I would be so much more likely to make frequent cross country trips to visit family and so much less likely to ever book a flight unless I'm needing to cross water. I wonder how this would hit the airlines in the US.
It's going to be a long time before a Google car can just drive anywhere you tell it to.
Also, errors in street-view are minor annoyance; for a self-driving car, an error in its internal map could be deadly.
And because such a thing would be a huge win for trucking companies I fully expect the US will eventually instrument the entire interstate system to make this happen. (i.e. there is enough money in it to make it happen.)
Fully autonomous local driving is not likely to happen till we have real AI that can understand things like: the guy down the street is unloading a construction vehicle, so make a U-turn and go down a different street.
People fly to save time, and if youre going to a hub city (I.e. Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, Atlanta, etc.) It will likely be cheaper to fly as well, I just booked a flight from San Francisco to Chicago for $148 (driving would easily be $250).
(Which also makes me wonder how you can do that trip in 20 hours. Speeding indeed :)
Additionally, on the intrastate highways, the speed limits are set by local districts so local districts who like making money will often change their speed limit for any highways that go near by them so they can speed trap people.
Last time I drove it took me four days, but I only drove 8 hours a day and took a long way around.
Would be interesting though - I can imagine a Mad Max-like future where roving bandits set traps for autonomous cars being sent on errands by the wealthy elite.
I am not a Tesla owner, so please correct me if I got the cost/mileage of the tires wrong.
Are you sure about this? Tires usually last 30-60k miles.
The bus service from Houston to Miami is a little less okay, but it's because it's 1900 kM and won't have a lot of users (Google suggests public transport would take 34 hours, a train and a couple of buses).
Of course you have to pickup and dropoff at their location, and you don't have a car to use at your destination.
Maybe by itself, but when you factor in how awful air travel is getting, it might have a bigger impact than it otherwise would. I'm planning a flight from Austin to Chicago later this summer and I'm seriously considering driving because my last two experiences flying have been so awful thanks to the TSA.
For travel within cities, autonomous electric vehicles will ultimately surpass rail travel. That will happen within several decades.
The cost of car use and ownership will plunge. Software and constantly improving batteries will eat the expense out of the heart of the machines.
What's the cost and usefulness to run high speed rail between two mid-sized Romanian cities that are 60km or 100km apart? Right, it's wildly impractical. Inexpensive, autonomous, electric vehicles however are the future and will be extremely practical for all purposes except very long distance travel between two major cities. No other scenario will justify spending the vast sums of money required to install and upkeep high speed railway - and that cost will only continue to climb with wages and security threats in Europe; meanwhile electric, autonomous vehicles will bring the cost of vehicles down dramatically over time.
If anyone thinks that there is the road capacity for a million self-driving cars to drop passengers during every morning rush hour in Mid/Downtown Manhattan or the City of London, they are deluded.
What's the cost of building from scratch and maintaining year-on-year a road along the same line, including vehicle and operating costs, before subsidies? That is - what would it actually cost you to drive a car if your taxes weren't paying for it?
Hint - it differs for nearly every situation, and even the idea of high speed rail - 125mph or higher - is not necessarily useful in all situations. A decent commuter line with good bus links to every station is potentially more useful than a high-speed line which zips past dozens of towns.
I believe they say in there that they got highway driving down really early on. They have been focusing on urban driving for the last few years.
https://www.ted.com/talks/chris_urmson_how_a_driverless_car_...