Self-driving cars

[Ian]

What if there is flooding? Will it be able to see that? What about powerlines / treelimbs laying in the road. IMO the best drivers will always be a human driver that is paying attention, not some computer.

I wonder if a self-driving car could do this...

[jeffandnicole]

Maybe it was a self driving car. A human driver would've honked at it then blame the government for not posting a road closed sign. 

[US 41]

I'll put it this way too. When I'm driving on lets say a Mexican libre highway. I am smart enough to know that I should slow down to around 5 mph when I'm going over a tope (speed bump). However my self driving car might go over it at 24 mph (40 kph). True there is autopilot on planes and such, but there isn't as much planes in the sky as there are cars. Also 7 miles in the sky you don't have to worry about potholes and such either that will tear up your car. What if there is flooding? Will it be able to see that? What about powerlines / treelimbs laying in the road. IMO the best drivers will always be a human driver that is paying attention, not some computer.

I think it's a misconception that fully automated cars will jump right in and operate along our existing infrastructure. Along with cars becoming autonomous, the roads they use will also be modified to accommodate this kind of traffic. In other words, they won't have to deal with speed bumps on Mexican roads, because either the road will have been rebuilt so that it doesn't have speed bumps, or else the cars won't operate autonomously along that road.

I think certain unexpected events, like flooding or downed powerlines, will always pose a certain hazard, just as they do today. The risk from such hazards may in fact be greater with self-driving cars than it is now, but the overall risk of driving in general will be far, far less.

Do you really think a country like Mexico is going to reconstruct miles of their really old highway system to accommodate self driving cars? This would cost way too much money to do, especially for Mexico. The only way a self driving car could get around down there is if they took the tolled autopistas. Which I guess in reality only the rich will be able to afford these types of cars anyways. On the other hand, self driving semi trucks would be even a scarier thought.

[empirestate]

I think it's a misconception that fully automated cars will jump right in and operate along our existing infrastructure. Along with cars becoming autonomous, the roads they use will also be modified to accommodate this kind of traffic. In other words, they won't have to deal with speed bumps on Mexican roads, because either the road will have been rebuilt so that it doesn't have speed bumps, or else the cars won't operate autonomously along that road.

Do you really think a country like Mexico is going to reconstruct miles of their really old highway system to accommodate self driving cars?

Maybe, maybe not; if they don't, then my clause "or else cars won't operate autonomously along that road" would kick in.

The point isn't what Mexico specifically would do; the point is just that I don't think your car would go over the speed bump at 24 mph, because either a) you would be the one doing the driving on that road, or b) they'd take the speed bumps away for the self-driving car. In other words, if you're wondering how self-driving cars would handle various kinds of obstacles (like speed bumps), my inclination is that it won't really matter, because they wouldn't operate in contexts where those obstacles exist.

[US 41]

I think it's a misconception that fully automated cars will jump right in and operate along our existing infrastructure. Along with cars becoming autonomous, the roads they use will also be modified to accommodate this kind of traffic. In other words, they won't have to deal with speed bumps on Mexican roads, because either the road will have been rebuilt so that it doesn't have speed bumps, or else the cars won't operate autonomously along that road.

Do you really think a country like Mexico is going to reconstruct miles of their really old highway system to accommodate self driving cars?

Maybe, maybe not; if they don't, then my clause "or else cars won't operate autonomously along that road" would kick in.

The point isn't what Mexico specifically would do; the point is just that I don't think your car would go over the speed bump at 24 mph, because either a) you would be the one doing the driving on that road, or b) they'd take the speed bumps away for the self-driving car. In other words, if you're wondering how self-driving cars would handle various kinds of obstacles (like speed bumps), my inclination is that it won't really matter, because they wouldn't operate in contexts where those obstacles exist.

I see what your saying. So basically a self driving car would only work on an interstate type highway. I could maybe see that working. I'm just not too sure.

[cpzilliacus]

[Reviving the thread after quite a few years.]

This is one of the more negative articles I have seen recently about autonomous vehicles (AVs) and connected autonomous vehciles (CAVs) and their future.

New York Times: The Costly Pursuit of Self-Driving Cars Continues On. And On. And On. - Many in Silicon Valley promised that self-driving cars would be a common sight by 2021. Now the industry is resetting expectations and settling in for years of more work.

[tradephoric]

We've gone from being promised "flying-cars" to being promised "self-driving" cars.  The innovators out there are becoming less ambitious. 

[Bruce]

We've gone from being promised "flying-cars" to being promised "self-driving" cars.  The innovators out there are becoming less ambitious. 

Allowing the average driver to navigate in another dimension is terrifying.

[Brandon]

We've gone from being promised "flying-cars" to being promised "self-driving" cars.  The innovators out there are becoming less ambitious. 

Allowing the average driver to navigate in another dimension is terrifying.

Allowing the average computer programmer program either a self-driving or flying car is more terrifying.

[kkt]

We've gone from being promised "flying-cars" to being promised "self-driving" cars.  The innovators out there are becoming less ambitious. 

Allowing the average driver to navigate in another dimension is terrifying.

Allowing the average computer programmer program either a self-driving or flying car is more terrifying.

[Scott5114]

I've been seeing Domino's ads that advertise a self-driving doohickey that delivers pizza to you. It looks like the size of a smart car. Don't really see how that helps the customer out (I doubt it really saves much time over a human driver, and you have to go to the curb to get the pizza instead of having the driver ring the bell and hand it to you), but Domino's sure would like to be able to stop employing pizza delivery drivers.

[kkt]

I've been seeing Domino's ads that advertise a self-driving doohickey that delivers pizza to you. It looks like the size of a smart car. Don't really see how that helps the customer out (I doubt it really saves much time over a human driver, and you have to go to the curb to get the pizza instead of having the driver ring the bell and hand it to you), but Domino's sure would like to be able to stop employing pizza delivery drivers.

But then I'd have to put my shoes on to go to the street to get my pizza!

[cpzilliacus]

I've been seeing Domino's ads that advertise a self-driving doohickey that delivers pizza to you. It looks like the size of a smart car. Don't really see how that helps the customer out (I doubt it really saves much time over a human driver, and you have to go to the curb to get the pizza instead of having the driver ring the bell and hand it to you), but Domino's sure would like to be able to stop employing pizza delivery drivers.

Other companies have been experimenting with "last mile" vehicles (if you want to call them that) which look like the Domino's thing (I am not a fan of their pizza).

[Roadgeekteen]

I hope we get them soon. Humans are bad drivers.

[kalvado]

I hope we get them soon. Humans are bad drivers.

Once we get self driving cars, you may realize how good human drivers are...

[Roadgeekteen]

I hope we get them soon. Humans are bad drivers.

Once we get self driving cars, you may realize how good human drivers are...

Eh a car can't get drunk.

[I-55]

I hope we get them soon. Humans are bad drivers.

Once we get self driving cars, you may realize how good human drivers are...

Eh a car can't get drunk.

But a human can't get hacked.

[jeffandnicole]

I hope we get them soon. Humans are bad drivers.

Once we get self driving cars, you may realize how good human drivers are...

6 million accidents occur annually. Over 30,000 are killed annually...and that's half what it was just a few decades ago.

It's by far one of the most dangerous activities most people do on a daily basis.

Commercial flights are nearly fully automated by computers. The correlation to the fact that there's also very few airline crashes is very relevant.

[Roadgeekteen]

I hope we get them soon. Humans are bad drivers.

Once we get self driving cars, you may realize how good human drivers are...

Eh a car can't get drunk.

But a human can't get hacked.

Why isn't this a problem with airplanes then?

[kkt]

I hope we get them soon. Humans are bad drivers.

Once we get self driving cars, you may realize how good human drivers are...

6 million accidents occur annually. Over 30,000 are killed annually...and that's half what it was just a few decades ago.

It's by far one of the most dangerous activities most people do on a daily basis.

Commercial flights are nearly fully automated by computers. The correlation to the fact that there's also very few airline crashes is very relevant.

The key word being "nearly".  If the FAA were that confident that computers could do it all, they wouldn't have human pilots, let alone both a pilot and copilot.  The autopilot is great when things are going well, but has no ability to recover when things aren't going well.

[empirestate]

I hope we get them soon. Humans are bad drivers.

That humans are bad drivers is the very reason we don't yet have them.

[Rothman]

I hope we get them soon. Humans are bad drivers.

Once we get self driving cars, you may realize how good human drivers are...

Eh a car can't get drunk.

But a human can't get hacked.

Just wait until we become cyborgs.

[Roadgeekteen]

I hope we get them soon. Humans are bad drivers.

Once we get self driving cars, you may realize how good human drivers are...

6 million accidents occur annually. Over 30,000 are killed annually...and that's half what it was just a few decades ago.

It's by far one of the most dangerous activities most people do on a daily basis.

Commercial flights are nearly fully automated by computers. The correlation to the fact that there's also very few airline crashes is very relevant.

The key word being "nearly".  If the FAA were that confident that computers could do it all, they wouldn't have human pilots, let alone both a pilot and copilot.  The autopilot is great when things are going well, but has no ability to recover when things aren't going well.

Wouldn't self driving cars still have to have a driver in the seat?

[kalvado]

I hope we get them soon. Humans are bad drivers.

Once we get self driving cars, you may realize how good human drivers are...

6 million accidents occur annually. Over 30,000 are killed annually...and that's half what it was just a few decades ago.

It's by far one of the most dangerous activities most people do on a daily basis.

Commercial flights are nearly fully automated by computers. The correlation to the fact that there's also very few airline crashes is very relevant.

The key word being "nearly".  If the FAA were that confident that computers could do it all, they wouldn't have human pilots, let alone both a pilot and copilot.  The autopilot is great when things are going well, but has no ability to recover when things aren't going well.

Wouldn't self driving cars still have to have a driver in the seat?

Just saw the article the other day dividing it into 6 levels.
Level 0 - no automation, level 1 - lane guidance and cruise control. Level 5  is the ultimate goal- driver may or may not have an option of taking over control.
So, things do vary.

[WillWeaverRVA]

I hope we get them soon. Humans are bad drivers.

Once we get self driving cars, you may realize how good human drivers are...

Eh a car can't get drunk.

A Tesla recently crashed and burned completely to a crisp with the occupants inside because they trusted the car's autopilot to make its own decisions. We're not there yet, but the fact people think we are is a good indication that this is not the right time.