http://usridernews.com/2012/02/17/how-will-self-driving-cars-affect-our-motorcycle-use/
How Will Self Driving Cars Affect Our Motorcycle Use
Over the last two years Google has been quietly, (and some say illegally) testing a fleet of autonomous vehicles that navigate the highway without any direct input from human drivers. Sebastian Thrun, director of Google’s autonomous vehicle research program, wrote that the project had achieved 200,000 miles of driving without an accident while cars were under computer control.This week the State of Nevada finalized a few modifications to its rules of the road that will allow robotic driven vehicles to be driven legally on its highways.
Several automakers are deploying sensor based safety systems that help prevent accidents. Some simply alert the driver, and others go so far as to correct drivers actions, or inaction. Adaptive cruise control and emergency braking help prevent collisions. Blind-spot detection, adaptive headlights and night-vision assistance systems are also offered in a number of 2012 models. However, what Google is doing makes these advances seem as rudimentary as the improvement from bias ply to radial tires.
Ask any motorcyclist who has a few miles under his or her belt, and they’ll tell you they’ve had someone turn left in front of them which either caused them to wreck or resulted in panic braking. Once this technology becomes mandatory, and most vehicles on the
But, as the saying goes, there’s the rub. Human error accounts for almost all the 33,000 deaths and 1.2 million injuries that now occur each year on the nation’s roads. The financial impact is staggering.
In 2008, AAA did a study and estimated traffic accidents cost Americans an estimated $164.2 billion dollars annually. Those costs are borne by each of us in the form of auto and health insurance premiums, emergency and police services, property damage, lost productivity and quality of life.
Vehicles that drive themselves will be able to avoid 99% of all accidents, eliminating those costs, saving us all money, reducing stress, and giving us back hundreds of hours that is now unproductive time spent behind the wheel.
But, hold on a minute. If cars, trucks and buses are all on auto-pilot, that leaves only a small minority of road users, namely the motorcycle community with the free will and distracted driving capabilities to throw a monkey wrench into the system.
That leaves only one conclusion. Just as Henry Ford did to the horse-drawn carriage with the Model T, Google’s auto-pilot technology signals the (beginning of the) end of the motorcycle as a transportation vehicle on our nation’s highway.
With a financial incentive in the billions of dollars, the insurance lobby of the future will ultimately pressure the federal government to enact laws that restrict where “self-directed” vehicles are allowed. (more after the poll)
What's the Future of Motorcycling?