Driverless cars are perfect mechanisms for government control. After they become common such vehicles will no doubt be required to report to a central authority where they are going. The cars might even begin to question why someone would want to make a particular journey and then report it to the police or block the trip from happening. “I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.”
Speeding of course will be abolished as will any actual enjoyment of driving. After a decade or two of driverless cars, we’ll be like the people in the chairs in Wall-E, unknowing captives of the state, unable to do much of anything on our own.
But really, your driverless eVehicle does know what’s best for you. “The authorities have banned driverless cars entering the region where the Occupy protest is currently taking place. Any cars parking within five miles of the protest will be deemed to be hostile.” This will ostensibly be to protect you, of course.
Oh golly, it appears you have an unpaid warrant or are late paying child support. Your driverless car will be forced to lock the doors so you can’t get out and then drive you to the nearest police station. Of course it would be a total abuse of power if the authorities were to do this with political opponents and malcontents, so I’m sure that would never happen, aren’t you?
Paranoia? I think not.
I enjoyed your post on driverless cars and don’t think you are far off the mark. It would seem that the best safeguard to enjoy the pleasure and safety of driverless cars would be to get rid of the state!
You crazy anarchists will stop at nothing to insure that people live free and happy. 🙂
Hey, I saw “Total Recall” – everyone knows that a human taxi driver is far more likely to turn you in than is a Johnny Cab! (Or maybe that was government pro-driverless-car propaganda, too…)
Think Robocop in the guise of a driverless Google car