• Question: What do you think about self driving cars?

    Asked by Dantheman to Ted on 7 Mar 2019.
    • Photo: Ted Burke

      Ted Burke answered on 7 Mar 2019:


      I think self-driving cars are definitely going to become common. It may only take a few years. Once they become established, it will affect a lot of people’s jobs (delivery drivers, bus drivers, taxi drivers, etc.) so I have some concerns about that. However, if they reduce the rate of road accidents (they probably will) there is definitely an upside too. The technology is very impressive, so I admire them from an engineering point of view. Once a lot of cars are self-driving, it could allow things like smart traffic coordination to reduce congestion, so transport planners should probably be thinking about that now. In the immediate term though, I think the top priority should be better public transport and more bus lanes and cycle lanes that are away from the road.

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