Running On Empty Could Befall Self-Driving Cars

Dr. Lance Eliot, AI Insider

[Ed. Note: For reader’s interested in Dr. Eliot’s ongoing business analyses about the advent of self-driving cars, see his online Forbes column: https://forbes.com/sites/lanceeliot/]

Running out of fuel.

It’s a pain in the neck.

During my college days, a friend of mine had an old jalopy of a car that was busted-up and yet it still managed to passably work, but the gas gauge seemed to have a mind of its own.

I say this because sometimes the fuel gauge would be showing that the tank was half full, even though it was nearly empty, and at other times the gauge needle was on empty but there was actually a half of tank or more of gas in it. It was a wild guessing game as to how much fuel there really was in his car at any point in time.

Some affectionately referred to it as the Guess-o-Meter.

Many people don’t realize that allowing your car to run out of gas can be bad in various ways, beyond just getting stranded someplace.

The car doesn’t especially like the notion of you letting the gas entirely be used up. The gas lines can get air in them, which can make it hard to restart the car once you’ve gotten more gas into the tank. Other things can go wrong with the…