driverless cars

[shootthebandit]

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2014/may/28/google-self-driving-car-how-does-it-work

So google has built a prototype for the first driverless car and its actually working as expected and it got me thinking....do you like the idea of a driverless car?

Yes I can see the benefits. I could fall asleep on my way to work, it would be more efficient and long journeys could be slept through. Not to mention the big important one that I could get it to pick me up from the pub via my smart phone

However I can see the drawbacks. Im a bit of a car enthusiast and I like faster manual cars that give me full control (im not a bit fan of autos or cruise control). I also think a lot of people such as lorry drivers, removals, taxi drivers etc could be out of work.

I just think it would be a shame for driving to die out. Its almost like the scene from demolition man where sandra bullock is bored in the self-driving car. If self-driving cars are going to be compulsary then I best start trying to work out how to use these 3 sea shells

 

[ohnoitsabear]

I'm in favor of the idea. The obvious personal benefit to me is that I'm not a huge fan of driving, especially if it's for an hour or more at a time. A driverless car would let me do something else without having to worry about paying attention. And let's be honest, car naps are the best.

The other possible benefit would be safety. So many people are injured or killed in car related accidents every year, and a lot of that is simply down to the human factor. If we remove that factor, then we have the potential for a truly safe automobile. Obviously, the technology would have to be really damn advanced for that to happen, and until then driverless cars would be just as, if not more dangerous that driven cars. Still, it's certainly the biggest reason to develop this kind of technology, and why I'm 100% in favor of people looking into it.

 

[Euryalus]

No no no no. Driverless cars will be amazing. Commuting with a car is awful. Let people who want to drive manually drive manually. More power to them, I just don't want an hour daily commute anymore XD

 

[Jamieson 90]

It'd make commuting easier; driving for hours is a real chore.

It'd probably be safer too.

It'd free you up to do other activities; think of it as like having your own personal bus or train only there are no limitations on where or when you can go places.

Seems pretty good to me.

Although I did think of I Robot when typing that. "You are in danger!" lol.

 

[shootthebandit]

I'm in favor of the idea. The obvious personal benefit to me is that I'm not a huge fan of driving, especially if it's for an hour or more at a time. A driverless car would let me do something else without having to worry about paying attention. And let's be honest, car naps are the best.

I agree. This is the biggest benefit for me. I travel an hour to work every day and when you leave the house at 0630 you just want to go back to sleep. Its too bad for me because there are 4 of us who work together and live in the same area so we car pool and you only drive once a week

Obviously, the technology would have to be really damn advanced for that to happen, and until then driverless cars would be just as, if not more dangerous that driven cars. Still, it's certainly the biggest reason to develop this kind of technology, and why I'm 100% in favor of people looking into it.

I dont think its too hard to make it safe and i can see it only being a few years from mass production. We already have radar cruise control on some road cars (eliminating the accelerator), a lot of cars are now automatic (eliminating the need to change gear). combine these and you basically just have to point it where you are going.

Technology is at a stage where its almost ready for a (almost) fully automated fighter aircraft although having said that there is a lot more factors and uncertainty with traffic and obstacles when driving than there is in the sky

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/BAE_Systems_Taranis

 

[shootthebandit]

FIXED

Put an oven and a fridge in there and I can prepare and eat my breakfast/dinner whilst commuting

Although I did think of I Robot when typing that. "You are in danger!" lol.

At least they had manual override. I cant imagine anything worse than having an accident in a driverless car when you have no brakes or steering wheel

 

[Redlin5_v1legacy]

I'm never going to let an AI handle driving for me. I enjoy it too damn much. If the technology gets perfected, sure go ahead and implement it but don't take away the steering wheel from me.

 

[Dirty Hipsters]

I don't think I could ever trust a driverless car.

What if it gets a computer virus or gets hacked? What if there's an update to the software that screws something up? What if the computer crashes? What if your mechanic makes a mistake and screws up your breaks and you don't notice the problem because you're asleep at the wheel?

The danger with a driverless car is that no one is going to be paying attention to what their car is doing if its driving by itself, so they won't notice something going wrong until its too late.

And don't try to tell me that this kind of stuff won't happen, because it happens with any consumer product. Every piece of technology has a margin of error and can develop problems, even stuff that's completely standardized.

 

[Esotera]

I don't know how to drive and don't intend on ever learning, so a driverless car would be quite a convenient form of transport. The idea of a computer driving me isn't an issue as I know it will probably do a lot better than a human could & result in less fatalities. If driverless cars were relatively carbon-neutral I would probably end up buying one tomorrow as it would be my ideal form of transport...

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

I am terrified of driverless cars, and see car virus and hacking would become a serious issue. Hell they already hacked cars and drove them with a Nintendo controller.
http://kotaku.com/hackers-can-take-over-cars-and-drive-them-with-a-ninten-933604346

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2011/03/16/scientists-can-now-wirelessly-hack-your-car/#.U4lcDPldUeE

http://www.bernardlawgroup.com/department-of-defense-hires-researchers-to-hack-into-car-computers/

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

I don't think I could ever trust a driverless car.

What if it gets a computer virus or gets hacked? What if there's an update to the software that screws something up? What if the computer crashes? What if your mechanic makes a mistake and screws up your breaks and you don't notice the problem because you're asleep at the wheel?

The danger with a driverless car is that no one is going to be paying attention to what their car is doing if its driving by itself, so they won't notice something going wrong until its too late.

And don't try to tell me that this kind of stuff won't happen, because it happens with any consumer product. Every piece of technology has a margin of error and can develop problems, even stuff that's completely standardized.

It is already happening, and appears to be quite easy to do. (See links in above post) No way will I get into a driverless car.. ever.

But then again, I built my computers and wrote an operating system for a hobby. ANY program is hackable and there is no such thing as " secure" when it comes to programming.

 

[Avaholic03]

No no no no. Driverless cars will be amazing. Commuting with a car is awful. Let people who want to drive manually drive manually. More power to them, I just don't want an hour daily commute anymore XD

The problem is that people who drive manually are unpredictable, which is a huge problem for people programming these driver-less cars. The only way to get the full benefit of autonomous cars (i.e. easing traffic congestion by making more efficient use of roads), everyone will have to switch over to them, which doesn't seem likely to happen anytime soon.

I can understand the benefit...and ultimately if we ever develop flying cars it would be almost a necessity to have computers controlling them. But for now, I don't see it as anything more than a novelty. Bottom line is that people don't like relinquishing control, even if it's safer they don't perceive it as safer (just see how nervous people get flying vs. driving, despite the fact that air travel is significantly safer).

 

[Catfood220]

No, I reckon having a driverless car would be incredibly dull. I like driving and the thought of being an idle passenger while the car does all the work fills me full of meh for the concept. I'm not even a fan of automatics.

I can see the advantages, being able to sleep on the journey or not having to walk back from the pub. But if this was to become a thing, I would want a manual override like in I, Robot so I can drive if I want to drive.

 

[Esotera]

I don't know how to drive and don't intend on ever learning, so a driverless car would be quite a convenient form of transport. The idea of a computer driving me isn't an issue as I know it will probably do a lot better than a human could & result in less fatalities. If driverless cars were relatively carbon-neutral I would probably end up buying one tomorrow as it would be my ideal form of transport...

Why don't you ever intend on learning to?

Because it costs a lot of money to learn, and even more money to run a car with fuel, tax, and insurance costs. I can get a bus into town in 15-20 minutes & if I want to go further afield can get there on public transport, so I really don't see many advantages to cars, unless I had several thousand pounds to spare. There are times when I've regretted not being able to drive, but I enjoy having money a lot more...

 

[Smooth Operator]

Hey I like driving fast and dangerously but the sad fact is that only comes into play 2% of all the time I drive, the 98% go into frustrating hours of traffic jam slog every damn day when I could be doing something fun.
So hell yes to an autopilot, but it needs an off switch too.

 

[verdant monkai]

I think its dangerous! as I bet as with all new technology its a bit dodgy and wont always work properly. I can see a lot of potential crashes and the car driving you off in the wrong direction. Wait until the technology s perfected for public use, until then if you cant be asked driving use the train or bus.

 

[MeChaNiZ3D]

I think it's inevitable, it'll be much faster and more efficient, we'll need a system for vehicles to figure out their own path if we ever want flying vehicles commercially, it'll cut down on accidents by a lot and finally you'll be able to drive while intoxicated. The question is when we'll consider it alright to get rid of human control altogether, which I imagine will be an option for a while after we have the technology.

 

[Henkie36]

I think it will be quite useful. I like driving, and I don't think people driving themselves is going to die out any day soon, mainly because, a lot of people like driving. People like to go out with the top down on a nice sunny day, not really to anywhere, but just for the fun of driving. What people don't like is sitting in an hour long traffic jam at seven in the morning on their way to work. I think this kind of car will be for those people, who don't really care for driving, but use it as the means to an end.

 

[shootthebandit]

I get this argument, but just consider the number of road accidents that happen anyway as millions of falliable humans drive cars every single day. The concept is a little creepy - being powerless to stop a robotic collision sounds like something straight out of a horror movie - but the statistics would likely show driving becoming less dangerous, even with glitches being factored in.

For me its not an argument about safety. I can happily stake a months wages that driverless cars (provided they are tested thoroughly) will be much safer than manual cars

Its an argument about control. Yes its perfectly safe but at what cost. We need an element of control of our lifes and we need uncertainty. I dont want to live in a semi-orwellian world where we have no control over our lives and there is no risk.

Imagine blasting down route 66 in a dodge charger or cruising the italian riveria in a ferrari or whizzing down an english B-road in a caterham 7. These experiences are dreams for a lot of motorists. Now replace these with an automated bubble car. Youve taken away the essence of motoring. Mazda use the phrase Jinba ittai which translates as "the oneness between horse and rider" to describe the MX-5 and I think that those 2 words sum up my point quite well.

The question is when we'll consider it alright to get rid of human control altogether

Why would we want to give up human control. I think wall-e is a pretty good cautionary tale (if not exaggerating the truth) of what happens when human control is no longer required. The space ship in wall-e is (excuse the oxymoron) a utopian hell. Yes everything is efficient and safe but its just not fun. People are satisfied but they have no control, no achievement, no desire. Yes the humans made mistakes when they had control but thats the nature of the beast. We are infallible. Take away this infallibility and you take away what makes us human.

I know im over exaggerating a little and perhaps ive been expose to too much george orwell and films like demolition man, I robot and wall-e which portray this sort of future

 

[Korolev]

One benefit for driverless cars is the ability for cars to communicate with each other. It's well known that traffic slowdowns can occur very quickly because one car slows down the car behind it and causes a chain reaction of cars slowing down, and no one knows when to start accelerating, and so even if there is no apparent obstruction, traffic can crawl to a halt due to human errors and due to the fact that all cars currently operate autonomously, each doing its own separate thing. Imagine if all the driverless cars could communicate with each other - know when to accelerate or slow down at the same time - traffic slow downs would be greatly reduced. It would allow cars to co-ordinate their speed to maximize the efficient use of the roads.

In the future, all cars should be driverless, and what's more, should communicate with a central mainframe to optimize traffic flow. In the future, traffic jams will be so rare. Imagine having a system that could virtually guarantee your travel time to within a minute every day, every week, every month, every year? Which was far safer, efficient and which could allow you to use that time more productively? I could review notes on my way to work, I could read a journal article or talk with a colleague instead of having to drive. I could even eat breakfast while my car drove for me.

How amazing that would be. That's the world I want to live in. It's a world that we can have, too.