Autonomous Vehicles Will Choose Who Lives and Dies -- What Are We Going To Do About It?

This past weekend, I drove a Tesla for the first time and man was it awesome. A powerful machine that makes no noise on the outside with the latest in software replacing a historically clunky user experience on the inside. It felt like an iPad on wheels and was a driving experience that painted my imagination as to what the future of the automobile is. Lately, and rather quickly, dialogue around self driving cars has moved from tech silos to mainstream media. Cars are a significantly underutilized asset (96% of the time they are parked), they take up a disproportionate amount of real estate (all the parking lots in the US are equivalent to the size of Connecticut!), humans are bad drivers (accident frequency is going up and to the right), and climate change is real (despite what Washington thinks these days). Beyond saving lives and protecting the environment (as if those issues weren't enough), the implications for existing business models will be transformative.