Twin tunnels under the Sepulveda Pass could tame L.A. traffic. But the plan comes with unknowns — and a $6 billion price tag

Yes I do consider self-driving cars a major convenience. Probably one of the biggest change in convenience we'll have seen for decades. That's why I think, if they work, they gonna sell like hot cakes. It's going to solve some problems, but create plenty of new ones; some we don't even anticipate.

The first likely problem that comes to mind is the increase use of the personal car. If people were giving up on the idea of going somewhere because of traffic, for example going out to have diner in Malibu on a week day then coming back, they might now consider the trip acceptable if they can watch a movie on the trip. Long commutes might now be more tolerable. Why sit on a train with stinky people if you can sit in your own private little wagon? And I don't believe that in the short to medium term people will all rent their self-driving car.

So we can anticipate a sharp increase in vehicular traffic if self-driving cars become a hot new gadget.

And for hard to anticipate problems, here one brainstorm idea: Imagine people realize that, instead of paying a monthly parking fee downtown, it's actually cheaper paying the gas to send your self-driving car back home, or at least farther enough where it can park. So on top of all the additional traffic carrying more humans to more places, we now also have a fleet of cars not carrying humans crowding the roads. Oh, and maybe you can switch your car to super low-speed fuel saving mode to save $$. You don't care if it's slow, you're not in it. But it's going to be a nightmare for everyone not in a self-driving car. Thus accelerating the demand, the new problems, more mobility yes, but more energy used, etc.

I'm all for it. To see where this all goes. But people need to stop pretending self-driving cars are going to solve everything magically. One thing we should know by now is to not trust the optimistic promises of the car industry.

/r/LosAngeles Thread Parent Link - latimes.com