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Fully self-driving cars with today's technology

hire drivers and drive cars with them
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Voice was browsing an old article about a Rolls Royce self-driving car concept.* He had a thought. Very wealthy people don't want self-driving cars because they can't afford a chauffeur. They want them because they value their privacy and because they want the prestige of owning the latest thing. These benefits can apparently be provided without the need for a computer-controlled car. In fact privacy and prestige can both be enhanced over owning a computer-controlled car. Privacy because a computer-controlled car reports back to home to get its navigation instructions and prestige because this would cost MUCH more.

The idea is an enclosed, hidden cabin for a chauffeur. It would have all the necessities of life including food, air conditioning, entertainment, communication, and so forth. This cabin would be placed somewhere in the back of this car. Otherwise the car's passengers would have a speaker interface to give directions for where to go. The rider can pretend he's talking to a computer if he likes and in any case won't have to worry about seeing, paying, or considering the driver. Alternatively the communication with the rider can be one-way only, meaning the driver can't ask for clarification, but the passenger can easily pretend there's no other human listening. The car would thereby be fully self-driving to the full capacity of a professional driver.

The driver would agree, for a sum, to be so enclosed for two years at which point the car would be taken in for servicing and the driver would be replaced.

Of course the car would need to be extra large to accommodate this. Another advantage would be the complete elimination of controls in the passenger cabin.

*(not a concept car, that would imply they actually made a car that can do that.)

Voice, Dec 07 2019

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Similarly exploitative [8th of 7, Dec 07 2019]

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       This could be used to effectively enslave frail, elderly people with normal mental function but significant mobility issues.   

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8th of 7, Dec 07 2019
  
      
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