Mixed bag of responses. An emotional subject for those who love new technology. The simple argument put here is that the transition will be slower than many are anticipating. I think that’s correct and it’s a good thing. This is such a fundamental transtion that it will have to happen quite slowly so that planning, legal and behavioural problems can be learned along the way and dealt with as we go.

There is also the critical issue of the gradual phase out of the existing car fleet. It’s not affordable to scrap 1.3 billion functioning cars and buy up an equal number of self driving models. The two technologies will have to live with each other for at least 25 years. In that amount of time I think decision makers will have to face the music anyway and devote much larger attention to efficient mass transit systems that take cars off the road — in order to deal with growing issues of public concern such as congestion and climate change.

The problem with development of new technology generally is that it is not decided upon for the pubic benefit, it is decided upon by people in board rooms of corporations who want to sell us things and compete profitably against their competitors. For this reason it is very important to have a very thorough public debate about pros and cons and precautions.

So…. thanks to the author.