driverless cars

[Lilani]

I like the idea for highways and interstates and such. I rather hope we one day get to a point like in I, Robot where cars drive automated on highways and go at a cruising speed of like 200 mph. But I would question its effectiveness in highly congested cities or rural areas. I think there will always have to be some kind of manual function, because while people aren't perfect neither are computers, and I can very easily see a car being unable to detect a very small driveway you're trying to pull into, or having a hard time driving on an unmapped gravel road or driveway.

And I will not discount the other aspects of the technology, like cars detecting and communicating with one another. Even if cars are never able to find a tiny unmapped, unpaved driveway it will still save countless lives if cars don't let you merge into other cars, or motorcycles, or pedestrians.

 

[Maxtro]

The problem with a diverless care is that it can potentially lead to a situation where every car is self-driving and nobody will be allowed to drive. Yes I do understand that it's the worst possible situation.

More common though is being in your self-driving car and somebody hacks it giving them full control. How's that for safety?

 

[lacktheknack]

Never in a million years.

I will never, ever, EVER trust a robot in reactionary situations. I've written AI, and it's terrifying.

 

[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.

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.

Hey, I totally get that, and it's true that for some people it would be much safer to be in an automated car than to drive themselves. My cousin has crashed more cars than I've even driven and she should absolutely not be allowed to drive herself, but other people are perfectly good drivers who have never had an accident, and these robocars would do nothing for their safety.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

Never in a million years.

I will never, ever, EVER trust a robot in reactionary situations. I've written AI, and it's terrifying.

I am honestly shocked that so many would actually get in a driverless car and think this would be " safe" in any way. Good grief, imagine what a virus would do in this situation. I have to wonder if those who think this is a good idea understand that anything that can be programmed can be hacked, is only as good as it is written, can get a virus and those with the skills can "reprogram it" how they wish. They are so willing to put their lives and the lives of everyone else on the road into the hands of a hackable program. Nothing is "Secure" all it takes is someone with the right skills to want to spend the time to get in to make it happen. Ebay was hacked, Visa was hacked, Target was hacked, The Department of Defense was hacked, senators have been hacked.. yet they think their cars won't be? I do not understand why anyone would think this was a good idea. Madness!

 

[shootthebandit]

Never in a million years.

I will never, ever, EVER trust a robot in reactionary situations. I've written AI, and it's terrifying.

I am honestly shocked that so many would actually get in a driverless car and think this would be " safe" in any way. Good grief, imagine what a virus would do in this situation. I have to wonder if those who think this is a good idea understand that anything that can be programmed can be hacked, is only as good as it is written, can get a virus and those with the skills can "reprogram it" how they wish. They are so willing to put their lives and the lives of everyone else on the road into the hands of a hackable program. Nothing is "Secure" all it takes is someone with the right skills to want to spend the time to get in to make it happen. Ebay was hacked, Visa was hacked, Target was hacked, The Department of Defense was hacked, senators have been hacked.. yet they think their cars won't be? I do not understand why anyone would think this was a good idea. Madness!

I think it was lockheed martin or the US DoD that challenged MIT to hack into their UAVs. They used a mobile phone (and I think a modified google maps?) To change the satellite location of the UAV. Assuming these cars use GPS to get their location then this is entirely possible