Why the Interest in Self-driving Cars?

There is at least one automotive company who takes security seriously. Researchers Hacked a Model S, But Tesla's Already Released a Patch | WIRED

 

Yes, it's nice they give us an option to decrease some of the information on those screens. I like just putting the compass up there on the dashboard.

 

My car does not have the compass. Perhaps that is part of the navigation system.

 

I'm sorry, it's not really a compass. It just shows the direction of travel, the name of the street, and the speed limit. You should see it in those same items that you showed me earlier. Scroll through those icons up there on the multifunction display.

 

it's also politics. there's no political will to shut off phones or add breathalyzers to cars. accidents are just one small part of the coming self driving cars.

 

Of course the criminals will find a way to get around the breathalyzer device.
Unfortunately, there is no cure for irresponsible behavior. Drunk driving, etc. People are just going to do what they want to do. And now we got all the pot smokers on the road, too! Keep voting to legalize all this shit, and they are going to kill us all!

 

Snow - no idea how they'll solve that - but for the rest of the world (remember India, China etc have massive car fleets out of control).

Worldwide, 3500 people will die today in motor vehicle accidents. Almost all the "fault" of someone driving - in some form or other. Autonomous cars hopefully will reduce that

There is going to be an awkward period where we have Autonomous Cars (AC) and the old fashioned cars with Drivers Behind The Wheel.

But imagine maybe 20 yrs time when most roads are limited to AC only - they say that a 3 lane highway will be re-marked with 5 lanes in the same area. They're also saying that because drivers will be missing from the equation, lane discipline will be great, cars will be programmed to keep up with the car in front - and almost certainly safely much closer than we can drive today.

There is also the aspect of cars which drive and park themselves will mean that we won't need to park where we are dropped.

There is the concept that we may not even own a car - though I can't imagine not having a car which I've tailored to my wants, with my music ready on my store of CDs (or USBs), keeping various stuff which is useful (umbrellas, tissues, proximity swipes etc).

It's coming - phased in. I suspect we'll have city areas where only ACs are allowed, followed by our Freeways/Motorways - it might take longer for the back-streets to go only AC if ever.

 

It sounds good, Alan, in theory. But here in Los Angeles, the major automotive capital of the country, they don't even have enough money to fix breaking sidewalks! They just announced a 30 year plan… 30 years...
to begin fixing broken sidewalks.

I just can't see it happening, anytime soon. The cities and counties and states just don't have the money to redo their roads and freeways. And if we ever do get self-driving vehicles, they need to make them affordable for everybody. Not just the top 5%.

 

they'll have plenty of money for self driving cars, pac money.

 

I will just call Uber. If one of their self-driving cars crashes, at least I don't have to pay for it.

 

unless you pay for it with your life...

 

That's true, and that's exactly the reason I don't trust those cars. But I'm sure it's coming… Someday in the future… We will all be "Driving Miss Daisy."

 

no car insurance? that would be sweet.

 

I agree with that.
How do these cars know when to pull over when there's an emergency vehicle behind you? How did they know how to stop at a stop sign? Do they have the sign recognition capability? Do they know how to stop at a donut shop when I get hungry?

 

Do you disable ABS as well since you can react faster and more accurately than a computer?

 

I think the easiest way to implement this today would be a strobe sensor like the use to change street lights, however that is clearly not perfect since I can just come up behind you flashing a strobe to make your car pull to the right, But it wouldn't be hard to use another system.

They see it and stop.

Yes

If Siri can reroute my GPS it would be nothing to implement that into a car.

 

they have a lot of hi tech stuff. they are already operating in all situations. we're not that far away from the capability, resistance is futile.

 

Yes, I have deactivated it. I'm tired of hearing that loud "BANG" when it kicks in.

A story this morning shows one of those Uber self-driving Volvos running a red light in San Francisco.
I also don't believe those vehicles will ever work correctly in snow, or ice, or heavy rain conditions. How are they going to recognize a stop sign at night? I think the whole idea of self-driving vehicles is so far-fetched, that it's ridiculous. But you guys go ahead and keep dreaming…

For corn sakes, we can't even develop a reliable airbag that's not defective!

 

Yes I have, because on glare ice you can usually actually come to a complete stop manually controlling the brakes, even if you can get one tire to stick, abs not so much

 

I'm not sure about disabling ABS.