selfdriving wehicles: an opportunity or danger?

Hm that's a good point.
Now this is a fun what if scenario, but can you imagine what would happen if self-driving cars were forced upon drivers by international law? :D

I'd be walking on feet more. if that'd happen.
as I don't trust these things not to craaaaaaaash

If you trust AI to help you solve problems or create new apps, which I'm not saying you do personally, but a lot of people do in fact rely on AI, then I don't know why you wouldn't trust a self-driving car :D

I wouldn't trust its ability to predict what other drivers would do in the Balkan peninsula. And if you don't know what I'm talking about, consider yourself lucky. :D

-- (djsenter):
If you trust AI to help you solve problems or create new apps, which I'm not saying you do personally, but a lot of people do in fact rely on AI, then I don't know why you wouldn't trust a self-driving car :D

--

because I don't trust them with my *life*, Senter.
that they can do good apps, doesn't mean that they can drive without killing me in an accident.

@23, lol, AI as it stands currently fails at incredibly simple tasks, far less operating a 2 and a half ton hunk of steel going at dozens of miles an hour.

Ok, you got me, I was fooling around :D
The degree of risk/danger is much greater, probably not even comparable.
I still truly hope that if such cars were to be widely encouraged and available, they would undergo rigorous testing and come with very detailed manuals, or instructions how to behave in the case of anything going wrong, then I'd give them a chance.

This year, I’ve had the pleasure of riding in both Waymo and a Tesla Robotaxi. As a blind person, what an incredible experience it was to be in a car without a driver! So, as you can probably tell, I am very much in favor of autonomous vehicles. Having now had the chance to experience two of them firsthand, I can really see the potential. Honestly, I’m at the point where I desperately want this technology in my everyday life.
Are they perfect? Absolutely not. The biggest issue I ran into with both services was knowing exactly where I was when I got out of the vehicle. Finding the car at pickup could also be a bit of a challenge. However, I was glad to see that both Waymo and Tesla are working on this. Both offer options to have the vehicle play a sound to help you locate it, and the apps can provide walking directions, such as telling you the vehicle is 100 feet to your left. Still, in my opinion, pickup and drop-off remains one of the biggest accessibility challenges.
I found the ride quality with both services to be excellent. After a while, it was surprisingly easy to forget that there was no driver. It just felt normal.
The one area I’m more skeptical about is personal ownership. I question whether we’ll ever get to the point where fully autonomous vehicles are commonly owned by individuals, or whether people will even want to own them. If an autonomous vehicle can show up within a matter of minutes and take me wherever I need to go, I feel like that would be good enough for me.
From a safety perspective, I honestly trust autonomous vehicles more than human drivers. They don’t get tired or distracted, and from a rideshare perspective, they don’t discriminate against guide dog users, which has become a serious problem over the last several years. Of course, autonomous vehicles can and do make mistakes, but based on my experiences so far, I feel very comfortable riding in them.
I’m definitely excited to see how this technology continues to evolve, and I’m looking forward to trying it whenever I have the opportunity. It was incredible getting to experience Waymo in Los Angeles in March, followed by Tesla Robotaxi in Austin a few weeks ago. After experiencing both, I’m more convinced than ever of the potential autonomous vehicles have to give blind people greater independence and more transportation options.

Do you have this stuff on your YT channel? Might check it out if you do, I def wanna hear more experiences live per say, rather than just hearing random people talk about this being a thing.
Pretty much agree with most of your post, only thing is, I'm not sure if I'd trust everyone and everything. I mean, a vehicle just pulling up and you're supposed to take it, doesn't make me feel like I'm the one in control. I do doubt that this will be anything but costly, which, I guess has to be expected, but I wouldn't wanna get kitnapped or suffer a software crash lol.
Just my thoughts, I don't know much about this whole thing but it'd be super neet.

Seeing how much computers crash, that's my biggest concern as well.

Driving in such a vehicle would scare me half to death. Mainly because they're not fully complete, maybe unstable in some places and no one has any idea if the system making the vehicle drive itself can't just shut down or crash unexpectedly.

Yep, I did film both my Waymo and Tesla rides. Here are the links:
Waymo:

Waymo Ride Along in LA, My First Solo Ride In A Driverless Car As A Blind Person
https://youtu.be/dS9hg80vf8o
Tesla:

Tesla Robotaxi Ride Along, How Accessible Is It for a Blind Person?
https://youtu.be/Ysq1RnL5iHE
I will say that from an accessibility perspective, I definitely think Waymo is better. However, the Tesla service is still very new, so there is room for it to improve. If things go as planned, I’ll be back in Austin again next summer, so should hopefully be able to try the service again and see if there are any changes.

Nice. Will know what to watch later once I need something to listen to xd. Thanks

You’re welcome! The Waymo video is longer, but I’m glad I was able to film both of them.

I'd be interested to see the advancements in this tech in about a decade or so.

I must say, even the improvements in the last few years have been incredible. A family friend has had a Tesla for quite a while, and in November 2021, he brought me for a ride with an early beta version of full self driving. It was cool, but it felt so jerky, it honestly made me uncomfortable. I was kind of glad to get out when we got back home.
Fast forward just a few years though, and it’s so much better. I have been on several drives with him since, and so many times, I completely forget that he’s not driving. Last summer, he offered to give me a ride to my NFB chapter meeting, which is about 7 miles from home. It brought us to and from perfectly, he did not need to take over at all.
Granted, this doesn’t help us much, as it does require the driver to pay attention to what’s happening and take over when needed. But still, I am continuously amazed by it.
And then this year, to get to tri both of these self driving taxi services? It really gets me excited for the future. And I think it’s only going to get better from here.

I can't wait for this to be available. Imagine heading to workdriverless? I just can't.

Broooo, I'm watching your vid now and as soon as this instruction audio starts I'm getting all excited as well for no reason! Like, what the fuck this sounds cool as heck. And some slight humor too, so hey. Not sure where to get the money from for all these rides haha, but sadly this will take ages before arriving in norway anyway, I suppose. If at all.

I was way too excited when recording this video, and was desperately trying to cover it up with some voiceover. Such an incredible experience though, I so wish it could be a part of my everyday life.

Right?
Honestly it'd be so so much nicer than needing to deal with unrelyable nearly never on time Taxi's, ideots who don't speak english or norwegian well, sadly way too many immigrant taxi drivers not giving any effort at all ahem, and in general, being by yourself, or maybe with someone else, saying whatever you want.
But who knows, maybe the tesla thing will be a thing here sooner than wamo? What do I know. It'd be a start.
Judging by how this is advancing, ownership of self driving cars might not be too distant of a thing after all. It'd be worth it no doubt. Sure, I'm critical, but it helped me knowing that you made this in a very busy part of a city and it did it so well. Maybe, there could be AI extentions for these too, like putting be my AI into the cameras of this thing, so you could say, please tell me what's around me, anything around the car? Can you see buildings in the distance? So on. But idk. Getting lost in possibilities there.