[visordown.com] - Lunchtime debate Driverless cars good or bad for motorcycling

[Ninjette Newsbot]

THE revelation of Google’s plan for driverless cars has left more than a few jaws on the floor. Sure, they’ve been testing prototype self-driving cars for ages, but the fact the planned production version will have no driving controls at all is something of a shock.

Those of us on friendly terms with the 21st century knew self-drivers were coming. But most of us also presumed that, when they appeared, they'd retain an option of manual driving.

The reality – or at least Google’s vision of it – is quite different. The tech firm imagines that people won’t ever drive or even own their cars in future. They won’t have to fuel them, garage them, service them. No, they’ll just summon a car (via their phone, obviously) when they need it, and a little white box will trundle up to whisk them to their destination. It will be more like an automated taxi service, just without somebody regaling you with tales of who they had in the back of their cab, or espousing strange political views. In fact, it’s surprising to see that Google’s cars have the seats facing forward and a big windscreen to look through. With no facility to control the car yourself, you might as well face backwards, or inwards towards each other.

But that’s by-the-by. The important thing is that, unlikely as it may seem today, with chaotic roads filled with drivers of limited ability, in a few years Google’s vision could become reality.

If that's hard to believe, it may be because, as a motorcyclist, you have an unusually healthy interest in your mode of transport. You enjoy controlling a vehicle. You like to impose your own will on it and experience the freedom it offers. Unlike most drivers, for whom cars are nothing more than mobile utensils.

That's why Google's vision is good news for motorcyclists.

Given the standard level of driving ability, a computer-controlled car will likely be a safer thing to share the roads with, letting Mr and Mrs Don’t-Care get on with texting. They can even be drunk if they want; it won’t matter anymore.

Provided the technology works – and it probably will, or the backlash will be unimaginable – SMIDSY accidents could become a thing of the past.

Driverless cars, beginning as a tiny minority on the roads, will have to be able to play nicely with existing, human-controlled traffic. So there won’t be calls to rid the road of old-fashioned, manually-operated vehicles, or at least not for many years.

In fact, with inattentive drivers taken away from their car's controls, motorcycle casualties will likely reduce, along with the pressure motorcycling comes under because of them. Policy makers may no longer feel the need to make getting a motorcycle licence the most difficult thing in the world.

Congestion ought to reduce too. Google’s vision, at least at the moment, is for small two-seaters. So the roads will be less filled with huge cars containing one occupant.

There will be fewer uninsured or unroadworthy cars.

The more I think of it, the more I’m looking forward to the time when the only human drivers or riders on the road are real enthusiasts, doing it for their own pleasure and to further their own abilities. Just as private and pleasure pilots aren’t banned from the skies, and horse riders, cyclists and walkers aren’t banned from the roads, I don’t fear that the new technology will end our ability to use human-controlled vehicles. Instead I hope it will liberate us.

Of course, I could be proven horribly wrong. But my hopes are high.



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