Do you want your car making life changing decisions for you?

OK. I sell cars. I work for Jim Marsh Kia in Las Vegas. (plug plug).  I get asked almost on a weekly basis when we will have a self driving car.  The answer to that is, when they come out.  Part of me would love a self driving car revolution because it would open a whole new market for me as a sales person. On the other hand, I don't know if I want to be in, or sharing the road with self driving cars.  I am not sure how the tech works. I know that it has to do with satellites and cameras and sensors and any number of systems that can fail while you are doing 80 MPH per hour and taking a nap while depending on your tech to make decisions like when to stop when a forklift falls off the truck in front of you. 

We are a tech dependent race. As we have seen in the news, tech is a playing field for hackers who have nothing better to do than screw with people's lives without a care. So if someone pushes a button 2000 miles away and makes your self driving car plunge into the ocean, this is not a good day.  How does it handle finding a parking space? What about that detour? That child that is running in the street to catch a puppy that ran out?  Too many grey areas here. If you are in a car, you should be driving, and in control.  There have already been instances with self driving cars killing people.  It's all great in Sci Fi, "Thank you for taking Johnny Cab"...But do we really NEED a car that drives itself? 

Did we learn nothing from 2001 A Space Odyssey?  "Open the Pod Doors HAL..."    
"I'm sorry, I can't do that Dave.."
I can see it now, headed toward your garage door, and it does not open because your car has decided to take over and wreak havoc in your neighborhood?  I remember the first self driving car I ever saw. Christine.  How soon we forget. 

Who gets the ticket when your self driving car blows through a Red Light?  Who is to blame with insurance when your self driving car rear ends someone?  Too many questions. 

Remember about 10 years ago when they said Electric cars will change the way we drive forever? That half the cars on the road will be electric by 2015? How'd that work out?  I feel as though this whole self driving car thing will go the same way. They will be rare and very expensive.  I'll wait for the Flying Cars to hit before I get terribly excited. Because, "Roads? Where we're going, we don't need roads...."