Prospects of AVs
Let us first address the potential skepticism of people towards driverless cars. The demand for driverless cars will be driven (pun intended) by people that don't want to drive - people that either don't already have a car, or don't want to have a car. If you are a skeptic of driverless cars, sorry, you really don't have a choice. Barring a legislative initiative to outlaw driverless cars (for which there's scant evidence), you just have to live with the AVs. Consideration of safety, the huge number of cab rides taken and the right of mobility for the elderly likely will trump the resistance of the skeptics.
Driver Behavior
Clearly, AVs are still learning to deal with human drivers. Yes, it might be frustrating for human drivers to deal with AVs, especially, on local roads with slow and unexpected traffic.
But, I am optimistic that there will not be bullying of the AVs by human drivers for too long. Why? Like most technology products, we should expect that AVs will collect a lot of data, including, the places they were at a particular time, the people, cars and other sights they have seen etc, nicely meta-tagged and searchable. This will be a treasure trove for all manners of governmental agencies.
The transportation departments would want some of this information to predict traffic patterns and to plan for future construction. Welfare departments would want to understand passenger patterns and the improvements in services they can provide.
The most intriguing use in the context of driver behavior is the video footage collected by the AVs. Similar to (private) video recordings of public spaces, the video footage of the AVs can likely be asked to be presented for a police investigation through a subpoena. Even more intriguing is the use of meta--tags. Can the law enforcement agencies be able to search and quickly get through all the AVs' video footage at a certain time and place? I don't see why not! In fact, we shouldn't be surprised if the law enforcement directly submit the subpoena to the manufacturer (or software provider) of the car itself, regardless of who owns the car. I am sure there will be other uses for law enforcement analysis such as improvement in gun shot detection and other major crime detection.
Coming back to driver behavior, if you think you are going to have a bout of rage at the AVs, you might want to think of all the video footage captured. :) You should expect the video of the incident ready and packaged for the police, before you are done with your rage.
I don't know about you, but, once AVs become prevalent, I am going to put my legs up on the dashboard and let the machines do the driving. I love driving, but, it won't be as much fun with big brother watching!
