Self driving cars will change the world, part 2

The complete re-adjustment of society due to self driving cars is hard to fathom.  To be clear it's going to be mainly an urban/suburban issue at first.  Think the DC metro area, NYC, Atlanta, Dallas, or Los Angeles.  There are a lot of cities struggling with traffic issues that are intractable.  You can't build your way out of it, you can't mass transit your way out of it, you can't bike or walk your way out of it.  You need a new technology.   

Think of your commute and what the issues that you encounter are.  Tired drivers, texting drivers, impaired drivers and just plain bad drivers.  Plus there is human nature to contend with.  Think of driving past an accident.  How many of you try to catch a glance?  Everyone does, it's the way humans are wired.  Add in text messages that have to be responded to, updating your Twitter feed, checking Facebook and you realize that communication is primary and driving secondary for a lot of people.

These days it's just hard to simply focus on driving.  I'd argue a transportation revolution has to occur to keep up with our new communication methods.  Self driving cars will allow for a wide range of development in communications that haven't been available before for safety reasons.   The ability to design cars that are essentially moving communication modules is going to be interesting from a design perspective.  New shapes and interior layouts are going to give the coming generation of cars that 21st century look that we have been waiting for.  

The question is what will the ripple effect be?  What  other industries will be affected by the rise of the machine.   In the next segment we'll take a look at the other areas that will be directly and indirectly affected by the transportation revolution.