zlacker

Cars are not and cannot go silent. Most of their noise comes from tires. Stand near a highway and pay attention to specifically where the noise comes from. It's primarily not the engines.

Trains already exist. They are proven technology. Smart cars have proven to be difficult to make safely. Smart cars will still be less efficient for moving lots of people than trains.

It's not just the cars. It's also the land use. All that extra pavement and other infrastructure for all the low-density land patterns cars necessitate is resource intensive to build and maintain.

This is just like lab grown meat. People think technology that will hit the market at a competitive price point in some indeterminate amount of time will save us from existential problems that are already manifesting. And that technological optimism is interfering with the development of the needed level of urgency.