I have to say the ca hacking scene in Fate of the Furious gave me the chills - just a little 
I prefer to think of a level IV autonomous vehicle not as a self-driving car, but as a chauffeur embedded in a motor vehicle. Iâm far more concerned with its ability to run errands and the environmental storage of what it picks up than the comfort of my commute. I already own several vehicles, but I donât own one that can go fetch things for me.
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Donât know that this is true. Does not seem to be true, at least in the case of fatal accidents in the USA.
I think that advanced driver training leads to being more aware and alert while driving, which combined with advanced maneuvering and control of the vehicle will present a greater chance of not only surviving, but driving away unharmed afterwards. Conversely, I think that semi-automated driving tasks and advanced accident prevention systems that take control for the driver lead to a false sense of security and greatly increase the chance that drivers will be distracted⌠auto-follow, auto-brake and a facebook feed on the dashboard. Granted, I think that simply driving an automatic tends to make people lazy and distracted (and yes, one of my vehicles is an automatic, and yes: I prefer driving the automatic if I am going to be in heavy traffic).
Hows about we agree to disagree, rather than you telling me what my opinion is. 
But babies.
I donât have any that I know of. If I did, I would be teaching them how to drive from the time that they could hold onto a steering wheel.
Or handle bars.
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âLikeâŚwhatever Dad.â
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While I agree that a managed, automated system has the ability to remove a lot of the situations that cause injury or even fatal wrecks, I totally agree that training to be more aware and skilled has the ability to save people too. Many accidents occur because something goes wrong and instead of correcting the driver freezes, or doesnât know what to do. So, I hate to make it an either or, give me options that fit my situation 
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âIf I did, I would be teaching them how to drive from the time that they could hold onto a steering wheel.â
Thatâs actually what we did where I grew up. From the time we could hold a steering wheel (say, 2 years old), weâd sit on an adultâs lap and âassistâ them in turning the steering wheel of our old flatbed cattle truck as we did various jobs in our back fields. Then, at the age of nine, we learned to drive the truck ourselves on our land (with an adult in the passenger seat), then drive our parentsâ cars on the mountain roads near our house. By the time I was nine and a few months, I was driving my grandpa home from the storeâ40 miles away on very twisty, steep mountain roadsâwhenever I went with him to town. And, our family rule was that once we got our learnerâs permit at 15, we drove whatever car we were in whenever we went somewhere with the family. That said, I donât know that we get in fewer accidents than any other family, though the children never had an accident while driving that I know of.
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Well you have more and more options for cars with accident avoidance, lane-assist, follow, last-minute-braking, infrared scanners, augmented reality H.U.D.s, blind-spot monitoring, etc.
Car manufacturers are mandated to have more and more standard safety equipment. Every day there is a higher chance that the cars around you will be equipped with newer, better, smarter systems. Thatâs why the âMiniâ had to get so big and fat, and also the main reason that small cars arenât way more efficient.
I donât see much happening with better driver training. I see it getting worse. I hope Iâm wrong about that⌠but I donât think so. You can still take advanced courses, you can send your kids to courses, but you will still be surrounded by increasing numbers of drivers who have not, who consider themselves to be perfectly good drivers, and will tell you so at length (on social media, while they are driving). I mean, they even removed parallel parking from the CA driving test.
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My cousins were like that except without the adult copilot. Summers in NH were fun. But I donât know that it was a good idea for a 10 yr old to be driving a pickup truck through the fields while his 9 7/8th yr old cousin was standing in the truck bed with a rifle shooting varmints who were making holes the livestock would trip in and hurt themselves. 
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I think youâre right, thereâs not near enough training when it comes to driving. I had a friend who worked for GM in their assembly plants for years. He always said the easiest and cheapest way to cut down on all the accidents would be to replace the airbag in the steering wheel with a big, ugly, sharp spike. Figured it would cuase everyone to pay a little bit better attention 
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I donât know, sounds about right to me 
, but then my son turned 18 in may and still doesnât have his license. Times change.
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Sort of on topicâŚmy elementary and middle school aged GlowbabiesâŚand they are driving!
For the record, they are both very responsible girls and have been âdrivingâ things with wheels since they could walk.
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With my kids, I told them they can get their license whenever they want, but from that time forward they would pay for insurance, gas and maintenance or the license stayed with my wife (or me).
Strangely enough, they didnât get their licenses until they were 19 or older.
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My friend bought something similar, think pink CJ, for his daughter. He noticed she was having traction problems on wet grass and their asphalt driveway. Like her gearhead dad, she just slammed the accelerator and drove. Noticing it had hard plastic tires he got out the drill and studded the tires with screws. I have to admit, it helped the traction problem.
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a pair of heavy-duty produce rubber bands or a wheelbarrow inner tube wrapped around the drive wheels works too⌠but then you have to pay attention, because they are not really meant to have that much traction!
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in re car training; iâll note that the vast majority of us state exams are much easier than in other countries, which should probably change.
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CT changed the rules a few years ago in hopes of reducig teen accident, injury and death rates. Made them applicable to drivers between 16-18. So it was harder to get and use your license (passenger limits, hours of operation limitations, etc). My youngest kids were in the minority in getting their licenses in high school. Most kids didnât think it was worth all the grief. Get it on your 18th birthday and no restrictions.
Accident rates for 16-18 yr olds did indeed drop. But the accident rates for 16-25 yr olds stayed the same.
Itâs not necessarily the age that makes a difference as much as hours behind the wheel.
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It was the same with my 2 oldest neither one had an interest until they turned 18. My oldest had her learning permit for 2 yrs then finally took her driving test a couple weeks before heading off to college.
Here near DC there is a pretty good public transport system. I know of at least one person who is +35 years old who still has never gotten his license. We rib him constantly, but paying for public transport has probably been cheaper for him than having a license and a car (cost of the license + car + insurance + fixes + gas + miscellaneous car expenses)
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My daughter did it the day she was eligible, and my son was annoyed he had to wait to the weekend after he was eligible (no, I am not pulling you out of school). Ironically before that we had to drive him to the airport so he could go off and fly⌠But with both my kids I made them drive everywhere all the time in every bad weather. I think I made my daughter drive in a horrible blizzard up in the white mountains when sheâd only had her permit for a few weeks. They also couldnât drive until they could completely on their own change a tire, check oil, etc. They are both very cautious and capable drivers, and itâs funny that one time up in NH at skiing some guy asked âwhy would you let your kid drive in this bad weather with his permit?â (he was ironically having trouble parallel parking, not driving in deep snow). I asked the guy âwhy, do you think itâs better if the first time he does it is by himself?â
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I did that with all 4 kids. The day they got their permit I took them to a school parking lot and we spent an hour or two driving up & down the lanes, parking, signalling, parallel parking, etc. Then they drove home
After that if we were going anywhere, they drove. It also helped that they went to a private school a town over so they had to drive (with me in the car) every day, whatever weather. By the time they were on their own they had months and many many miles of driving in all sorts of weather in town and on the highway.
Funny story - one day my son is driving to school with me and he gets to an intersection with a yield sign and sees that the oncoming traffic is now turning into his lane so he stops. The car behind us didnât. We move through the intersection to the side of the road - heâs all worried (I tell him weâre insured and btw, yield does not mean âpauseâ or âslowâ so he did the right thing). We get out and the lady gets out and then she realizes who he is - turns out it was his English teacher. Her insurance paid. He got As all year
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