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Comment by tc313 | Hacker News Reader

Most middle- and upper-class Americans take a driver’s education course (like what you’ve described) prior to receiving their driver’s license. In 10 years it won’t even be necessary because nobody’s going to be driving themselves anyway.

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A lot of the cars on the road right now are ten years old or older. Even if self driving cars became a thing that anybody can afford right now it would take longer than ten years before nobody had to drive themselves.

In my country (Finland), the average age of cars used in traffic is 13 years.

Except pedestrians, bikers, cyclists, etcetera. (Plus you are overestimating the rate of change: I still see horse carriages on the road, 100+ years after the beginning of the car era)

And don't get me started on driver ed in PA, USA: in my case, it consisted of a video, signing an drivers' permit application - and voila, go out there and drive (under supervision). I was shocked, shocked.

In the UK you can get a provisional license that allows supervised driving with zero training. It's assumed your supervisor (anyone holding a driving licence for something like 7 years or more) will stop you doing stupid shit.

Interesting. I was so used to the continental idea "driver school takes at least weeks and is like any other training, except it's in a car" that the opposite approach was highly unexpected to me; it does make sense though.

>> In 10 years it won’t even be necessary because nobody’s going to be driving themselves anyway.

Try 50+ years. Driverless cars aren't happening anytime soon, and certainly not to a level where you literally don't need a licence to drive one.

And public transport definitely isn't going to be taking up the slack given the catastrophic decline in public investment therein.

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