OT: Would you choose a self driving car (fully automated - and safe) - or a flyi

Flying car for me. When I was a kid, we were promised flying cars by the year 2000. I still want one.

I was thinking the same thing. I also have difficulty giving up control - and allowing a car to drive itself is still too foreign to me.

If your self driving car stopped for a street walker, would that be prostitution?

I want a flying car. But there are drawbacks:

1. Flying over traffic jams will work only if you are the only person with a flying car. Once everybody has one, the air will become jammed.
2. The cost of a flying car and its fuel requirements will be prohibitive.
3. You will face a much greater danger of death if you are flying in the air.

Autonomous, self-driving cars are going to make a huge difference in traffic behaviors. Most traffic problems are caused by the drivers. Driver errors, driver impairment, driver aggressiveness, driver timidity, etc. Taking the driving out of the hands of people and putting it under computer control will make driving so much more efficient and safer. Remember the rule of thumb you learned in driver’s ed? Allow one car length between you and the car ahead for every 10 mph driving speed. That’s to allow for driver reaction time, which is 3/4-1 second for most people. The reaction time of a computer is measured in hundredths of a second. So traffic speeds will probably be significantly higher and uniform for all drivers, there will be SAFE tailgating (that will be scary until you get used to it), driver impairment wil be an almost non-issue, and so on. Traffic congestion will be very much reduced. I say, bring it on and the sooner the better!

With that said, I still think flying cars would be super, super cool. In 1961 I had to write an essay titled The World in 1990. I said we would have flying cars by then. I’m still waiting.

RealDougster - if the car stopped - I wouldn’t be at fault - as it would be the car that did it.

Maybe the car likes a banana in its tailpipe from time to time...

I would shit my pants. Imagine a flying shit truck wrecking

Enough said

The flying car would be fun but I’d have to be more diligent about doing preventative maintenance like they do in the aircraft industry. Since component failure while flying could be catastrophic but that’s more for engines, which are pretty reliable these days.

Are you kidding me? A flying car, hands down!

Or maybe hands on, in this case..... :-)

I also go with the flying car because the self driving ground car probably won’t want to go into muddy hunting spots. Worse yet, it will probably be politically correct and not take me to strip clubs. If I had a flying Silverado, I hunt wherever I want, fish wherever I want and, maybe find it easier to get high with strippers.

I’d probably take the self driving car. I’d actually travel more often for pleasure it that was a reality. I could just imagine punching in the destination and sleeping in the bad seat in the middle of the night and arriving at my destination in the morning. Maybe have to get up once or twice at night to refuel. That would be awesome!

Just think about that. Your favorite strip club is 4 hours away? Get off work - auto drive your car, have dinner and a nap in the car while driving. After the club hop in the car drunk and have it drive you back home while you sleep in the back seat.

That would never legally work but it’s nice to dream.

I'm for the flying car. The mile high club would take on a new meaning. :)

@ Shailynn - great concept, Auto-driving to the strip clubs, I would definitely do that!

Shailynn - that sounds like a great idea. Maybe a self driving SUV - with seats that open to a nice comfy bed would work quite well in that scenario!

Everything shailynn said about self driving cars.

I think a flying car would be really great and super cool, but I believe many more people are going to benefit from self driving cars. Just think about the elderly or people who's vision is less than perfect or correctable, what a great benefit it would be to those folks not to be dependant on others to be able to take care of their day to day life. Of course think about Ricky Boy, drunk drivers, that would no longer be putting the lives of innocent people at risk. I am looking forward to self driving cars for many of those reasons including many of the reasons you guys have posted.

B. Not even close.

Cars with automatic transmissions are boring. A self driving car (for me) just moves the needle for driving involvement in the wrong direction, even if it is beneficial for most of society. I like purist playthings: 3 pedal, plus H shifter, plus rear (or all) wheel drive, plus horsepower.

I'm glad that someone else (Jackslash in this case) thought of the energy requirements which was the first thing that came to mind when I read the thread title. If the fuel costs were magically the same, I would take a flying car just to be one of the first. Americans remember the first, not the best. Or maybe the first to charge for something.

A self-driving car has the potential to change the world and save lives. A flying car has the potential to quickly kill me when I misjudge distances on the first flight. So I'll take the self-driving car. Plus the local ordinances would probably prevent me from operating the flying car anyway. At a minimum I would probably need to be cleared for takeoff by a unionized federal air traffic controller or something.

If the flying car cost the same but was a whole lot faster, like over 4 times faster, the flying car. My hour drive would become like a 15 minute commute. If it cost 4 times as much to buy and 15 times as much to maintain, then the self driving car. I could fall asleep in the back seat and or drink a little bit extra. If it was self driving though, I could have several drinks before it took me to the club and only pay to drink a little at the club.

I know the best way to fall asleep. Watch this webinar I watched this evening on my tablet with a really monotonous voice.

If it was self driving, maybe they could add some virtual reality heads up displays so I could shoot at offending cars and watch them blow up or get virtual bullet holes. Might be fun. I would want them blow up after I was past them so as not to distract me from the view ahead. The game could keep a score count of cars eliminated on the way home. Could add a virtual hunter to keep count of deer and other animals successfully shot on the side of the road. All this virtually that is. Would need line of sight or some means to verify aim was good shooting deer, cars etc. Then the conversation could be what do you do for fun on the way over here. Watch webinars learning something, study, read, sleep, or work.

If the car had an option to lie down, I could go to sleep and wake up at home. Would want options for radio sleep, radio snooze alarm, etc. My current radio has no such options.