Self-Driving Cars?

[DDave]

I know you've probably all seen the news about the crashing that's been going on with Tesla's and Google self driving cars.

So, what are your thoughts on these?
I'm against them completely. Now driver assistance systems, that's a different story. If the car can warn me of trouble, more power to it!

Some things I'm considering:
* Crashing. Yeah, one day AI or Intelligence will improve‎ and this MAY become a mute point.
* Fun! I don't want to get in my car one day and be treated to a bus-like ride. I like driving. I like the challenges of the road, other drivers, etc.
* Control: I want to choose my own route. And the speed at which I drive on it. There are occasions when you'd wish to take a scenic route or drive just a bit faster than allowed...
* Hacks/Malware: it's already been proven that cars can be hacked and the ones with automated features like starting and pulling out of the garage automatically or auto-parallel parking can already do some pretty scary stuff even without being corrupted.

I guess there are some positives, maybe?
* less accidents
* overall lessen gas usage
* lower insurance rates
What brought this on? Just read an article that Ford plans on making cars without steering wheels and gas/brake pedals by 2021. I don't think it will solely offer cars with this new configuration... but.....

So FC... thoughts?‎

 

[Poostuff]

I think self driving cars are essential if we ever want flying cars Dave, they're not gonna let us fly around by ourselves when we can't even drive in a straight line without having an accident.

 

[DDave]

I think self driving cars are essential if we ever want flying cars Dave, they're not gonna let us fly around by ourselves when we can't even drive in a straight line without having an accident.

Good point definitely! Though I don't want flying cars.... I'm probably of the old school thought here, but I suffer from "Chicken Little, The Sky is Falling" syndrome as it is... could you imagine if 5000 pounds of Cadillac were flying above?

Save for the autopilot aspect, the 5th Element movie put the idea of flying cars out there...

 

[Joel W.]

Even with one fatality, way safer than normal cars. I am for them.

Too many idiots looking down at their phone nowadays, trying to also drive.

"Tesla says Autopilot has been used for more than 130 million miles, noting that, on average, a fatality occurs every 94 million miles in the US and every 60 million miles worldwide."

 

[Melting Pot]

My car broke down today.
All I had to do was pull over. Imagine if it was a flying car incoming.
I can barely afford keep my 01 running.
How are they gonna enforce everyone switching over to auto pilot cars.
That shit better be covered by Medicare. Lol

 

[GreenDragon]

The blue screen of death will take on a whole new meaning.

I can already see the news story:
"Woman's car was downloading the latest hotfixes and OS updates.
All was going well at the reboot, she didn't even notice because she was texting, doing her makeup and jilling-off to porn.
There was a driver conflict after the updates and reboot. It was a critical driver, the Driver driver. The new Driver driver caused the Blue Screen Of Death and the car just took off. "

I will never buy one but I am looking forward to messing with them.
Google "car herding" and "auto sumo".

 

[DDave]

she was texting, doing her makeup and jilling-off to porn.

A few points:
1) jilling, a positive I failed to list... haha
2) guess you can get more done with two hands free

^^^ that post was great!

Now, if she were running Linux, she wouldn't have to reboot after those updates.

 

[capcoho]

Whenever I'm on a highway I always wonder why there can't be some kind of rail system for cars.

 

[Stevenski]

I am for some level of self driving cars simply because 15 years of driving at least 20,000 miles a year through Sydney has seen me witness some bad shit. Some people just can't drive & should not hold a license not to mention people continually distracting themselves behind the wheel.

There needs to be manual controls & overrides for sure but I features like proximity braking & lane assist are great. We were only doing 15-20mph & the car in front of us decided to randomly stop for no reason. His proximity brakes kicked in & we stopped just shy of the fuckwits Camry but it saved him a insurance claim for a love tap. ABS has saved my arse on several occasions including where I avoided the car in front but the guy behind me wrote my car off.

Edit: Alright fuck this shit for a joke I just got a Linked In alert within a minute of posting (for some reason my email is out of sync but I did get it at 5.28)

 

[TeeJay1952]

I have given up driving and can't afford Uber pricing so I am excited to get mobility back.
Come on Robot Cars!
Get drunks, Old and lousy drivers out of the equation.

 

[Joel W.]

Whenever I'm on a highway I always wonder why there can't be some kind of rail system for cars.

There will be sort of. Soon, your car will sync with the car in front and behind you as you merge onto the highway at high speed. All traveling together seamlessly, until you need to exit.

There will still be mechanical failures that lead to accidents, but taking the human distraction part out of the equation will save many lives and speed shit up!

 

[Philreal187]

When I first heard about the idea I hated it, I have enough freedom stripped daily at least driving was still under my control. Over time I lightened up on the subject and accepted it as the next step in cars. I think lower or no insurance aka Obama motive coverage would be nice since I pay why too much because of my own mistakes.

I think the problem of cellphones and drivers is a much bigger issue, people are clearly addicted and thats no joke. The youth is truly plugged into these things and the telescreens of 1984 are in our hands while we get prepared to be put into our matrix pods!! The more we head in the direction of convenience with self driving cars and google thinking for use the less control we have to dictate out own free will to make choices.

I think the tesla's seem cool and I really like them, but I think I will stick with my old Hondas for a while!!

 

[HighSeasSailor]

Could not be more strongly in favor of it. The bar for improvement is extremely, extremely low.

Let's say self-driving cars end up killing 10,000 people every year when introduced. That's less than a third of the number killed every year in traffic accidents today, nearly a quarter of the number killed in 2015. I seriously doubt 10,000 will happen - more likely it will be a minute fraction of that and citizens would never even tolerate that much carnage despite already warmly embracing far greater bloodshed.

Once the technology is ready (and according to Ford it's apparently ready by 2021) I really can't imagine what kind of misanthrope would wish for the leading cause of death in persons under 45 to just keep right on going strong. Never even mind what kind of wonderful effect it will have for people like the elderly and disabled, who may be perfectly capable of getting around but have impediments to driving.

Sure, a certain kind of freedom will be lost, but I doubt manual drive vehicles will vanish, they simply won't be used on public roads. Hybrids auto/manual vehicles for those who want to pursue sporting or work uses will no doubt continue to exist.

The bigger problem that private citizens will face is job displacement when the trucking industry stops hiring human labor. You might be really surprised how large the trucking workforce is, and they make good money. Companies will obviously benefit tremendously from cutting that cost (and avoiding driving time limits, fatigue, liability, etc etc etc) and in the long run, society will benefit from lower shipping costs as well, but putting that many men unemployed will be a nasty transition.

 

[Joel W.]

My guess is there will always be a person in the cab of a robotic truck, they will be referred to as an operator instead of a driver though.

 

[HighSeasSailor]

My guess is there will always be a person in the cab of a robotic truck, they will be referred to as an operator instead of a driver though.

Manual control could actually be performed remotely from a command center owned by the shipping company. We see the same thing with aviation drones right now, why put a human being in a metal missile when you can play video games and accomplish the same job? The latest trend is, unsurprisingly, to outfit full sized jets with remote capabilities (the F-16, which you might have seen flown by the Air Force Thunderbirds, has been successfully retrofitted with this capability!).

Most of the things you want a person there for could be done without that person riding. Refueling and maintainance such as tire changes can be accomplished by attendants at fuel stations, assuming it's not also automated. Loading and unloading would be done by staff on location. Receipts and other transactions, done electronically.

The song I heard sung about robots in factories was that instead of working on the assembly line, we'd all be robot technicians instead. We aren't, factories just employ a fraction of the workforce while improving their output significantly, and a lot of guys that used to make $25/hr got cut to $10/hr then laid off. In the long run, that's progress and it had to happen, but it always stings to rip off that bandaid.

 

[Joel W.]

Manual control could actually be performed remotely from a command center owned by the shipping company. We see the same thing with aviation drones right now, why put a human being in a metal missile when you can play video games and accomplish the same job? The latest trend is, unsurprisingly, to outfit full sized jets with remote capabilities (the F-16, which you might have seen flown by the Air Force Thunderbirds, has been successfully retrofitted with this capability!).

Most of the things you want a person there for could be done without that person riding. Refueling and maintainance such as tire changes can be accomplished by attendants at fuel stations, assuming it's not also automated. Loading and unloading would be done by staff on location. Receipts and other transactions, done electronically.

The song I heard sung about robots in factories was that instead of working on the assembly line, we'd all be robot technicians instead. We aren't, factories just employ a fraction of the workforce while improving their output significantly, and a lot of guys that used to make $25/hr got cut to $10/hr then laid off. In the long run, that's progress and it had to happen, but it always stings to rip off that bandaid.

As the tech gets better and safer, you are probably correct.

I thought computer driven CNC machines would be the death of the machinists also, but instead it freed them up to operate multiple machines. Lots of setup, teardown, part loading, better part consistency, tighter tolerances.

I spend a lot of time thinking about how to build a robot to replace the dull, dirty or dangerous part of my job...

 

[Melting Pot]

Companies will obviously benefit tremendously from cutting that cost (and avoiding driving time limits, fatigue, liability, etc etc etc) and in the long run, society will benefit from lower shipping costs as well,

That's funny...
The company is going to save money on shipping and present that to us in savings.lol

Not saying it isn't going to happen. Just I've never companies give away there profits.
They will just add that to their profit margin
And leave us with a bunch of unemployed truckers.

 

[ZC]

I'm definitely for the idea overall, in the long run it will decrease accidents and deaths and make the road safer and more accessible for everyone. Drunk/impaired driving will be less common and blind and otherwise disabled people will be able to get around more easily on their own.

But there are a bunch of cons.

One is destroying the taxi/uber industry and getting rid of the millions of jobs those industries provide. Yeah, we can't let "the old ways" keep us from moving forward, but we can't just ignore an entire career disappearing either.

I do think the trucking industry will remain, but as you guys said they'd be "operators" and most likely their wages would take a hit for not actually driving the rig.

Then we have insurance and liability, where right now even if the software fucks up and drives you into someone, the driver is fully responsible. It makes sense since most self driving is actually "assist" software right now, but even when the cars are 100% in control you're still going to be liable for your property, and that puts a lot of risk on your head for something out of your control.

Another is more nuanced and specific and immediate. Tesla called their driving assist software "Autopilot" which gives the impression of a self-driving system in a time where talk of these kind of things is all the rage. Now it's "causing" accidents, mostly accidents where the user doesn't understand that these are driving assists not an actual self driving car. So the driver pays less attention and isn't available to correct a problem. This is actually a weird case where the marketing, not the tech, is causing accidents by misinforming the customer.

 

[grokit]

I was shopping for new cars last winter, and subaru's eyesight seems pretty advanced for something that's available as an option now. Its twin cameras behind the rearview mirror monitor everything, and only take over the brake/steering if you're about to hit something like if you stroke out. I like the warning if you're about to leave your lane, and especially the adaptive cruise control that keeps you a set distance from the car in front of you. Not self-driving, but it's as much control as I would want to give up for now anyways.

 

[Seek]

Self-driving cars are the future, we just need to to solve these known issues.

* Crashing. Yeah, one day AI or Intelligence will improve‎ and this MAY become a mute point.

The responsibility issue is very tricky. The simple and probably correct idea is that the "driver", or "user" should be responsible for the car's actions.
He bought it, put it on the road, turned it on, gave it instructions and is supervising it. Totally the ine person who should hold responsibility.
That also means cars with no pedals/steering wheel would be a no-no - tha't too of an optimistic assumption that they are perfect, they are not.
If you have the responsibility, you also must have the option to immediately take manual control of the car.
And the car should never malfunction in a way that it would rapidly steer you off a cliff or something - with no change of you reacting quickly enough.

* Fun! I don't want to get in my car one day and be treated to a bus-like ride. I like driving. I like the challenges of the road, other drivers, etc.

In a free society, you shouldn't be denied a manual car, but by driving one, you would be willing to take a bigger risk of crashing and dealing with the law.
Maybe lessening legal repercussions on self-driving cars relative to manual ones could also be a nice idea to make more people choose this safer way.

* Control: I want to choose my own route. And the speed at which I drive on it. There are occasions when you'd wish to take a scenic route or drive just a bit faster than allowed...

I don't see why you couldn't choose a route and a speed limit (below the legal limit). If you want to go faster, switch on manual and take the responsibility.

* Hacks/Malware: it's already been proven that cars can be hacked and the ones with automated features like starting and pulling out of the garage automatically or auto-parallel parking can already do some pretty scary stuff even without being corrupted.

This is a very serious issue in many field of technology. Online banking, online medical devices that you could hack, and now cars...
Well, we cannot stop the technology, we have to either develop powerful security on the level of the previous mentioned issues.
A security breach on any of these field would be critical.
And if we can't secure it well enough, then it would have to be offline.
Why would self-driving cars even need to be online? Updates? You can do that manually.