What is so glorious about driverless cars?

[MIButterfly]

Explain it to me like I'm five because I just don't get it.

[Blues Heron]

1. Mobility issues is the biggest, followed by drunk driving

[CrispyQ]

4. By mobility issues, do you mean people who are unable to drive due to physical limitations?

Regarding the drunk driver issue, shouldn't drivers be required to operate the vehicle in case of a malfunction? If not, then why not let kids drive driverless cars?

[Blues Heron]

14. Exactly, you might be right on the second one, but if they can get them working really well, might save lives

[Basso8vb]

5. Regular taxis have successfully served this role for decades.

[markpkessinger]

7. There are many communities in which taxis are non-existent, or exceedingly rare n/t

[Blues Heron]

13. You don't own your own taxi though, if these things can work (a big if) then they could be a game changer

[Klarkashton]

2. They are piloted by "assisting drivers" in India and other places.

It's all bogus. Same for the stupid Tesla robot thing that is controlled by a guy in a sensor suit to make it look like it can do all this impossible shit while it simply follows the guy's movements by RC.
While I'm at it the robot dog is RC controlled as well.

[Basso8vb]

3. So the companies that own them don't have to pay employees to drive them.

[MIButterfly]

8. Thank you.

That makes more sense to me than anything else I've heard, especially about helping a disabled person live more independently.

But I think there are a LOT of bugs to work out before it's safe enough for the masses.

[Torchlight]

10. No so much glorious as just 'comfort and convenience,

those two boogeymen of the post-rational age' (as my freshman Western Civ prof was so fond of saying way back when)

Giving it the time to advance and work out the kinks, I'd love to sit back and read the morning paper (o-kay, grandpa!), drink coffee, and let my mind wander during our 45 minute daily commute as I imagine was done on the commuter trains in the NE years back.

[Renew Deal]

11. There are a lot of benefits

You don't have the cost of acquiring, insuring, maintaining, and parking a car.

The "driver" is reliably safe. No speeding, no emotions, better visibility of the road because of all the cameras

The cars are generally nice, clean, and comfortable.

Less wait time while a driver finishes some other conflicting rides. There are plenty of these drivers working multiple services. So they could be finishing a food delivery with Uber while picking someone else for Lyft. This leads to long wait times and sometimes aromatic cars.

It's great for people with disabilities who would otherwise not be able to drive themselves. I think there's an estimate that driverless cars could put 4 million people with disabilities into the workforce.

There are other benefits, but these are the main ones in my opinion.

[lame54]

12. If you own one it can...

Uber while you work your real job
2 incomes