16 Questions about Self-Driving Cars

Anything that moves will go autonomous—planes, trains, trucks, cars, shopping carts, drones—if there’s an economic driver. And in most cases, there will be because the cost of humans driving is very high, in terms of both dollars and lives. We spend far too much time behind the wheel, and get into far too many accidents while doing it.

As a result, I’ve been thinking a lot about how the autonomous future will unfold. In this 30-minute video, I ask 16 questions specifically about the self-driving car. When will it become illegal to drive? Will our commutes get longer or shorter? How much will the deep learning networks have been trained in the real world versus virtual reality? Can we get rid of traffic lights?

If you’re curious about these topics, join me as I think out loud about the shape of our autonomous future.

p.s. This is a lightly edited recording of a live presentation I gave at the a16z Summit in November 2016 in Las Vegas.