Why There Are No Flying Cars

Occasionally I hear of some corporate or university research lab making great strides in cars which use computer controls to drive themslves. Some require expensive so-called "automated highways" with magnets or wires embedded in the road surface, some require transmitters spaced next to or over the road. Some automatic vehicles have sophisticated sensors and enough intelligence to work on existing roads.

What a great day it will be when humans will be free to work or relax during what is now (paradoxically) both a dull and dangerous endeavor. Unfortunately, that day will never arrive.

But Guy, I hear you saying, won't there be lots of lives saved by such a system? Yes indeed, thousands of lives would be saved every year. But any system won't be perfect. For the sake of argument, let's say a system is devised that will reduce the current number of accidents by 99.9% (an unlikely target, but we'll be generous). This system will cause 185 automobile accidents every day! It will kill more than 400 people every year.

Now tell me what universe you would have to live in where a company causing such mayhem is allowed to continue in business. Well, it would be an eerie and bizarrely unfamiliar place--it would have no lawyers.

But Guy, car companies (and cigarette companies) already kill thousands of people every year. They sure do, but these industries were developed and became part of the fabric of society more than 100 years ago, back when there was only 1 lawyer in town. And it's far from clear whether companies like Philip Morris or Bridgestone/Firestone will survive in the current litigious climate. In any case, new products now come into our society with a requirement that they kill and harm a maximum of zero people.

A company making a new product which kills 400 people a year? Don't be ridiculous. There will be humans living on the planets of a dozen stars long before the first self-driving car is sold to the public.