The whole concept of 'DUI' will be gone, and the only fatal accidents will be some bizarre tire blow out situation that the AI can't handle. Frankly I am looking forward to it. I consider manual driving like manual flying until the 90s, was 'safe' usually but not 'super safe' like it's been since 2000 outside of terrorist or weird anomalies.
But as someone who, between gigs, session work, etc. I can easily put 50,000-60,000 miles a year on my car, for me driving is not only one a symbol of freedom, but it keeps my brain sharp. I can decide last minute when passing the Cheesequake rest stop on the Jersey Turnpike if I want to get off and just yank the wheel. I can decide to get off an exit early and explore a little driving around if I get somewhere an hour early. I can decide to stay in a lane that's a little backed up if I want even though it's not maximum efficiency because I don't feel like switching lanes every 20 seconds to avoid slowing down. There's an inherent freedom in driving.
Not to mention I feel like it keeps my brain sharp. I'm constantly calculating things when I drive, from watching drivers who I feel are unpredictable, to planning ahead of me to see if I have to switch lanes, to avoid an idiot who cuts me off in the fast lane but he's driving slower than me, to constantly looking out for scenarios like imagining someone in the opposite direction drifting into my lane and where can I move to instantly avoid it. When I drive, I feel like my mind is in a constant chess game, calculating every scenario and outcome. I feel like it helps in the long run to keep my brain healthy and alert.**
Of course they want to push self driving. The establishment would love nothing more for you to get in your car, relinquish your freedom, while you voluntarily glue your face to your phone and play wordscapes or candy crush or whatever mind numbing game is dumbing you down while some developer cashes in on the ad revenue.
** I always write my best lyrics while driving. I thought I was nuts but I read a study that said when driving, it takes so much brain power to do it because there's so much to do - driving, checking mirrors, monitoring speed, etc - that your brain can't actually do it all and still do other stuff and has to disable some non-essential parts of your brain to "re-route" the brain power towards driving. Turns out that one of the parts of the brain it disables is the part that self-censors your ideas. So when you're being creative and coming up with stuff, the part of you that instantly knocks your ideas down like, "That's dumb. No one would like that. How'd I come up with that - that sounds retarded", etc. is disabled and so you're capable of being more creative. So yes, more than anything I won't support self driving because I'm actually more creative when I drive.
