I’ve been saying it for 25 years; The free market will develop a hydrogen powered car, at a network of fuel stations to support them, decades and generations before government can build rail networks capable of adequately serving the needs of people in large, dynamic cities. Assuming they could afford to do it, which they can’t.
The self driving car isn’t exactly the advance I was hoping for the market to provide – working in IT as I do, I know I’m a better driver than most programmers are coders – but my basic point still stands; people will vote with their feet, and their earnings, for the solution that allows them choice, hands down, over the one that takes it away from them.
Ergo – look for government to begin the major campaign against self driving cars, sooner than later.
I doubt that. A self driving car needs to have accurate positioning information, meaning it’ll be hooked up to the network of cell phone and GPS positioning devices and will be broadcasting its location and contents all the time. In other words, it’s the government surveillance nirvana and opens up the ability to tax you per mile even in your Green vehicle. I predict they’ll be required sooner rather than later, or at least they’ll propose massive taxes on the folks who are supporting terrorism and child abuse by driving their own cars.
A self-driving car will need computers. 60 Minutes shows how you can hack a car’s computers to disable the brakes.
https://news.cs.washington.edu/2015/02/09/watch-uw-cse-and-darpa-hack-a-car-driven-by-60-minutes-leslie-stahl/
What nerd said and I will add this tidbit. Sergei Brin and Larry Page, the founders of Google, are heavily invested in self driving cars and right now are testing a small fleet of them. They are also so far up the asses of the Democrats, especially his excellency Barackus Obamanus, that crony capitalism will probably prevail.
You are of course assuming that people will be PERMITTED to vote with their feet and their earnings.