# Self driving cars are still decades away **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [October 10, 2017, 5:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499 "2017-10-10T17:38:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 143
**Author:** ![carrps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carrps/32/2957_2.png) [@carrps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carrps)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 4:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499/2848 "2025-09-20T16:24:43Z")
I see Waymos at lot … probably on average once a week. They drive through my neighborhood all the time. Yesterday, I had my first “interaction.” I was crossing a street, and the Waymo wanted to turn right in front of me. It didn’t run me over. Yay! ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 4:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499/2849 "2025-09-20T16:40:12Z")
I’m not LSLGuy, but possibly because in the end its primary benefit goes to a fascist, snake oil selling idiot? ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499/2850 "2025-09-20T16:51:59Z")
Nearly all CEOs of major companies are assholes. Elon is an outlier but he’s in good company. Where do you draw the line? Just one company that you wouldn’t use regardless of the CEO? Elon owns 12.5% of the company. Around two thirds of the company is institutions so small investors and IRAs. And again over 125,000 employees. Try again. ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 4:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499/2851 "2025-09-20T16:55:39Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > Try again. Nah, you try again. If that’s not enough for ya, where do _you_ draw the line? I won’t buy their products and wouldn’t invest in the company. So if they fail it’s no great problem for me. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499/2852 "2025-09-20T16:56:59Z")
> [@scabpicker](#): > > I won’t buy their products and wouldn’t invest in the company. You wouldn’t anyway. That’s not a real boycott. > [@scabpicker](#): > > So if they fail it’s no great problem for me. So it’s all about you? ---
**Author:** ![scabpicker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/scabpicker/32/8268_2.png) [@scabpicker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scabpicker)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499/2853 "2025-09-20T17:06:40Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > You wouldn’t anyway. That’s not a real boycott. Wrong, and very poor ad hominem. I was considering buying one of their cars when my wife last replaced hers. She opted to not get one. It’s not all about me, but strangers lose their jobs because the management has run the company in the ground every day. Telsa is beyond ripe for a “correction”. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 5:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499/2854 "2025-09-20T17:10:09Z")
Ok. I rescind the boycott part. It’s still sociopathic to root for a big company to fail. Yeah, it happens all the time. It’s happened to me a couple times. It may well be due for a correction but to hope for that to happen is just weird. Anyway, this is a hijack and I apologize for taking part. You can have the last word. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 6:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499/2855 "2025-09-20T18:46:04Z")
Just to be clear, he said Optimus would be 80% of its value, not 80% of its revenue. Given that Tesla’s valuations make no sense, that could mean anything. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499/2856 "2025-09-20T18:52:25Z")
This should probably not be in the thread for self driving. Optimus isn’t about that. I think here would be more appropriate > [@Why is Tesla's market cap so high?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-is-teslas-market-cap-so-high/1011594): > > I still can’t figure this out. Tesla’s market cap is 1.31 trillion now. Fords market cap is 41 billion. Honda is 44 billion. GM is 57 billion. Their cars aren’t anything amazing, and lots of companies are putting out EVs now. Also Musk has destroyed the consumer base for his vehicles (progressives with disposable income), which is going to hurt sales in the future. I have heard that investors look at Tesla more as a technology company rather than a car company, but even with that why is it v… ---
**Author:** ![TroutMan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/troutman/32/6721_2.png) [@TroutMan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TroutMan)\ **Post date:** [September 20, 2025, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499/2857 "2025-09-20T21:42:51Z")
Yeah, I posted here because I found it interesting how quickly Musk pivoted from robotaxis to the next shiny object. It’s not so much what he says about Optimus that is interesting; it’s what he isn’t saying about robotaxis. But posting here was bound to lead to a tangent, so apologies. ---
**Author:** ![PastTense](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pasttense/32/14550_2.png) [@PastTense](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/PastTense)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2025, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499/2858 "2025-09-22T18:33:02Z")
> **[Three crashes in the first day? Tesla’s robotaxi test in Austin.](https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/09/teslas-robotaxi-test-three-crashes-in-only-7000-miles/)** > > Tesla’s crash rate is orders of magnitude worse than Waymo’s. > According to Tesla’s crash reports, [spotted by Brad Templeton over at Forbes](https://www.forbes.com/sites/bradtempleton/2025/09/18/tesla-robotaxi-reports-3-crashes-in-austin-on-july-1-details-hidden/), the automaker experienced not one but three crashes, all apparently on its first day of testing on July 1. And as we learned from Tesla CEO Elon Musk later in July during the ([not-great](https://arstechnica.com/cars/2025/07/tesla-q2-2025-sell-fewer-cars-and-carbon-credits-make-less-money/)) quarterly earnings call, by that time, **Tesla had logged a mere 7,000 miles in testing**. There was also a fourth, unreported crash in a parking lot. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [September 22, 2025, 6:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499/2859 "2025-09-22T18:52:17Z")
I’ve commented at various points upthread about the ADAS in my 2022 BMW. It’s adequate to good at what it does, but it doesn’t do a lot versus anything that could be described as “self-driving”. I’m now traveling and rented a 2025 BMW of a lesser model. And, as expected, it’s outfitted pretty much as a stripper, not like my own fully loaded feature set. It has dumb cruise control = speed hold, but no other ADAS features. No lanekeeping, no following the car ahead at a safe distance, no nothing. Driving in sorta busy freeway traffic it was very interesting to see how used to ADAS I’d become and how very inconvenient it was to have to drive manually in those circumstances. How quickly we learn to depend on our crutches. ---
**Author:** ![echoreply](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/echoreply/32/3641_2.png) [@echoreply](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/echoreply)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 4:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499/2860 "2025-10-03T04:01:46Z")
To protect road workers from errant self driving cars Colorado is deploying self driving safety trucks. Safety trucks with large crash bumpers on the rear follow behind road crews to provide a physical barrier between the crew and drivers on their phones. Some of the trucks are being deployed with a self driving system that automatically follows the trucks ahead, at a safe distance. The forward trucks will have connections to cameras on the safety truck, and can control it if necessary, but mostly it will just slowly follow behind the crew. The safety truck will be driven to the job site, but once deployed will not have anyone on board risking injury from a collision. > **[Self-Driving CDOT crash truck protects highway workers](https://www.denvergazette.com/2025/09/30/self-driving-cdot-crash-truck-protects-highway-workers/)** > > Highway work zone crashes kill hundreds of people nationwide each year — two Colorado workers last year — but a new driverless, autonomous highway maintenance truck in Colorado aims to shield workers from deadly rear-end collisions by taking the hit... ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 5:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499/2861 "2025-10-03T05:48:23Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > To protect road workers from errant self driving cars Colorado is deploying self driving safety trucks. It’s to protect them from all cars. Do non-self driving cars every kill highway workers? ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 10:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499/2862 "2025-10-03T10:31:17Z")
I mentioned a couple of posts ago that I was driving a rental. Much of that driving was in San Francisco. During which I encountered a LOT of Waymos. There are certainly lots of “interesting” features to SF city traffic, between teeming pedestrians, unfamiliar gawking tourists, streetcars, busses, regular cars, narrow hilly streets, on-street parking, etc. It’s the opposite of a simple low-stress modern wide open suburbia like Mesa AZ. Every Waymo I saw or interacted with drove skillfully. They weren’t tentative or wacky. Very quickly I learned to simply treat them as any other car, not something needing extra caution around. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499/2863 "2025-10-03T11:16:00Z")
> [@echoreply](#): > > To protect road workers from errant self driving cars Colorado is deploying self driving safety trucks. The surest way to avoid being hit by a self-driving car is to not drive on the shoulder with flashing lights. Just saying. Actually, I don’t know how big the problem is, but it’s a clever use of self-following technology. ---
**Author:** ![LSLGuy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lslguy/32/5813_2.png) [@LSLGuy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/LSLGuy)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499/2864 "2025-10-03T11:25:55Z")
There is nothing in that article about the trucks being used to defend against self-driving cars as distinct from human-driven cars. I see the humor in @echoreply’s lede, but it’s just that; humor. “It’s self-driving all the way down. 😁” Lotta road crews in much of the country have crash deflector trucks following them. And have had for decades before any sort of smart cruise control or self-driving was invented much less deployed in significant numbers. The threat has always been the vastly more numerous and wildly inattentive (and impatient) human drivers. The innovation here is getting the sorta-sacrificial driver out of the crash deflector truck. While using a very special-purpose limited form of ADAS so the unmanned follower truck stays in tight formation with the human-driven work truck just ahead. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 11:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499/2865 "2025-10-03T11:31:41Z")
Yeah, I was just following on the joke with another joke! ---
**Author:** ![Folly](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/folly/32/3219_2.png) [@Folly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Folly)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 2:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499/2866 "2025-10-03T14:08:51Z")
It’s all fun and games until your safety crash deflector truck slowly rolls over you. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [October 3, 2025, 2:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499/2867 "2025-10-03T14:16:17Z")
I love threads like this because the OP was created 8 years ago to the month, and it really interests me to see how people’s predictions are working or if people’s opinions have changed over time. I still feel the same way, and that is the highways and byways are not going to be full of self-driving cars in the foreseeable future. Has anyone else’s change significantly over what it was 8 years ago? If so, I’d be interested in knowing how and why. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499.md?page=142) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/self-driving-cars-are-still-decades-away/798499.md?page=144)