The benefit for rural drivers is certainly there as you say.
It was the many folks in many threads talking about trying to get a self-driving car to understand their unmapped dirt roads, deep snow, roads with no lines, finding the right parking space in a farm yard, etc., that make me think they’re gonna be underserved until late in the AI car switchover. And that these folks are gonna demand pickup trucks for their legit needs; short-range Googlepods won’t do it for them.
Not that those issues are necessarily show-stoppers for rural-appropriate AI vehicles. But they will be a long way from the fat part of the market that Google, Apple, Tesla, et al, will be targeting at first.
Sorry I wasn’t a bit more specific in what I meant.
Right. If the human driver has to be watching out all the time in case she needs to take over, then she might as well be driving and in that case why buy the automaton car, which at introduction will be more expensive than the conventional one.
except that’s more or less how the air brakes on heavy trucks work. the air pressure from the engine-driven compressor disengages the brakes. when the driver presses the pedal, the actuators at the wheels release the air pressure and the springs let the (self-energizing) drum brakes engage. and in the event of a loss of air pressure, the brakes will fully engage.
Existing active cruise control systems already understand following distance just fine. Self driving cars wont rear end other cars. You have already mischarachterized my “slow down or stop” into slam on the brakes and come to a screeching stop. There are about 50 shades of grey area in there that the car can utilize, and will on a minute to minute basis. I used amusement park rides as an example of methodology, not identical implementation.