Driverless Cars & the police?

originally posted by: Xcathdra
a reply to: nwtrucker

On highways and in case you missed it all states have laws that require vehicles to drive in the right lane unless passing.

My guess is that if every car on the road were driverless, then the left lane would be available to all traffic, not restricted by law to just passing.

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

originally posted by: Xcathdra
a reply to: nwtrucker

On highways and in case you missed it all states have laws that require vehicles to drive in the right lane unless passing.

My guess is that if every car on the road were driverless, then the left lane would be available to all traffic, not restricted by law to just passing.

Sure however I dont see driverless cars taking over anytime soon. Not to mention a large chunk of the population who will refuse to put their lives into the hands of a computer.

Not to mention the situations where a driverless car just cannot work, like EMS, fire, police, tow trucks etc etc.

originally posted by: Xcathdra

originally posted by: Soylent Green Is People

originally posted by: Xcathdra
a reply to: nwtrucker

On highways and in case you missed it all states have laws that require vehicles to drive in the right lane unless passing.

My guess is that if every car on the road were driverless, then the left lane would be available to all traffic, not restricted by law to just passing.

Sure however I dont see driverless cars taking over anytime soon. Not to mention a large chunk of the population who will refuse to put their lives into the hands of a computer.

Not to mention the situations where a driverless car just cannot work, like EMS, fire, police, tow trucks etc etc.

Then there will still by speeeders, red light blowers, and stop sign roll-throughs for cops to ticket.

My comment was meant for the time in the future that there are so many driverless cars that cops would no longer have as many traffic violations write-ups to help fill the municipal coffers.


By the way, I'm not sure why you say EMS, fire vehicles, and tow trucks can't be driversless. There will be a time when the firefighters sit in the back of an autonomous fire truck or paramedics sitting in the back of a driverless EMT vehicle. The vehicle's computer just needs to be fed the destination, and the emergency workers are only passengers until they get there.

In fact, under such a system (which, granted, is not something that will happen soon) the emergency vehicle could talk to the automated cars ahead of it, even further than just directly ahead, telling those cars to temporarily move aside to create a clear and speedy path for the emergency vehicle.

a reply to: Soylent Green Is People

Because I would not trust a driverless emergency vehicle. Unless they can come up with a completely unhackable computer system in addition to a flawless AI.

My guess is neither of those 2 issues can be guaranteed.

It is the future so I can see it happening (all cars being driverless) at some point.

I think it is the country of Dubai that just bought low level hover bikes for their police force. They can hover up to so many feet over traffic and reach a good speed to get them where they need to be without having to worry about the human element that comes with traditional road travel.

Either way I just cant see AI being able to comprehend / learn / deduce / adapt the same way as an emergency services worker can when it comes to driving vehicles vs driverless vehicles. In a lot of cases you dont go directly to the address of the call and park out front (a good way to get killed).

Lots of hurdles to overcome...