Audi auto pilot.... für Sie faulen Hintern Treiber

[intakexhaust]

Just wait until the hacks get into the 2015 version of Audi's sudden acceleration A7

[sc_rufctr]

Cool tech but I don't think I'd ever want a car like this.

Imagine how long before the system breaks down or a sensors fails? No thanks. KISS

[David McLaughlin]

Way back when, I thought Night Rider's KITT was cool. Having a car that can actually do this; no. Too much that can go wrong. I don't want a car thinking for me. I've worked autobody on a few BMWs, they have a sensor in the SMG car that won't allow the car to be driven with the hood ajar. What a PITA to get around when you need to. I can just imagine the sensors in this thing.

[john70t]

No sensors in the world could prevent these scenarios:

1). Following a semi on the highway in blinding blizzard conditions.
Long trip and tired. Wanted 5-10 mph more. Drove over the hump to pass, and literally 1 second later ran over a ladder stretched across the road. No damage.

2). Freeway two-lane on ramp.
Young girl drivers in left lane doing 35-45 mph. I passed well on right. They jerked right from the left hand lane. I turned with them, using sliding understeer with braking oversteer. 6-12 inches clearance through turn. No damage.

3). Accelerating from 4-way stop sign in a dense urban neighborhood.
Had a preconception and slammed on the brakes. Thugs ran the intersection at 60-80mph, no lights. No damage.

4). All the times I've been tailgated in the right lane, and had people in the left lane try to pass using my spot. No damage.

[john70t]

Removing the driver from the driver's seat is the worst thing a manufacturer could do.
Audi better get ready for the lawsuits.

[oldE]

Originally Posted by john70t

No sensors in the world could prevent these scenarios:
2). Freeway two-lane on ramp.
Young girl drivers in left lane doing 35-45 mph. I passed well on right. They jerked right from the left hand lane. I turned with them, using sliding understeer with braking oversteer. 6-12 inches clearance through turn. No damage.

But imagine the car 'driven' by the girl had more awareness than she. It would not have allowed the lane change with you in the other lane.

3). Accelerating from 4-way stop sign in a dense urban neighborhood.
Had a preconception and slammed on the brakes. Thugs ran the intersection at 60-80mph, no lights. No damage.

Likewise, if a car was able to detect a stop sign, it would be programmed to stop. Also an intelligent car would not be doing 60 +mph in a dense urban neighborhood.

I have to say the video reminded me of the old line about the dancing elephant. It is not so much that it dances so well, rather that it dances at all. The movements of the steering wheel gave me the collywobbles. That being said, I suspect that car parks better than half the people I know.

Best
Les

[Nostril Cheese]

Hey Audi,

Piloted parking is cool and all but... perhaps you guys can take some of that money and development time and design a cooling system that actually works?

Can you imagine all the subroutines built into that thing? Scary..

[BeeMaster]

What happens when two of these cars meet and want to pass or park next to each other? How do they decide who has the right off way? Give them credit for the tec.
But is anyone ever going to make a butt simple car again that doesn't have a wiring harness the size of a anaconda or are we screwed from now on.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by oldE

But imagine the car 'driven' by the girl had more awareness than she. It would not have allowed the lane change with you in the other lane.

How about the fresh water-main break I experienced the other day?
It required stopping and making a U-Turn on a 5-lane.
If the car would "not allow" this, would I sit there waiting on the phone for Audi tech support?
What if I didn't have the phone with me?
It's my car. Paid for.

Originally Posted by oldE

Likewise, if a car was able to detect a stop sign, it would be programmed to stop. Also an intelligent car would not be doing 60 +mph in a dense urban neighborhood.

If those thugs in a 1970's Cutlass were trying to carjack, or shoot me, I'd like that option.
Um, please.

I know I'm being argumentative here, but the gist is that technology will never cover all the possible driving scenarios out there.
-If it does cover 90%, that is still not enough.
-If it does cover 100%, you might as well cut up the Constitution and call it "mass-transit".

[oldE]

Being from the Frozen North, I'm not sure what applicability the Constitution has to do with autonomous operation of motor vehicles. Maybe they missed in writing that part.
Are you going to be forced to purchase one? I doubt it for the next 20 years.

I think what we're seeing here is a very early technology and I suspect what we will see in 20 years will make the self-parking car look like a middle school science project.
I admit that I, who am seldom comfortable in a vehicle operated by anyone else, am not a prime candidate for an AOMV. But I also suspect you have witnessed vehicle operation which left you wishing a machine was keeping that other car in the lane while some rectal oriface wrestled with his breakfast sandwich.

I believe we will see the first applications dedicated to simple tasks such as guiding the car along a multi lane highway until a pre-determined exit is reached. The tech exists (has existed for 20 years) to do this. Slower car in front? There exists programming to check the passing lane and accellerate around the slower car if conditions allow. following distance? Its there.

As for the reliability of sensors, I recall hearing the same predicitions of doom when electronic sensors were first placed on engines, transmissions, differentials and wheels. They seem to work just fine. I suspect any manufacturer who produces an AOMV will make darned sure any failure of any component means the human operator will be accepting the chores. (Hope he/she's awake! )

Best
Les

[Bill Douglas]

Originally Posted by Nostril Cheese

Piloted parking is cool and all but...

My thoughts too. AND if you can't park the car you shouldn't be driving it.

[KNS]

Originally Posted by BeeMaster

What happens when two of these cars meet and want to pass or park next to each other? How do they decide who has the right off way? Give them credit for the tec.
But is anyone ever going to make a butt simple car again that doesn't have a wiring harness the size of a anaconda or are we screwed from now on.

I would love a simple, sporty performance car (doesn't have to have record lap times at the Nurburgring) but I think those days are long gone and we are screwed.

[john70t]

Originally Posted by oldE

Being from the Frozen North, I'm not sure what applicability the Constitution has to do with autonomous operation of motor vehicles. Maybe they missed in writing that part.

(cough parf)
In this country, provisions in the 4th Amendment guarantee rights against unauthorized surveillance.
Yes, Britain and the Queen has already fallen.
I'm sorry.

Originally Posted by oldE

Are you going to be forced to purchase one? I doubt it for the next 20 years.

Because only a few knuckleheads(with good attorneys I might add) once thought a Ford Explorer was a road racer, every vehicle in the U.S. now has federally mandated traction control and crumple zones.
That is why you currently can't purchase a re-manufactured reproduction Early Pcar.

(I might add: Possible hacking of the Toyota Prius systems were not covered by the 6 o'clock news.)

Because of U.S. federal mandates, the extra weight and complexity severely degrades corporate industry CAFE average fuel economy standards, and adds corporate costs to both initial price-point and future repairs.
All this is passed along to the customer/commuter/worker/transporter/consumer.


Sorry I'm sounding like a Luddite...and in certain ways I am...but progress sometimes requires two steps forward and one step back.

Now is a good time to step back and consider the implications of enacting any standard en a mass scale.
Not just tomorrow, but 10 years from now.