you hear this argument again and again, mostly sponsored by the Car Companies themselves in advert after advert...WHO WOULD TRUST A ROBOTIC CAR?
I mean, "Isn't it better that you, as the driver are in IN CONTROL?" this is just automatic vs stick-shift or starched shirt and tie vs open-neck collar.
It's more about 'style' or 'presentation', than it is about the Freedom of Driving.
Do you worry about lack of driver control when you travel in an elevator (lift) in a high-rise building or office, or an escalator at the mall, or a walkway at the airport?
Do you worry about lack of driver control when you commute to and from work on a train or underground alongside thousands of other trusting commuters?
Do you sit there in the back of a fucking taxi cab or limousine sweating and shaking like a paranoid Arnie wondering if your lack of driven control will result in a massive pile-up due to not knowing the driving credentials of your driver/chauffeur?
In 2010, (in UK) the police recorded 1,850 deaths, 22,660 people seriously injured and 184,138 who received light injuries (from road accidents). [source BBC] in a comparison survey less than 100 people were injured on the rail network, that's TWENTY TIMES LESS deaths.
"But Mike," you're all so kind to remember my name like that, "what about CHOICE?"
YOU HAVE NO CHOICE, your only role is PROFIT-generation for Enormous Global Conglomerates.
You 'could' design a free-form user-interfaced get-from-A-to-B transport system that 'just got you there and back'. You could even adapt the MLITARY SPY SATELLITE system or a CELLULAR HIVE SYSTEM to auto-guide you to your google-Earth'd destination. You could standardise all transport systems so that anyone can go anywhere without thinking about style or presentation or choice. You could open up the borders to Total World Travel for anyone, anywhere... FOR FREE.
But that's what these greedy bastards call a Broken Paradigm, or choked off profit stream (sic)... and noone wants that, no matter how antiquated it is to steer and navigate and gear change and highway code check on the fly, in REAL TIME. No matter how dangerous. No matter how many casualties. No matter how tiring and stressful and insane it is to restrain a soft, squishy human inside a STEEL CAN. You're a prisoner inside your commercial status.
"But my car's my life, it has all I need inside it, it's my mobile office, my living space, my entertainment zone all crammed into one, gimme more time behind the wheel, stuck in traffic, getting nowhere..." ya know, this kinda post just wasn't written for your Kind.
