M City and Self-Driving Taxis (Uber?)

My apologies to the Buckeyes out there (a/k/a Ohio State students, alumni, and fans), but in terms of driverless vehicle technology, the University of Michigan is way ahead. U of M has its M City, currently under construction, with 41 companies signed up as partners. The idea, according to the linked article from Construction Equipment Guide (not a periodical I usually read), is to create realistic conditions - including pedestrians that run in front of cars, hills, and snowy days - in a safe testing environment. Plan is for vehicles to be "commercially viable" in 2021.

The article cites an estimate of 80 percent reduction in traffic accidents. I am guessing that is a conservative estimate because, currently, well over 90 percent of roadway injuries and fatalities are caused by human errors.

My mother the car might not be far off 
If you think your mother can learn from experience, then the driverless vehicles of the future - and not too far in the future, either - are what you should be envisioning. Honda's president, Frank Paluch, said yesterday that these vehicles will have sensors, true, but they will also be able to remember and learn from their experiences. They might be better, actually, will definitely be better, than you are at recalling that pothole between your home and the supermarket. They might also remember and be able to detect where there is traffic and go a different route, something we humans are hit or miss on. I do not believe they will scream out anything like "I should remember downtown Silver Spring is a mess at this hour. Ugh!!!"

I only saw My Mother the Car in reruns, but here's the opening credits. This intelligent car, by the way, despite also being a protective mother, still needed a driver. And the show was arguably the high point of Jerry Van Dyke's acting career (the brother of Dick Van Dyke), not that I know much about that either.