Cars That Drive Themselves, a Semi-Dissent

By Sean Turner

This is my first guest post frankly on anything. I think I’ll ease into it with some dialogue on TAE’s thoughts on automated vehicles.


I admit when I first read about TAE’s thoughts on automated vehicles here, here, here, and here (as well as possibly other posts I’ve missed) I disagreed. I thought that while the majority of people piloting their vehicles were incompetent and mindless, that I wouldn’t give up my “right” to drive my own vehicle. Let me put some background behind this.

I have always been interested in cars and racing. Growing up in the sixties, my dad modified his cars. My mom drag raced in Michigan in her 20’s. During college, my two closest friends were both ingrained with the cars/racing bug. One roommate rode motocross. The other raced late model stock cars before he came to college. Both had different thoughts on what was best, but both influenced my love for racing and all things automotive. During college, my roommates and I participated in autocrosses and raced go-karts for fun. These two activities really taught me car control and the physics of driving. Thus, my car-snob mentality.

I am not sure I could imagine no one having control of their own vehicle, or at least me not. What I really couldn’t handle is it being unlawful for me to drive my own car at least sometimes.

What I imagine is a world where the people who don’t want to drive a car have the ability to get anywhere they need to safely and on time. The other X% of individuals who wanted to drive cars would have to pass much more stringent exams before getting behind the wheel of a missile with wheels. They would need to understand car control, and have much practice with controlling a car once it all goes wrong. It’s easy for most people to pilot a car in a straight line, but a car sideways at as slow as 20mph is a different beast all together.

The biggest hurdle to all of this (automated cars, safer driving, or any sort of change in transportation) is ease of transition. We’ve proven time and time again that as far as vehicles are concerned we won’t make a cold-turkey change. It costs money for public transportation infrastructure; it takes money and time to convert everything over to new types of fuel. All of this the end user pays for and when given a choice, they will keep doing what they’ve always been doing because it’s easier in the short term.

This is where I agree with TAE’s philosophy on using current technologies and putting them together in a way that makes better technology. Instead of having to wait for something to be invented, use the things we currently have invented to make the driving world safer.


-H-T-E