A few days ago traffic got temporarily snarled up around here when an old lady was running red lights and driving the wrong way down the road. I don't really know what I could have done about that other than dodge.

I am passionate about Uber and similar services! Why doesn't everyone rave about the increased SAFETY these services provide? We have a lovely twenty-something daughter whose entire social life is expanded because she can go just about anywhere she wants, meet friends and have some drinks, stay late, and then get home in an Uber. Before Uber, her father and I spent nervous evenings waiting to hear that she was home OK because we knew that she was waiting for public trans alone at night and then on a bus. Many many times creepy guys bothered her and one even followed her onto the bus! To put it bluntly, how many rapes have been prevented by Uber? I usually avoid this slogan, but here's the perfect application for it: Uber is a feminist issue.

I think most states in the US are a bit free and easy with drivers licenses for both teenagers and the elderly. Maybe there needs to be a “red flag law”. :-).

Now that my wife and I are in a position to buy a house here in Charlotte, my elderly uncle (89 on Monday) is full of all kinds of advice. He strongly suggests we buy on a bus route or in the center city so when we get too old to drive, we can still get around.

I keep telling him that's probably at least 20-30 years out and, by then, self-driving cars, ride-sharing services, etc. will have significantly changed the landscape of getting around for the young and old alike. How and to what extent, I can't say, but it will be a different landscape.

He's lost in the modern age and struggles to conceptualize the technology landscape today, much less the one 20 years in the future. One of the reasons he struggles to conceptualize this landscape is that he's never had a computer or a cell phone. He's always been a Luddite when it comes to understanding and embracing technological change.

I've thought about suggesting he get a cell phone, but the learning curve is pretty steep by now. With a 2-3 function flip phone a few years ago, he may have been able to catch up, but with a smart phone, there's too much to take in.

My 84-year-old mother-in-law is just learning to use her new smart phone and her learning curve is pretty steep. Even though she's had a computer for years, she still struggles; but at least she knows the lingo and the basic concepts - icons, desktops, mouse, cursor, double-click, the "at" symbol, etc. He'd be starting from the 1960s.

I think most states in the US are a bit free and easy with drivers licenses for both teenagers and the elderly. Maybe there needs to be a “red flag law”. :-). ~ Isab at August 30, 2019 6:08 AM

In Miami a few decades back, there was an old man from Ohio who renewed his Ohio DL by mail. One day, he plowed into a group of school children, killing one. He drove off, later saying he thought he'd hit a garbage can.

In the ensuing uproar, Florida implemented a mandatory road test every two years for people over a certain age. I believe Ohio put restrictions on out-of-state mail renewals as well.

With snowbirds living in two states seasonally, states struggle to assert control over who is allowed to use their facilities. Many multi-state residents have learned to get around the state-level controls on driving, voting, etc.

There are a few rideshares for kids, but they're very small and basically operate as regional chauffeur services that you need to schedule.

My guess is that all the checks, rules and safeguards are prohibitive to a viable rideshare service for kids. You'll notice that Uber and Lyft won't even allow unattended minors in the car, though they check their drivers and even have town cars which possess heightened safety ratings.

Everyone knows how crazy American parents can be. It's probably just not worth the effort to deal with their kids.

Conan, at 89 just let him be. If he is interested help him but certainly don't push him. I went through that with my grandfather. After a certain point you just need to work with what is there. It isn't worth changing things.

Does anyone know - would you have to have a driver license if you have a self-driving car?

Uber/Lyft is a godsend for my MIL who really “shouldn’t be driving” due to her eyesight and neck mobility issues. And certainly shouldn’t be driving from Dallas to Austin to visit us. Now she Ubers to the Megabus stop, takes Megabus to Austin and Ubers to our house if we can’t take off work to pick her up.

As an adult male in America, I make it a point to never be alone with a child. Ever. For so many reasons.

If this came to pass, I think drivers should have the option of not being forced to participate.

Uber provides

no training on driving with kids
no real, for real, useful auto safety inspection
no driver training, regular driving, braking,
no driver safety training
no driver emergency medical training
no driver testing
no test of driver's knowledge of local hospitals, police stations, whatever

Uber doesn't fingerprint, instead using far less reliable chekr background inspections

I think it's a huge mistake to put kids into ubers

----

re cars and the elderly, there should be paratransit for many of these needs, except that uber and lyft are gutting paratransit

but everything I said about kids applies to the elderly as well

uber ain't cheap, they wanted $17 yesterday at 10am to drive me 1.7 miles to my dentist. I drove my car instead.

“uber ain't cheap, they wanted $17 yesterday at 10am to drive me 1.7 miles to my dentist. I drove my car instead.

jerry at August 30, 2019 3:19 PM

A bargain compared to the cost of buying insuring fueling, and maintaining a car.

Not one but two of my seniors in declining health patiently surrendered their car keys before we even asked them to do so. This is a stupendous blessing.

> Everyone knows how crazy American
> parents can be. It's probably just
> not worth the effort to deal with
> their kids.
>
> maura at August 30, 2019 7:23 AM

I totally heart Maura.

Here was a thread about dealing with kids.

Man, Tressider used to piss me off.

Maura, Every kid I know over the age of 14, and many younger, Uber and Lyft all over Los Angeles. My own very young-looking teen has never once been rejected for a ride. (I do ask her to take a photo of the driver’s information and text it to herself - I could see it on her home computer, if necessary, but that’s as far as my helicoptering extends.)

re cars and the elderly, there should be paratransit for many of these needs, except that uber and lyft are gutting paratransit

paratrasit sucks, they can be upto 45 minutes late, they can keep you on the short bus for up to two hours, if you use things like Veyo pray fo an early morning appointment because by the end of the day most f the driver rage quit because of all the cancellations they spend an half an hour getting to and are never paid for

"would you have to have a driver license if you have a self-driving car?" ~Ken

No one knows right now. Personally I am expecting you would need a license. Not for any training issue but as a way to shift liability from the car manufacturer to the car owner. If manufacturers can't shift liability from themselves to their customers then self driving cars will not exist. Each customer would be a liability capable of wiping out the company. With a couple million customers even if their product is safer than driving yourself the risk of just one of them having an accident and wiping out the manufacturer is pretty much 100%.

Sentence fragment:

> there should be paratransit

I'm pretty sure that translates as I don't want to pay the cost of the transportation I consume.

"Should be"

Can't get over it— 'There should be' is so melodically impersonal.

It doesn't say WHO is going to demand the money, and it doesn't say WHO is going to collect it, and it doesn't even say who gets the free transportation. It's a prayer of, and to, purely inorganic phenomenology.

Sing it with me now, won't you?

♫ SHOULD ♬

"would you have to have a driver license if you have a self-driving car?"

At present, they're not really self-driving. They need a human at the wheel and (supposedly) looking out for errors. For one thing, until the programmers have been able to train the visual/radar/lidar systems on tens or hundreds of thousands of things that might be in the way, there's basically two choices: Stop and wait for the human to take over whenever it can't identify something, or ignore unknown images. The second choice caused a woman walking a bicycle to be run over. The software ignored what it couldn't figure out and the car operator's eyes were on something in her lap. The first choice would have the car shrieking for assistance very often, and braking if it didn't get an immediate response - but at least the operator wouldn't get bored and stop paying attention...

Even when the self-driving software is better, manual driving will be required sometimes. Google Maps won't tell it how to park itself in your driveway. A lot of rural roads won't be improved to support self-driving software for 20 years, if ever.

Snow and ice will also be challenges for self-driving, although I think it's possible. This is mainly a matter of sensors and physics; the software can integrate radar and wheel-slip sensors better than a human can, and do the calculations better. But it will take longer to get this right than to improve the software to safely navigate downtown with uncontrolled cars, bicycles, and pedestrians.

But finally, will self-driving cars ever become good enough to function as taxis? That requires operation without a qualified driver, or any human in the car at all. OTOH, it doesn't have to leave the roads that are well-mapped and marked for self-drivers.