Self-driving cars...

[Buzz]

There'll be a suitable place for automated motorways in the future but it won't be everywhere. As long as there is rural area and open space between urban/high traffic areas, there will be plenty of room for non-networked, self driven cars. Folks will still have to be able to "get off the grid" and drive to their individual destinations.

The tendency to react with paranoia and hostility whenever a new technology is introduced is based upon the fear that it will totally replace or "take away" what you currently have. Think of the people who enjoyed the freedom of getting around on horseback back in the day when the railroad or them new fangled horseless motor carriages were being introduced - "They're gonna take our horses away and pack us all into these machines and we'll only be able to travel on roads and railroad tracks!! We'll have no freedom any more!!"

PS - with even current technology its not a big stretch to imagine that automated, networked cars should be able to detect and react far quicker, safer and more precisely than a bunch of unpredictable old fashioned cowboys in their primitive vee-hickles to things like a deer entering the roadway.

PPS - Even NASCAR can benefit from the new tech. Imagine a long column of cars endlessly circling in perfect formation with only inches between them. Hey - thats just like today! Except that the race controllers will be able to decide when its a good time to throw in a wreck and let the right car move to the pole. All for the good of the sport, of course.