We all know that private servers are a long way off. Talking about other things is a good way to wait and keeps the forums active. Don't worry about things going off topic as long as it doesn't upset people or cause an argument. If a breakthrough for private servers or plan Z happens, i'm sure things will return to the original topic almost instantly.
Well, if private server technology did materialize, the thesis of the thread would be somewhat mooted.
As for autodriving, the biggest problems would hit tourism and road trips. The preprogrammed routes would likely not cross small rural areas without major advertising. Back when the first highways were built, many small towns died because people had no reason to go through them and stop there anymore. The same thing would happen with auto driving technology. Yard sale? What's that? Not to mention that routes could be changed by corporations or government desires. Pitstops could be routed based on corporate brand name desires. Routes could be changed by government to avoid protest and prevent protesters from gathering, which would affect free speech. Auto driving could be great by lowering accidents and nearly ending traffic problems but it could also be bad. The human element needs to always remain an option.
The difference here is that the interstate highway system *created* new paths to take which were capable of bypassing the original paths. Self-driving cars aren't nearly as much of a threat because they can only use the paths that are already there, and most likely the paths most people already take. The advent of GPS navigation systems already do as much damage as automated driving technology could have possibly done.
Most of what you're talking about is not automated driving, but allowing external entities to actually dictate where you go. I'll bet anything anyone wants right now that sort of technology doesn't get mass deployed in my lifetime, or the lifetime of anyone who could possibly be reading these words now. Its one thing for an automated driver to avoid traffic congestion because of some protest activity: that sort of thing is what I *want* my car to do already, regardless of the cause of the traffic congestion. But there's no way automated driving technology will actively prevent me from reaching a protest site even if I direct it to drive there, just because the government doesn't want me to go there. The government already has a way to do that: its called roadblocks. They are significantly more effective than attempting to hijack control of all the automated cars on the road.
