Tech and Cars

I think most westeners have no idea what happens in the car industry. In the east they have cars who park automatically, drive in all four directions, and use everything from water to the sun as fuel. I know many westeners refute these cars because they doesn't look as beefy as a Ford Mustang, but with the current gasoline prices I'd go for a sunpowered car anyday :O

except a rainy day =D

I personally would love a self-driving car, and I think the technology is here, or very close to it. The biggest problem is the "legal" ways of doing this.

For example, if I crashed, is it my cars fault, or my fault? This question might seem really basic, but a car can't pay for damages, and in court this argument would probably go on forever.

There will always be people that are afraid of self-driving cars. This means that they might try to do a manual override and end up breaking something.

Also, it's impossible for all cars to drive themselves (at least in the next 100 years or so) because of this, the advantage isn't all that great. If every single car self driven, we wouldn't need stop lights, lane markers, signs, guard rails, and brakes would hardly be used. Imagine coming up to an intersection and communicating with other cars to find small gaps to pass. This is what cars should be able to do.

Also something else to consider is that cars cause a lot of damage compared to many other activities. This limits the amount of new technology that can be put into them. My friend's new car prohibits the passenger from entering addresses into the GPS. This is a stupid safety feature to prevent the driver from getting distracted, but instead it just lowers the usefulness of technology.

If we could re-invent the car if you will, we would have much better technology, but the biggest problem is the integration with our current systems.

I would never want a self driving car. What's the fun in that? And to hell with alternative fuel sources, I'm pretty comfy in my big V8 Diesel truck!