Getting the Most from Driverless Cars

Back in 2009, when I first suggested that urban transportation would soon be taken over by driverless cars, a friend of mine told me that he would never use a driverless car because “I get a testosterone thrill from having my hands on the wheel of a car.” I point out to him that, if cars drove themselves, we wouldn’t need open container laws and he and his girlfriend could make out in the back seat while the vehicle was in motion. His eyes bugged out and I knew I had won a convert.

What’s happening in the back of this van? Only the occupants and Waymo know for sure. Photo by Rob Pegaroro.

So I wasn’t surprised to read a report that “San Franciscans are having sex in robotaxis,” with some people doing it so often it is almost routine. Many of the vehicles have darkened windows that make it difficult to see inside, especially at night, creating a comfortable feeling of privacy. The travelers may not realize that Waymo and Cruise have cameras recording both outside and inside the vehicles, but the companies say no one looks at the videos unless there is some kind of an incident such as an accident.

Americans have been having sex in cars at least since the 1920s; the difference now is that the cars and the occupants can be in motion at the same time. As a 2018 paper predicted, this is going to lead to some major social changes. For one thing, the paper points out, the demand for motor hotels will decline as many long-distance travelers will elect to simply sleep in their vehicles while they travel.

Some people are still doubtful that fully autonomous cars that can drive while we sleep or are otherwise occupied will happen anytime soon. After all, the Waymo and Cruise vehicles have people remotely monitoring them and ready to take over if the cars encounter a problem they can’t handle themselves.

At the same time, however, Tesla cars are now all made with the hardware needed for them to become full self-driving vehicles. Tesla software, which doesn’t rely on outside monitors, is not yet perfect, but there are a lot of YouTube videos on line showing people letting Teslas drive themselves on both urban and intercity trips.

I’ve noted before that Tesla’s approach to self-driving cars is different from Waymo and Cruise’s, and Tesla has been criticized for overpromising the capabilities of their software. But I suspect now that Tesla is going to win the self-driving competition, and that means that more self-driving vehicles will be owned by their users and not shared as with the Waymo and Cruise model.

As the 2018 paper points out, that by itself will have different implications for the future of transportation and cities. For one thing, privately owned autonomous vehicles will be more heavily used for intercity travel than shared vehicles would be. The authors of the 2018 paper (who are from England) mourn that this would reduce intercity passenger train use, but in the United States that is irrelevant since intercity train travel is insignificant.

In any case, next time you go to San Francisco, be sure to try one of the driverless cars and have fun when you do so.