Rick

> Why would there be any empty automated cars driving around?

Because that is exactly what Tesla and Uber are promising — cars that drive themselves to pick up passengers either as part of the Uber fleet of self-driving cars being developed by colleagues of mine at Uber’s Pittsburgh research center [1], or the “Tesla Network” of cars owned by Tesla customers [2]. Elon Musk has even shown a car driving itself around Palo Alto [3], and claims you’ll soon be able to “summon” you car from far away, perhap even all the way across the country [4], such is the hyperbole…

I’m not sure where you’ve been Rick, but renting out your own Tesla to earn extra money is *exactly* what Musk is talking about [2].

I’m also not sure what you think an autonomous cars can do Rick, but identifying a vandal wearing a mask (or even funky glasses [5]), or chasing a rock-throwing kid through the woods to corral him for police *aren’t* among their capabilities. Self-driving cars won’t be able to do either of these things, at least until the robot uprising brought to you by humanoid robots from Google-owned Boston Dynamics [6] or by swarms of killer drones with Intel inside [7]. Until then, they’ll be hapless and helpless targets of human abuse, and hence not a viable part of anyone’s business model.

[1] http://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2016-08-18/uber-s-first-self-driving-fleet-arrives-in-pittsburgh-this-month-is06r7on

[2] https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2016-10-27/elon-musk-says-tesla-car-share-network-is-the-people-vs-uber

[3] http://www.theverge.com/2016/10/20/13343828/tesla-fully-autonomous-test-video

[4] http://www.roadandtrack.com/new-cars/car-technology/news/a27852/musk-summon-itself-across-country/

[5] http://www.theverge.com/2016/11/3/13507542/facial-recognition-glasses-trick-impersonate-fool

[6] https://www.theguardian.com/technology/video/2015/aug/18/humanoid-robot-atlas-boston-dynamics-run-video

[7] http://iq.intel.com/500-drones-light-show-sets-record/?sf41105206=1