autonomous cars

[Grog]

Obama wants to give 3.9 billion to who? to help bring autonomous cars to the US people.

First question, why is the government sticking there noise into the car business again. They need to let the auto businesses take care of it.
Next question, who wants these cars anyway. Is there really a demand for them? I have not met anyone who is looking forward to getting one. If you have to sit in there ready to take control if it screws up, you might as well just drive the thing.

Thanks , but no thanks.

[temo79]

commuters want this.

[JD159]

Granting the elderly independence at the same time taking high risk drivers away from the wheel sounds like a win win.

[1990C4S]

I believe they will radically improve life for millions of people.

[sc_rufctr]

I think they're a pipe dream. A truly autonomous car is decades away.
What we'll soon have is cars that we interact with and have added safety driver aids. Much like how a pilot flies a modern passenger jet.

But truly hands off driving? I just can't see it in the near future.

And imagine sharing the road with autonomous cars. The transition will be interesting.

[1990C4S]

The implications are huge, autonomous trucks, taxis, vehicles for seniors, smoother traffic flow on congested roads. And drunks won't be driving....

And they are nowhere near decades away. Five years max and they will be in use somewhere in the world.

[stevej37]

I like the idea of just using your phone/remote to call your car to pick you up. Other than that...not so much.

[ckissick]

Originally Posted by sc_rufctr

.... imagine sharing the road with autonomous cars. The transition will be interesting.

Exactly. What will an autonomous car do among regular cars that roll through stop signs, don't wait their turn at stop signs, don't merge properly, etc. And I guarantee you there will be plenty of young idiots who will mess with autonomous cars. As in," Dude, watch what happens when I get real close to that car."

[Nickshu]

Autonomous cars won't happen without tort reform. Automakers won't take the brunt of zillions of personal injury lawsuits that now are targeted at drivers.

I agree we'll see more driver aids... Thus keeps the driver legally responsible.

[mreid]

For mass use they are 15 to 20 years away. Sounds like another Soylndra deal to me. Just give his friends and supports free government money.

[rcooled]

Originally Posted by stevej37

I like the idea of just using your phone/remote to call your car to pick you up.

I do too. But instead of the mind-boggling complexity of autonomous cars, and the even more complex infrastructure needed to run them, why not encourage the further development of services like Uber & Lyft? A ride is just a few phone clicks away and cars can remain free of all the complicated hardware and software that'll be required to make an autonomous system work. Ride services like these also provide jobs for their human drivers in an era where technology is already displacing workers at a rapid rate.

Many believe that autonomous cars will reduce the accident & death rates on the highways, and this might very well be the case. But so would eliminating wi-fi, text readers, internet connectivity and all the other distracting fluff from new cars. So would requiring drivers to demonstrate a higher level of skill before handing them a license.

I can only imagine what a maintenance nightmare that a fully-automated transportation system would be as well. Manufacturers already have their hands full trying to keep the current fleet of already overly-complicated cars up & running. If a truly autonomous transportation system ever does come about in some future time, it may very well be the final nail in the coffin for the American auto industry. I can't help thinking that the Japanese (and maybe the Koreans and Chinese) will be the only ones who are able to provide cost-effective vehicles with the necessary levels of reliability required to make such a system viable.

[Hugh R]

If an autonomous car is suddenly faced with an accident that it can't avoid without swerving into a wall to avoid the accident, does it decide to kill its passengers or those in the accident ahead?

[motion]

Originally Posted by rcooled

I do too. But instead of the mind-boggling complexity of autonomous cars, and the even more complex infrastructure needed to run them, why not encourage the further development of services like Uber & Lyft? A ride is just a few phone clicks away and cars can remain free of all the complicated hardware and software that'll be required to make an autonomous system work. Ride services like these also provide jobs for their human drivers in an era where technology is already displacing workers at a rapid rate.

Uber is the next logical step to help eliminate cars and trucks from city centers and therefore help with congestion and pollution. No more cars parked for 9 hours a day in garages and streets taking up unneccesary space.

The step after that will be Uber autonomous vehicles. Its coming soon. Elon Musk has the balls to speed up all of these processes 10x. He has something the big automakers don't.

[aap1966]

As discussed in a previous thread, autonomous cars will have to make moral decisions. (Sacrifice the occupants to avoid hitting the kid on the road).
How can that be overcome?

[JD159]

Originally Posted by aap1966

As discussed in a previous thread, autonomous cars will have to make moral decisions. (Sacrifice the occupants to avoid hitting the kid on the road).
How can that be overcome?

Might be able to calculate the chances of occupent survivabl based on velocity and impact location. Avoid kid and crash into wall at 25mph may have a high percentage of survival for all. Id trust the computer to make that decision. All of us would swerve to avoid the kid instinctly anyway perhaps without realizing our surroundings. The computer will have already detected where to swerve and that pole none of us saw.

[Brian in VA]

It's going to be another "convenience" that is nice to have and then often horrible. Can you imagine the updates? System crashes. Reboot. Slow logging in. Freezing. Think of how often your cable / internet / wifi / computer / smart phone does something you don't want or just plain doesn't work. Then imagine being stuck on the side of the road or heading the wrong way. "No, dammit Siri, I said Home Depot!" "Ok heading to Biloxi."

[sc_rufctr]

This is our local OBahn system. It has an excellent safety record and it really does work very well.
German designed and developed and we were one of the few countries outside of Germany that adopted the system.
The driver steers the bus onto the track and then floors the throttle. He just sits back and the track steers the bus.

I can see a road similar to this for cars but you'll still have to drive the car on normal roads until you join the track and then the computers will take over.

[ckelly78z]

Originally Posted by Brian in VA

It's going to be another "convenience" that is nice to have and then often horrible. Can you imagine the updates? System crashes. Reboot. Slow logging in. Freezing. Think of how often your cable / internet / wifi / computer / smart phone does something you don't want or just plain doesn't work. Then imagine being stuck on the side of the road or heading the wrong way. "No, dammit Siri, I said Home Depot!" "Ok heading to Biloxi."

Or, worse yet, having a computer malfunction while manuevering through heavy traffic, crossing railroad tracks, or the car not recognizing hazards in the roadway.

[72doug2,2S]

Originally Posted by mreid

For mass use they are 15 to 20 years away. Sounds like another Soylndra deal to me. Just give his friends and supports free government money.

I have a bet on this, being that they will be commonplace in cities 3 years from now. I said no way.

[zelrik911]

Originally Posted by Nickshu

Autonomous cars won't happen without tort reform. Automakers won't take the brunt of zillions of personal injury lawsuits that now are targeted at drivers.

I agree we'll see more driver aids... Thus keeps the driver legally responsible.

I predict these 'autonomous' vehicles will quickly need their own section of the roadway for legal reasons. That means that existing roads will lose lanes to accommodate them.

We already have cycle lanes (that carry very few people outside of rush-hours) & these have appropriated road & parking space - this is an example of how easy its been to commandeer property that been created and paid for by traditional motorists.