We absolutely have the technology to go to Mars. We could probably have sent a manned mission to Mars in the 70s with the same technology level that took us to the moon.
It’s just that it would cost an incredible sum of money for very little gain and so it hasn’t happened - even the mission to the moon was a huge drain on the budget and the program was canceled once we won the space race.
Going to Mars is like supersonic passenger air travel (Concorde) - something we have the technology to do, but it just doesn’t make sense.
An autonomous, self-driving automobile is something we just can’t do today no matter how much money we spent on it. I think it’s a different question because we are trying to predict if we will ever reach the level of technological sophistication to allow it. (Of course we have a solution for “driving a car from one city to another” and it’s putting a human in the seat, or of “making a self driving vehicle” and it’s putting the vehicle on grade separated tracks like the Morgantown PRT)
I disagree. I'm sure that, if we really wanted to, we could put a person onto Mars. I don't think we have the ability to send someone & retrieve them, or for them to fend for themselves on the surface. So this is a bit like saying we have the technology to explore the inside of a volcano because we can jump into one. It's not really the proposition people are talking about when they say "go to Mars".
But I agree that it's actually a generous comparison to self driving cars. After all, we do occasionally send machines to Mars, and they work quite well.
It’s just that it would cost an incredible sum of money for very little gain and so it hasn’t happened - even the mission to the moon was a huge drain on the budget and the program was canceled once we won the space race.
Going to Mars is like supersonic passenger air travel (Concorde) - something we have the technology to do, but it just doesn’t make sense.
An autonomous, self-driving automobile is something we just can’t do today no matter how much money we spent on it. I think it’s a different question because we are trying to predict if we will ever reach the level of technological sophistication to allow it. (Of course we have a solution for “driving a car from one city to another” and it’s putting a human in the seat, or of “making a self driving vehicle” and it’s putting the vehicle on grade separated tracks like the Morgantown PRT)