Comment Re:At what speed? (Score 1) 722
I think it is better to consider these robo-cars as a train. And like modern trains, cars will synchronize acceleration and breaking.
Driving bumper to bumper can actually be safer than leaving space between the cars. For example, if your car fails to break for any reason, you won't have time to build relative speed between your car and the car in front of you and the impact will be greatly reduced. This train-like behavior can be improved using special bumpers.
Of course, if something like a large rock suddenly falls on the road, the result may be catastrophic but trains are not immune to this kind of problem and are still the safest kind of transportation.