Your thoughts on 'Driverless cars"

[deleted_by_strongbad]

Driverless cars won't make non-driverless cars vanish or become illegal so the not as fun to drive argument is bunk.

People are unpredictable, prone to failure, etc, a computer has its glitches but they are easier to predict and compensate for than a human. Combine this with the fact that anyone who has gone to a hospital or doctor in the last 10 years has already put their lives into the hands of windows, and likely the tenuous relationship between a windows server networked with an ipad, as someone in the health care software industry i guarantee that there is maybe a 5% chance that windows OS was 7/server 2008, probably 80% that is was xp/2003, and 15% chance older than xp, I have seen hospitals using the home desktop version of windows 98 as a server (in 2014), a world of driverless cars is no less safe than that.

bring on my robot chauffeur.

 

[happyninja42]

I'm pretty sure that most of the automobile related accidents are due to operator error, and not mechanical error. Sure sometimes accidents happen because the car has some damage and has a catastrophic failure, but I'm pretty sure the numbers are heavily on the "It's the Driver's Fault" category. Though some school's of thought would probably say that the mechanical errors are also operator error, due to not keeping the vehicle properly maintained.

So yes, I am all in favor of a driverless system, assuming the system controlling the vehicles is complex and efficient enough to handle the workload. I have zero problem with letting someone else drive for me, I do that every time I take public transportation. Besides, it would give me more time to read books on my tablet, or play video games.

 

[DrOswald]

Back like a spider you just can't kill.

I am back to doing my driving lessons now and clutch control is a piece of cake but I am not here to talk about that. Driverless acrs are a new thing and in 2015, they will be on UK roads. What's my though on it?

"NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, this is so lazy" - my brain.

My father has been around way before automatic vehicles came in and when they did, he called them "lazy". Heck many people I ask would say it's lazy. Driverless cars are just bringing the laziness to a new level. I dunno, I am still young and like the idea of controlling something like a car, myself. However there has been many riskless drivers these days if they GOT OFF THEIR BLOODY PHONES.

Sorry, I just don't like the idea of driverless cars. It just takes the joy out of driving and I like driving. Each lesson is a joy and I am geared in.

SO what do you think of the driverless car idea? Science and Tech just the gun here or are they missing a gear here? Give pros and cons. Feel free.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-28551069
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/google/11068075/Googles-driverless-cars-cant-use-99pc-of-roads.html

Source: BBC and Telegraph

You enjoy driving? hahahaha, son, driving might be the most boring thing there is. I literally find digging a hole in the ground more entertaining than driving. And if you had a real commute you too would think this. Go play Desert Bus for 2 hours every day of your life for 10 years and then tell me driving is fun.

As for lazy? It is no more lazy than washing your laundry by machine instead of by hand. Just last night I calculated that I would gain over 10 hours every week if I did not have to commute. With a self driving car I could replace 10 hours of tedium with something productive or, at least, entertaining. I could finally have the time to read the Culture novels or the Foundation trilogy.

As far as I am concerned self driving cars can't get here fast enough.

 

[Pyrian]

Yeah, no, let's get rid of millions of jobs for no real reason. It sounds great.

I know, right? Think about all the losses in various professions. Reduced need for emergency medical physicians, surgeons, nurses, insurance agents, tow trucks, traffic cops, the list goes on. I mean, do you want to see that poor GEICO gecko holding a cardboard sign at a street corner?

...Actually, I kind of do.

 

[Azure23]

I have been dreaming of robot cars that will always keep a prescribed amount of distance between each other and seamlessly zipper merge with minimal reduction in speed for almost as long as I have been driving, ahhhhn, I can't wait. Don't get me wrong, when the conditions are right, I love driving, sunny day, windows down, music blasting. Bring it on. Late night, streetlights glowing, lonely roads, absolutely. Traffic? Fuck that.

 

[Nukekitten]

It depends how it was done. I don't want my car to allow any remote access to critical systems. On the other hand, I'm not that fond of driving and would happily see that particular stressful chore die out.

 

[Nukekitten]

Primarily because most of the driverless cars I've seen are dangerously small. They don't look to be made to withstand high speed impacts with larger cars. So it's not the fact that the car is driverless, it's the fact that the people making the driverless cars don't seem to be grasping the fact that tiny, compact cars like that can withstand high speed crashing.

I never see them do the standard crash tests that most cars have to do, so I could be wrong. I can never find those reports on the articles about the driverless cars.

Most of the driver-less cars I've seen have been what looks like relatively small modifications of existing cars. I doubt that they were modified enough to seriously alter the safety tests that already took place for those.

 

[DrOswald]

[
I never see them do the standard crash tests that most cars have to do, so I could be wrong. I can never find those reports on the articles about the driverless cars.

They've never managed to make one crash, it just slows down gently to a safe stop before it hits the barrier.

Right, but what's stopping someone from plowing into it? You know, human error in other cars? Knocking it into something, smashing into the back of it when someone else doesn't come to a full stop, so on and so on.

Human error still exists outside these driverless cars, and they should be worried about that. I don't think they seem to be.

Right now all driverless cars are simply modified normal cars. The small one you noted is a modified smart car. If you want crash test information on these cars look up what chassis they were built on. They have all been thoroughly tested.

 

[hermes]

I like the idea, on paper, but I think we are decades away from some reasonable way to implement it that is better and safer than manual driving.

Not that manual is particularly safe, but that should be a sign of how far are we from computers in terms of catching up. Driving involves a lot (A LOT) of high level functions that include things like identifying and estimating the distance from every object in a 120 degrees radius, estimating the likely position all those objects will occupy in t+x seconds, to seemly more "trivial" stuff like identifying when a car in front of you is about to turn right (something a computer program would have a tough time based only on a camera)...

And the fact is, our brain is extremely efficient to make this kind of inferences, far better than a computer. Any 5 years old is better at them than the most advanced computer software in the world.

This is called the "Moravec's paradox". Weird as it sounds, the lowest sensor/motor skills are among the highest difficulty problems of the computers world. It is far easier to program a computer to play chess decently than to lift a cup reliably. Driving a car combine dozens of different skills added up, each of which are easier for a human being. In fact, driving was used in my AI class as the textbook example of the hardest possible problem a computer program could tackle... To have a computer that can be reasonably competent to drive (in the real world), is something that belongs more to science fiction than the near future.

With that into consideration, do you want me to get into a half a ton projectile controlled by something that would be slow and clumsy even by my non-expert standards?

 

[DrOswald]

[
I never see them do the standard crash tests that most cars have to do, so I could be wrong. I can never find those reports on the articles about the driverless cars.

They've never managed to make one crash, it just slows down gently to a safe stop before it hits the barrier.

Right, but what's stopping someone from plowing into it? You know, human error in other cars? Knocking it into something, smashing into the back of it when someone else doesn't come to a full stop, so on and so on.

Human error still exists outside these driverless cars, and they should be worried about that. I don't think they seem to be.

Right now all driverless cars are simply modified normal cars. The small one you noted is a modified smart car. If you want crash test information on these cars look up what chassis they were built on. They have all been thoroughly tested.

In that case, I still wouldn't get in one, because I think the smart cars are incredibly dangerous. They've been tested, but I don't find them safe. Any car I can tip over on my own, I don't feel too safe in to drive in America, or let me drive in America with.

Though, granted, I'm in the UK, so that might be a bit different, but I can only drive in America, as that's where my license is.

Ok, but that is a problem with smart cars, not driverless cars in general. The idea here is not to create one cookie cutter car that everyone uses, but a system that can be built into any type of car. And the system, at least Google's, is being tested on a wide variety of chassis.

 

[Lil devils x_v1legacy]

[
I never see them do the standard crash tests that most cars have to do, so I could be wrong. I can never find those reports on the articles about the driverless cars.

They've never managed to make one crash, it just slows down gently to a safe stop before it hits the barrier.

Right, but what's stopping someone from plowing into it? You know, human error in other cars? Knocking it into something, smashing into the back of it when someone else doesn't come to a full stop, so on and so on.

Human error still exists outside these driverless cars, and they should be worried about that. I don't think they seem to be.

Right now all driverless cars are simply modified normal cars. The small one you noted is a modified smart car. If you want crash test information on these cars look up what chassis they were built on. They have all been thoroughly tested.

In that case, I still wouldn't get in one, because I think the smart cars are incredibly dangerous. They've been tested, but I don't find them safe. Any car I can tip over on my own, I don't feel too safe in to drive in America, or let me drive in America with.

Though, granted, I'm in the UK, so that might be a bit different, but I can only drive in America, as that's where my license is.

Ok, but that is a problem with smart cars, not driverless cars in general. The idea here is not to create one cookie cutter car that everyone uses, but a system that can be built into any type of car. And the system, at least Google's, is being tested on a wide variety of chassis.

The fact that they use GPS makes it already so vulnerable that it is pointless to continue until they find a more secure system. Everything else is irrelevant if they cannot secure it.

http://venturebeat.com/2013/08/02/driverless-car-hack/

 

[Nukekitten]

So far the only ones I've seen are from companies making their own cars. Like Google, or the company from Japan which I just blanked on the name... I think there's also a company in the UK...You know I just blanked on this and literally, 15 minutes ago, read a piece from the IET that was saying the software they're using is quite possibly hackable.

I feel like a turd for not remembering the names of the companies now. But the cars themselves were the size, or smaller, like the small electric cars.

http://youtu.be/5UYVCH8qUKQ

http://youtu.be/cdgQpa1pUUE

^_^

 

[ZeroFarks]

Consider the number of people killed in vehicle accidents per year in the USA.

Now imagine that number dropping to zero.

I'm fine with that.

 

[MrFalconfly]

Consider the number of people killed in vehicle accidents per year in the USA.

Now imagine that number dropping to zero.

I'm fine with that.

Then imagine that number explode once again because one of those anarco-hacktivists thought it'd be a splendid idea to hack the network that controls these cars.

As for

snip

and

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So all the enthusiasts would need to give up their hobby just so you guys don't have to do that "chore".

I look at cars like I look at PC's. Sure they have their everyday uses, but that's not why I love them. I love cars, and PC's for what they can do beyond the everyday chores. Gaming, or enthusiastic driving. And I'd be incredibly sad if people began to take my hobbies away from me just so they could have "less chores" in their life. Make it an option, not mandatory.

 

[Silverbane7]

i think that in certain places, and for use by certain people, driverless cars will be good.
while the best way to have the cars is everyone using them (becasue that way, you dont have human versus machine, becasue human allways fails, becasue we are fleshy, and can forget to sleep or get distracted) we would probably have a percentage using them and another percentage not.

the best people to get using them are, inner city users (short trips type) drinkers (no drunk driving) taxi (no more being driven the wrong way to the destination, so the driver can charge extra. no more going round corners on 2 wheels so the driver can get there faster to get to their next fare) older people (human frailtes and bad eyesight coupled with aged brains just not working like they used to) rentals for non drivers and for those too young to be allowed to drive themselves.

everyone else would, and probably should, continue as normal.
my only real worries have allready been mentioned by everyone allready, except if i had a google driverless car like those little ones, i would want a humanoid shape inthe front/ hell i will even be satisfied with an inflateable JonnyCab style dude, so long as me swearing at him wont make him explode on me lol

 

[Nukekitten]

Then imagine that number explode once again because one of those anarco-hacktivists thought it'd be a splendid idea to hack the network that controls these cars.

Even if that happens a few times, I don't see anything innate about self-driving cars that requires they be network controlled. A spike a few times before people start doing things properly is never going to equal the deaths from a constant effect. Over time the numbers will work out, regardless of how many you kill, even if people are stupid enough to connect them to a system that allows this sort of thing in the first place.

(Not that it's not possible to compromise modern cars and make them do silly things already anyway. So in that sense we've already taken on the risks and may as well get some more of the benefits as well.)

snip

So all the enthusiasts would need to give up their hobby just so you guys don't have to do that "chore".

Not what I said. That I'd be happy to see a chore die out doesn't mean that I support the summary shackling of anyone who has different desires. If I've got my self-driving car, I don't really care what you drive as long as you're a good driver. I might support making people pass a decent driving test for a change - because the way I see most people driving is atrocious and what we do at the moment obviously doesn't work - but as long as you're not going to be stupid with it, knock yourself out.

 

[MrFalconfly]

I might support making people pass a decent driving test for a change - because the way I see most people driving is atrocious and what we do at the moment obviously doesn't work - but as long as you're not going to be stupid with it, knock yourself out.

Well as a European looking in, at the United States, I can only say that US Driver Training is bleedin' atrocious (it certainly is compared to most European driver training, like the ones you receive in UK, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and such. And yes the Danes have an equally high road-fatality-per-capita as the US but that's generally because of the older car-pool as a result of the insane car taxes, which is 180% of the cars price after the 25% VAT has been added).

 

[Nukekitten]

Well as a European looking in, at the United States, I can only say that US Driver Training is bleedin' atrocious (it certainly is compared to most European driver training, like the ones you receive in UK, Germany, Denmark, Sweden, Norway and such. And yes the Danes have an equally high road-fatality-per-capita as the US but that's generally because of the older car-pool as a result of the insane car taxes, which is 180% of the cars price after the 25% VAT has been added).

If we're talking driving tests, so far the best one I've seen is the German one. German drivers are, IME, very good at what they do by comparison to somewhere like the UK or the Netherlands. In the UK, if you want to know how to drive as compared to how to pass the test, RoADAR comes highly recommended. ^_^

 

[DANEgerous]

Well they will get me to my destination faster and I will be able to be productive while in one and they are less prone to accidents than humans. Yeah I want one.

 

[Laughing Man]

Doomed to fail, oh the idea is fine in principal and perhaps the tech is maybe even getting close to the dream however their is an underlying problem. The idea of a car that you can get in tell it where to go and it will just go there while you work or sit back and relax is NEVER going to happen. The reason being that someone will always have to be in a full aware state to what is going on around them for those rare circumstances where the shit hits the fan and all the computers in the world can't get you out of trouble (think modern aircraft which are more than able to fly without pilots but still have them for when things go wrong.)

The issue though we aren't talking about two highly trained people who's lives are on the line, who have to train and retrain and get tested on their abilities we are talking about Joe slob here the same guy who will happily try to drive a car while texting on his phone. Do you think that the average person is going to keep up to speed on how to control their cars if it goes wrong, fuck we have cars with automatic headlights and the number of stupid ignorant moronic arse hats (and they are deserved of this title) that actually tell me they don't know how to turn their lights on, that it was set to auto when they picked the car up and have never bothered their fat stupid fucking idiot ass to learn how to use basic safety equipment installed in their 2 ton death machine... well the concept that automating an entire machine to a level that encourages blind ignorance is frankly scary.

The principle is fine the reality is a scary world in which people get out of cars after a crash shrug their shoulders and go I dunno how the brakes work it was set to auto when I picked it up and never bothered learning how to work it.