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[forsaken1111]

If I could buy a car which had the OPTION of autodrive I'd be much more inclined to adopt this.

[GlyphGryph]

If I could buy a car which had the OPTION of autodrive I'd be much more inclined to adopt this.

That's how a large number of the current ones work, anyway. I would guess enough people share both your opinion and the opposite opinion that both will be available.

Probably not for the auto-taxis though.

[Sheb]

Yeah, automation is creeping in. Cruise control, automatic gear, parking aid, ABS... Any standard car come with a bunch of automated controls already.

[Guardian G.I.]

I guess I'm a pessimist when it comes for predicting the future, but every time I hear about "automated something" being developed in the US, I wonder how will it fare against an EMP pulse or something similar that knocks out communication systems or electricity.
If practically all cars get replaced by automated cars without any emergency manual control, a single large-scale service failure (from Internet outings, blackouts or, God forbid, solar flares or nuclear explosions) would be devastating. All traffic will be immediately paralysed.

[Greiger]

Except that all even remotely modern cars already depend on enough complex electronics that an EMP would knock them all out anyway.

[Guardian G.I.]

Except that all modern cars already depend on enough complex electronics that an EMP would already knock them all out.

Still, how would automatic cars work if due to technical malfunction or something else they all lose their connections to the Internet?

[forsaken1111]

I guess I'm a pessimist when it comes for predicting the future, but every time I hear about "automated something" being developed in the US, I wonder how will it fare against an EMP pulse or something similar that knocks out communication systems or electricity.
If practically all cars get replaced by automated cars without any emergency manual control, a single large-scale service failure (from Internet outings, blackouts or, God forbid, solar flares or nuclear explosions) would be devastating. All traffic will be immediately paralysed.

Something powerful enough to generate an EMP pulse that blankets a city will probably kill you anyway, and even if you survive I think your car not working will be the leat of your worries.

[cerapa]

Except that all modern cars already depend on enough complex electronics that an EMP would already knock them all out.

Still, how would automatic cars work if due to technical malfunction or something else they all lose their connections to the Internet?

That depends on the people that programmed the software and the particular design of the car. I'm guessing that doing something stupid like driving into a ditch because of it would make the car company get sued pretty damn fast.

[forsaken1111]

Except that all modern cars already depend on enough complex electronics that an EMP would already knock them all out.

Still, how would automatic cars work if due to technical malfunction or something else they all lose their connections to the Internet?

That depends on the people that programmed the software and the particular design of the car. I'm guessing that doing something stupid like driving into a ditch because of it would make the car company get sued pretty damn fast.

The most likely scenario I can think of is that the car slows down and stops, pulling over if possible, and turns on its hazard flashers and the network dispatches another car to pick you up while alerting the mechanics of a breakdown.

[Greiger]

Except that all modern cars already depend on enough complex electronics that an EMP would already knock them all out.

Still, how would automatic cars work if due to technical malfunction or something else they all lose their connections to the Internet?

Way I understand it they aren't depending on internet access all the time, and they are capable of operating normally without it. 
Not sure of the effects of a long term outage since I don't know exactly what they use internet connectivity for. 

I know the google cars use google maps data to know the speed limit, and to confirm visual data, but they are also capable of understanding speed limit signage, operating in unknown territory, and navigating construction zones.  And not all manufacturers will have the access to that data like google does.

Probably depends on exactly how the individual manufacturers implement their designs.

[Frumple]

I also imagine automated cars wouldn't be able to deal with off road conditions, such as driving on property, four wheel driving etc.

Pretty sure if they're not already able, they will be in short order past major adaptation. Last I checked, we've got a lot of (admittedly usually smaller, but eh) robots built for navigating (with varying degrees of autonomy) inclement terrain already, and often in considerably worse conditions than "back yard" or whathaveyou. It's... as it has been being said. A decent computer is just massively beyond anything humans are capable of, when it comes to stuff like driving. Give 'em the right programming (which, if we don't already have, we're getting there) and sensor suite (ditto) and there's nothing in the field of navigation they can't outperform humans in regards to. We're just... really not well built for stuff like that.

As for manual pleasure driving -- sure, they'd still have those. Still be built, probably even without automated backup and whatnot. We still build and use bows and muskets for fun, after all. By and large the same principal. I do rather imagine it would be notably difficult to manually drive in public legally, after a point, though. I'd posit it would effectively be some variation of endangerment, eventually. Enjoyment of something isn't really sufficient to justify putting other people at risk, generally.

[forsaken1111]

Isn't there an annual competition for unmanned offroad navigation?

[10ebbor10]

Anyway, most automated cars are designed to rely on sensors first, and on external data second. Technically, even a GPS network failure can be prevented by a smart car which knows where it's driving.

But anyway, there's nothing that can take out an inactive car that wouldn't also cause a thousand other, much worse problems.

[Criptfeind]

Can I just say freeformschooler, for all that was bad in the picture you painted, I'm struggling to see that a world where everyone (or at least everyone in this country that apparently is both the USA and China, which is something I don't think you will see happen until there is actually a one world government) has a minimum of income that allows for not only them, but at least a baby and possibly a spouse, to live in cartoon levels of excess, as worse then a world where people are actually dying of want of basic necessities. Basically, it's bad, but actually better then the real world.

[Putnam]

I also imagine automated cars wouldn't be able to deal with off road conditions, such as driving on property, four wheel driving etc.

Why? If humans can operate machinery in any situation, robots can operate it better.