any of the other behaviors you mention.

You can bet that as soon as they solve all the technical problems, Google will be lobbying to make them mandatory.

Even if they don't lobby for them, insurance will very quickly make them the only option. Eventually, insurance cost for manual cars will be many times greater than the one for self-driving cars, making all manual cars prohibitively expensive to drive - and then after another decade or two of that, the percentage of manual cars left on the market will be so tiny,that they will be banned altogether, restricted to race tracks and private property.

What is your reasoning for why insuring manual cars would be any more expensive than it is now? If anything, it would be less expensive since those cars are sharing the road with safer self-driving cars.

If manual cars were comparatively more expensive then psychology might come into play and people would be reluctant to go for the more-expensive manual option.

I propose that the polarization of the opinions on this thread are due to the relationship between the relevance of the announcement and the time it'll take to become a mainstream polarizing issue. I tend to lurk on HN, mostly because I'm not on obsessively enough to have any relevant comments before a thread is mature. I think many lurkers share my interest in the subject matter, but are storing it away as a data point to be considered in the future rather than a policy discussion generator now.

I've broken out of my normal mode in case you actually believe that HN's general opinion on this technology is a consensus that entirely disagrees with you. Personally, I'm excited for the technology to become mature enough to become a consumer product, but I'm unlikely to remand control of my personal vehicle to automation if I don't plan on drinking.

I know that retaining my vain control obsession over my vehicle will eventually make me one of the more dangerous vehicles on the road (as the share of quality autonomous vehicles increases in the future), and I know that I'll buy one for my family (whenever that happens). Until my body fails me or I don't have enough time to drive, I'm going to ride my motorcycle and drive my car myself, while sincerely encouraging literally everyone else to get an autonomous vehicle. I know that there will be others like me, and I know that these people will either evolve into very good drivers or angry teenagers. Regardless, the road will be safer for all, and our collective time will be less wasted on piloting tasks.

You're not alone.

*EDIT I should note that I'm a U.S. resident. My daily commute is >50 mi, though I'm looking to relocate. Public transit doesn't exist for my home and work destinations without significant (>4 hours a day) layover and transit times.

"I dread the day when self-driving cars become mandatory"

The upshot of this is that this probably won't happen until after you become unable to drive yourself. I'm sure there will always be a market for enclosed driving courses/racetracks anyway.