Self driving cars

Here they come, no here they are!  With Waymo testing their driverless cars in Phoenix, Dallas and Shanghai allowing them on their streets, this paradigm shift is beginning before our eyes.  Self driving cars are definitely inevitable at this point.  There are several high dollar companies throwing their weight around as well as many smaller start ups.  I am not going to bore you with the technical side of this issue and discuss Lidar vs. HD video.  Instead I am going to discuss the many and varied uses and abuses possible as well as talk about some of the ways this technology will change our world.  There will be no more taxis or truckers in the near future.  Millions of mostly men will be out of a job.  Nevermind that there will be less deaths in automobile accidents because the unemployed will still be upset.  Cars will be shared and public transportation won't need buses or trains nearly as much, but the possibility for harm is increased as well.  Anyone familiar with the movie Irobot will have some idea about what I am talking about.  The ever present AI takes control of traffic and tries to kill the main character.  There doesn't have to be an AI involved in our world.  A hacker can do just as much damage by shutting down cars on the freeway.  Driverless cars will also make suicide bombing more appealing.  Just program a car to driver somewhere with a timer or remote and BOOM.  All of this is taken aside from the regular errors that are expected from a new technology.  Ghosts in the machine or just plain mistakes in programming will cause deaths for sure, but will those sacrifices be worth it?  How about if it reduces the death toll by 100% or 200%?  Over 40,000 people lost their lives in car accidents last year alone.  What won't we do to save those people?  Do their lives balance out to all the drivers salaries?  How much do you value your own personal car?  Does driving a car mean freedom to you?  It does to me.  Moving into a new community with a communal parking garage and shared cars sounds futuristic and environmentally friendly but it loses some appeal when I think about getting in a car and smelling someone else's lunch or maybe their cologne.  I would also like the control that a wheel allows.  I might not be able to take sitting back with y life in the hands of a smart car.  Who knows how we will react and the tech will evolve.  All I know for sure is that this technology is sweeping our streets.