You are assuming that fun driving includes excessive speed, and testing the edges of traction. What about a nice pleasant day driving in the country, shifting gears, listening to the engine growl, feeling the corners.

I don't really enjoy racing, but I do like driving. No I do not want to take a cab everywhere I go*

*During one of the discussions (on Slashdot or elsewhere, I can't remember) on driverless cars someone said we already have them and they are called cabs...

What if the act of driving (especially on a curvy back road) IS my entertainment?

Once I was driving when my radiator froze. (Yes I had good antifreeze, but it was beyond Damn cold) I had to drive with my window open so my windshield did not fog and freeze. Yes it was brutal, No I did not have heated seats.

My point is that there is not really a compelling reason for consumers to trade in their cars for a self driving car except in a few fringe cases. (Granted others would LIKE a self driving car for various reasons, but many people like heated seats)

I have a very unique name, so any document with my name on it will probably lead right back to me. This is not really a fault of said document, but more about the ease of gaining information. Anyone determined enough can find out a lot about you with minimal initial information.

I understand this scenario, but outside large cities it is not nearly as attractive. I think public transit also can fill a lot of this niche if it is run properly.

Some people just want easy transportation to get them to their destination. The Johnny Cab type door to door service could become very inexpensive, so there is no reason to take on the overhead of owning a vehicle. This type of service works very well in densely populated areas very well.

Other people, like me, enjoy driving and live in less congested areas. An autonomous vehicle makes less sense. Again, for my commute I can choose to use the Johnny Cab, but for my personal vehicle I want the freedom to go on more back roads etc.

safety is the "compelling" reason, but that is a bit to ambiguous. Why should I pay more for a self driving car when I have not had an accident since I was a kid? Unless it becomes law, self driving cars* will be a gimmick. Kind of like heated seats, kind of nice, but not necessary for your average joe. And then there is a large portion of people who like driving... I think self driving cars will become more johnny cabs than personal vehicles. And maybe the Maybachs of the rich and busy. *Let's assume all/most of the bugs are worked out and self driving cars are safe.

Wow, Interesting. But wearing a flight suit? If I had not commented, I would mod you very informative...

So they are looking for pasty scrawny geeks to fly their drones? (My son's comment upon reading the headlines...)

interesting. either way, it is useless for me (if I even wanted to use it...)

As a non USian, do your credit cards really have your address on them? that is messed...

don't use magnetic stripe, but I'm pretty comfortable with chip and pin. Physical contact is required as well as a (somewhat secure) PIN. and because of the pin, yes I do keep my card. The waiter brings a wireless payment terminal and I keep a receipt.

I found it funny that the only place I knew in Canada that still needed magnetic stripe cards was Starbucks. about a year ago they got new chip and pin readers. I also find it a bit strange that several places (Tim Hortons comes to mind) are pushing their own apps (available on Android, IOS, and Blackberry) with NFC payment. It will be interesting to see how this all plays out. As far as I know, the Apple Pay thing is still only available in the US...

kind of like debit cards? ps I'm Canadian, I am not sure what the equivalent is in the US. In Canada, a debit card, usually secured with chip and pin, allows you to transfer money from your linked account (usually a chequing account) to the retailer.

didn't Mint conquor this quite some time ago? I use SolydXK (the KDE version) on my laptop and have no problems. With Ubuntu it is just a matter of adding a repository. I have not used many other distos enough recently to say one way or another...

tried elementaryOS, but found it a bit limiting and frankly kind of ugly. I have been using SolydK on my laptop (I am a KDE fan) for a while now. Great rolling release, but it is a bit small and the distributors are a bit overworked.