We are now able to have cars completely controlled by computers - why not have a road where all cars are controlled? When you enter the road, you tell the computer which exit you want, and the computer takes over. The computer would keep track of all the cars on the road, and control them all, allowing for the fastest commute possible with no accidents.
This is essentially a train system where you could keep the independence of having your own car at the end. I'm thinking of L.A. traffic and specific points where human mistakes cost hundreds of hours of wasted time. This system would not work if even ONE car were controlled by a human, of course, so it may be a long way in the future.
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The military has just completed a competition for self driving automobiles and the results are not perfect but encouraging. It may not be as far off in the future as you think. Annual deaths from traffic in the USA range about 40,000 so any improvement by an automatic system would relieve substantial expense and misery.
This whole concept implies that a computer can drive better than a human and that isn't true today.
In the steady-state situation of an Interstate highway, a computer does okay with the right sensors, etc, but that's not where people wreck either. I haven't seen one that can negotiate a Quik-Trip gas station parking lot and pick the best pump yet.
I'm still one of the people that actually enjoy driving. I guess many people think of cars like they do their washing machine. Makes me sad.
This whole concept implies that a computer can drive better than a human and that isn't true today.
In the steady-state situation of an Interstate highway, a computer does okay with the right sensors, etc, but that's not where people wreck either. I haven't seen one that can negotiate a Quik-Trip gas station parking lot and pick the best pump yet.
I'm still one of the people that actually enjoy driving. I guess many people think of cars like they do their washing machine. Makes me sad.
I think that an automated vehicle system would be beneficial in many cases. If you're interested in this sort of thing, you might want to check out
http://www.darpa.mil/grandchallenge/overview.aspSorry, it didn't post correctly last time.
There are so many challenges with this that I don't know where to start. However, if you drive in LA, you have my sympathy. (If it's bad now, how about in another 20 years ?)