There’s another type of interaction I neglected to describe, one rooted in courtesy rather than bluff games. One person may make a request of another, who courteously yields right of way even though this isn’t required by law. This happens, for example, when a driver signals the desire to merge into line, and another driver makes room — or when a driver is waiting to exit a driveway across a line of slow-moving vehicles, and a driver in that line stops to leave a gap — only of importance if there wouldn’t be a gap otherwise — evaluating which is rather complicated compared with only evaluating one’s own responsibilities under the traffic law. How will robocars know to judge when to be courteous? As this applies to bicyclists, will robocars know to interpret a bicycle’s hand signal as a desire to merge into line, and grant the request? And to pedestrians: will robocars know to be extra-courteous to the mother pushing a baby in a stroller, or the elderly person who walks slowly?

I think the robocar will only ever work when every car is a robocar. If humans are in the mix, the concept dies very quickly.

Eventually, robocars may be a force to be reckoned with on roads, but I think we’re a long way – decades – from that. In the meantime, I think they’ll roll out bits of the tech on a piecemeal basis, such as the self-parking car.

As for banning cyclists and pedestrians from roads where robocars can operate, I think we’ll have reached an era where pedestrians and cyclists have more political clout before that happens. The age of cheap energy is all but over, and the automobile – a hugely inefficient people-mover – will be one of the first casualties of the long decline.

(I’m not sure about the proposal for cycle tracks on Fell and Oak. I found Fell perfectly fine westbound, but the official route eastbound is a bit indirect and less pleasant through that section. Just one out-of-towner.)