[quote=livinincali][quote=AN]If every car is autonomous, I’m sure it would be safe for every car to be traveling at >100MPH, since they all will know where other cars around them are and where they’re going, so there would never be any surprise.[/quote]
It might be safe but it wouldn’t be efficient. Cars traveling at 100+ mph use up a a lot more fuel/energy than a car traveling at 55 to 65 mphs. Autonomous cars should be able to draft better though.
As for high speed rail. I like the idea of it but I don’t know that the cost of California’s project is worth it. Last I heard the project was going to be over $100 billion. That just doesn’t seem to be worth it.[/quote]
What make you think it won’t be efficient? Keep in mind the current power output and gearing is specifically designed for good performance response @<80MPH. However, if everything is fully autonomous, then there's no need to worry about throttle response. Then the gearing can be much taller and engine tuning can gear toward higher low end torque. Which would greatly increase efficiency at the detriment of throttle response.