Self-Driving Cars

Would You Buy A Self-Driving Car?

  • Yes

    Votes: 51 14.2%
  • Maybe

    Votes: 44 12.2%
  • No

    Votes: 265 73.6%

  • Total voters
    360
You got me. I figured you would have posted them all to this thread. Foot, meet mouth.

https://www.wired.com/2017/03/uber-self-driving-crash-tempe-arizona/

Police said the self-driving vehicle beared no blame.
The number of accidents is a function of how the technology has been deployed. If the technology continues to be deployed in the same controlled manner and to the same limited extent that it has been during the past year I wouldn't expect that there would be a large number of accidents.
 
Just about every time I get on the Freeway I wish everyone else had a self driving car. Most could use one.
 
One edge case they'll probably never solve is the flooded pothole. Discriminating between a shallow puddle and a nasty pothole filled to the brim with water is something people just develop a "sixth sense" for. Another one is "reading" a deer's mind who just seems to be hanging out beyond the shoulder. The GM Proving Ground in Milford MI had (and still probably has) a wide variety of real world road types and conditions. They need a place like that where the cars can deal with all the conditions (and each other).

I think self driving cars will probably fare a lot better than humans in both of those instances. How many humans drive into creeks and hit deer every year? Plenty! Because they're in a rush, or not paying attention, or just have bad judgement. The self driving car will probably end up noting the obstacle, but it won't try to read the mind of a deer - it will just slow down to the point where it can stop before the deer does anything. The human inside will be impatient and frustrated, but the self driving car will take the safe approach.

As for the shallow puddle, imagine something along the lines of Waze. Once a hazard has been identified, every car connected to the 'hive' will know the obstacle and the location, and what to do with it. Much better than a human guessing as he approaches, imo.

bs
 
I think self driving cars will probably fare a lot better than humans in both of those instances. How many humans drive into creeks and hit deer every year? Plenty! Because they're in a rush, or not paying attention, or just have bad judgement. The self driving car will probably end up noting the obstacle, but it won't try to read the mind of a deer - it will just slow down to the point where it can stop before the deer does anything. The human inside will be impatient and frustrated, but the self driving car will take the safe approach.

As for the shallow puddle, imagine something along the lines of Waze. Once a hazard has been identified, every car connected to the 'hive' will know the obstacle and the location, and what to do with it. Much better than a human guessing as he approaches, imo.

bs
Um ... a stationary deer might be picked up as an infrared blob and the car may slow down as a matter of caution - just in case. But that kind of behavior would be a real nuisance in most other situations in which you have a mammal minding his own business on a sidewalk. Or a dog doing his business on a fire hydrant. The dog would yell "Hey buddy, how about a little privacy?"
 
Um ... a stationary deer might be picked up as an infrared blob and the car may slow down as a matter of caution - just in case. But that kind of behavior would be a real nuisance in most other situations in which you have a mammal minding his own business on a sidewalk. Or a dog doing his business on a fire hydrant. The dog would yell "Hey buddy, how about a little privacy?"

Oh, agreed, but you mentioned two use cases and kind of implied that humans have this innate ability to recognize when one might be a threat or not. Except that they don't, humans fail all the time in both of the cases you mentioned. The 'safer' approach, for both humans and autonomous vehicles, would be to travel at a rate that allows you to safely avoid something that 'could' happen. As I mentioned, humans are too impatient for this, which is one reason you see so many dead deer on the PA turnpike every year. The autonomous vehicle could avoid these, at the expense of some level of frustration for the human inside the vehicle.

Where's the tradeoff? The human overrides the system, and increases his chance of an accident.

bs
 
The autonomous vehicles will be phenomenally unlikely to say, "here. hold my beer. watch this."
While autonomous vehicles may exhibit occasional bad judgment, I don't think the negative impact of stupidity manifested by humans operating automobiles operated should be underestimated as a benefit of the switch to autonomous vehicles.

The transitional period will doubtless be a little rough, but the end state, when all vehicles are making their own judgments, will almost certainly be a net improvement over the current situation.

Sweden's transition from RHD to LHD in the 1960s (Dagen H) should be a good touchpoint for the folks developing the changeover strategy.

220px-Dagen_H.svg.png

sweden-traffic.jpg

:)
 
Nothing can go wrong with computers running the cars. Just ask Equifax how safe the cyberspace is. Deer should be getting smarter, we're culling the dumbasses off the roads. Also, when software updates are needed, is the car going to shutdown and reboot?
 
Oh, agreed, but you mentioned two use cases and kind of implied that humans have this innate ability to recognize when one might be a threat or not. Except that they don't, humans fail all the time in both of the cases you mentioned. The 'safer' approach, for both humans and autonomous vehicles, would be to travel at a rate that allows you to safely avoid something that 'could' happen. As I mentioned, humans are too impatient for this, which is one reason you see so many dead deer on the PA turnpike every year. The autonomous vehicle could avoid these, at the expense of some level of frustration for the human inside the vehicle.

Where's the tradeoff? The human overrides the system, and increases his chance of an accident.

bs
I think the big disconnect in this discussion has to do with the optimism people reflexively apply to anything that sounds cool in science fiction or Popular Mechanics. Yeah - me too - I think it's a great idea. We just need to invent some things ...
 
When arent comparing these to perfection. We are comparing them to the average driver.
But you're not comparing anything to anything. There's no technology that comes even remotely close to possessing the perception and processing power of the average driver. Or the average chipmunk, toad, or garden slug.
 
Nothing is without flaws. I've managed to make it this far without a self driving car, I'll bet I can live without one.
 
You can make all the sociological arguments you want for self-driving cars. Statistically this and statistically that ... My concerns have to do with the technology. If I have my doubts about the technology then I'm gonna be reluctant to put my life in its hands, regardless of how many drunks it might save. It's OK if you don't have doubts about the technology. I'm not here to give you those doubts.
 
I thought you were arguing that self-driving cars were less safe than humans.
I am. They are. Much so. The technology. The machine "vision". The machine "cognitive situational awareness". Serial processing of a raster sequence does not well lend itself to producing the real-time N-dimensional "awareness" that every creature from humans down to the lowest invertebrate takes for granted. IMHO. YMMV.
 
The system would have to have redundancy in spades and be bulletproof . so far I haven't seen anything that approaches that level of complexity that is reliable enough to put society at large at risk

This is the whole problem in my view, no electronic system will ever be bullet proof, l know this all too well from many years spent working on a very well known and sophisticated luxury brand. Then there is all of the implications connected with who is held responsible in the case of an accident, because it won't be if but when this occurs.
 
Right. It's all a matter of miniaturization in your view. IOW you believe that the technology exists (like RF communications did in Dick Tracy's time) but it just takes up too much real estate to fit into an automobile. No. That's not the deal.
 
Would any of you be confident enough to board a plane that is fully automated?
Only if there was a real human pilot at the ready and a bypass switch. But I'll get into a self driving bus today. I'll also welcome the day I don't have to waste time in bumper to bumper traffic, worry about having a 2nd beer or look for a parking spot. I assume part of the awesomeness of a self-driving car is a self parking car. Get out, the car goes to look for someplace to recharge or whatever while I drink.

The only thing I really worry about is what 30% of the American workforce is going to do once we don't need drivers to take things from point a to point b. Farming?
 
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