Quote:
Originally Posted by Hersbird
If you are a foot off the bumper of the car in front and it slams on the brakes then the speed differential at impact isn't very much. If you are two seconds or 150 feet off the bumper and not paying attention the car can come to a complete stop in front of you and you hit it going 65 MPH.
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And if both (all) cars brake at the same time and same rate there's no speed difference. Automation eliminates the concept of differential in reaction time.
Some other thoughts on ubiquitous autonomous operation:
There's no need for traffic lights at intersections and the time spent waiting at idle. The speed of each stream of traffic can be adjusted to create the required gap for traffic to cross through.
It would mean the end of horsepower as a selling point when you can't even pretend to need it. Manufacturers of supercars will need to alter their business model, probably even more towards the trend to the use of their product on racetracks.