Is Radar Cruise Control Safe?

Your wrong ! The are hundreds thounsands of car enthusiast, collectors, racer and moders just love of cars old, new fast, slow, multi millions $$$ cars it's a huge industry employs millions of people! Can not compare to horses!

 

None of that makes me wrong. In fact, you just proved my point. Hundreds of thousands? You mean, like the population of a suburb of Los Angeles? That sounds exactly like a niche recreation community. It's exactly like horses today. Millions of employees, you say? You mean, like the horse racing and horse showing industry? I bet it employs millions across the country.

I have no doubt there are people that love their cars. And they will still be able to drive them. But, I predict that in 30 years, it will be in special areas reserved for it. It will be pure recreation. No one will manually drive a car for transportation. Thirty years might even be conservative. Do you have any idea how fast the technology is going to develop? My Prius already can park itself. And it can match the speed of traffic.

Put it this way. Ten years ago, no one had an iPhone. Smartphones were unusual. Internet on your phone was slow and nearly useless. Today, my phone is as fast as my home computer and the internet can stream video in HD. Ten years is a long time in technology today.

As self-driving cars take to the streets, people will see how safe they are. When accident rates plummet and deaths/injuries due to car accidents become a rarity, then laws will pass easily. Oh, sure, people will cry and gnash their teeth and protest. But it's inevitable. Like cigarettes, manually driven cars will be slowly, but surely ostracized.

The vast majority of people are really bad at driving. They accelerate up to red lights. They speed, weave dangerously in and out of traffic and vastly underestimate stopping distances. Death and injury by car accident is a public menace because people are too stupid to realize that the 2-4 ton mass of steel within which they are storing kinetic energy is extremely dangerous. Most people think they are toys.

I can't wait for self-driving cars. I won't have to wait long. It's inevitable now. Already, the kids who will never learn to drive because it is unnecessary are alive.

 

Agreed - when I learned to drive, it was standard practice for us to find a bit of gravel road, learn how to modulate brakes, how to put the car into a skid and then get it out (hopefully). Synchromesh wasn't on all gears, so double-declutching was the norm, starting the car required a choke and a knowledge of the idiosyncrasies of that particular car.

Ask a 17yr old today, who most likely will never drive a manual car in his/her life, and they'll think that was the dark ages.

Move forward to 2016 - there are countries in the world which have, or are making noises about restricting the driving of petrol cars (or diesel in India) - I think it was Finland, and Paris.

And, once autonomy arrives, there will be more and more restrictions on non-Autonomous vehicles and where they are allowed to drive. One report I read recently anticipated that lane widths on major commutes will reduce substantially due to the ability of a ROBOT to keep within a narrower frame, allowing maybe 3 lanes on a Motorway to accommodate 4, maybe even 5 lanes, Robot driven - and those roads will be "AUTONOMOUS ONLY".

I don't doubt that older cars will be legislated off the majority of roads for general commuting within my lifetime. But I still hope that occasionally, I'll see a vintage 2016 PRIUS.

 

Yes I remember those days too, Alan. And when we broke down, as often happened we had to get out and fix them ourselves. Of course we didn't need to understand all that futuristic new fangled science stuff. Just a little savvy, a screwdriver and a maybe a spanner (wrench)!

 

Yes, driving requires concentration, but it can also cause fatigue, like braking and creeping along hundreds of times on a miserable commute home from Silicon Valley to Livermore, etc ... average of 12 mph ... I'll take a good full speed DRCC and monitor it in this situation most any day.

 

A hammer and various bits of wire - both electrical and fencing were in my toolkit. Wouldn't it have been great to have had DUCT Tape and Zip Ties too!!!

 

Maybe autonomous commute lanes where older cars stay to the right? US will keep older cars on road as long as pass smog (more fuel used, more $$ for providers)

 

It's in 2012 at SFO, airport guidance system was turned off. Without it auto pilot wouldn't work. Asiana's captain was too used to auto pilot and has lost basic skills such as observing air speed. Despite repeated warning from aircraft control system he failed to react. Due to the 'seniority' culture in Korea the copilot didn't dare to intervene although he knew what went wrong.
It was a case caused by pure human error.
That's a lesson even if system can do the job most of the time, human are still expected to to be the master of skill and responsibility we are supposed to own.


iPad ?