That looks like a smart car.From BBC News:
bbc.com/news/technology-35320177
Personal note: If that thing in the photo is considered a car, I wouldn’t own one if they were free. A wooden box with bicycle pedals and chain with a plastic roof would be better.
Ed
No device is perfect. Whatever technology is installed will have a failure rate. If we are talking about millions of cars, that number will not be insignificant. I won’t be forced to use freeways. And even if my current car could be retrofitted, and a sensor failure occurs Sunday night, then what? And what will it cost to fix? I’m not seeing any positives here. If a person is too mentally disabled to drive, a friend or taxi would be a better and cheaper option.That looks like a smart car.
Self drive technology can be applied to any car, so they really wont look any different on the exterior from todays cars, the only Im not sure of is how they plan to deal with people that still have very old cars, like 1990 and older, Maybe eventually, self drive will be a mandatory ‘add on’ if someones car does not have it from the factory, they must have it installed, but I doubt that would go over well.
Ive said it before on here, self driving cars are coming very soon, and its going to radically change the way we all drive. Ive seen 60 minutes stories with the big 3 automakers in the past year, self driving will be launched in 2017-2018, it will start out small, like the new MB, which has a self driving mode only for the expressway, this is the way they are all going.
Any common sense should tell you, for this to really work, it MUST include everyone, not just some cars with self driving mode, probably become a law eventually that you must engage self drive majority of the time, or at certain times/ areas, human driving is too unpredictable to a computer.
I think ultimately, its a good, as it will mean, no more DUIs, accidents will be a rare thing, car insurance will go away altogether or at least rates go way down, no more need for major collision coverage, plus, police presence on the roads wont be needed that much, they can focus on more important things, I can only think of positives.
Which would be much safer for all the other drivers on the road than if you had a stroke while actually driving the car. The older I get, the more I look forward to a car that will do the driving for me.I would probably have a stroke the first time I rode in such a vehicle.
Do you really believe everyone involved in this effort is just going to give up and quit when some problems come along? of course not, sure they will problems with the 1st gen, 2nd gen, 3rd gen self driving cars, but from the extensive effort I see going into all this, they will keep going until they get all the bugs out.Too many industries involved to just give up and go back to manual driving.Seems to me the whole idea is one major crash away from finished.
Also, hopefully, we will see the end of road rage and over-aggressive driving. The real trick will be getting everyone on board with the idea of driverless cars. While I welcome to idea, there will be passionate hold-outs who insist that they are infinitely better equipped to do their own driving. So we will still have tailgating, unnecessary lane changing and passing, and folks leaning on the horn and offering obscene gestures when they decide the driverless car ahead of them is traveling too slow. It will be a long, unpleasant transition, I think, but we will be safer and actually less aggravated once it happens.Do you really believe everyone involved in this effort is just going to give up and quit when some problems come along? of course not, sure they will problems with the 1st gen, 2nd gen, 3rd gen self driving cars, but from the extensive effort I see going into all this, they will keep going until they get all the bugs out.Too many industries involved to just give up and go back to manual driving.
The benefits are going to be well worth it in the long run, eventually there will be no more DUIs, no one killed by a drunk driver, older and disabled people will not be home bound, collision insurance coverage will go away, texting and driving will be something people laugh about, remember when people actually had to drive a car? lol In time, just like we talk today about cell phones, computers, etc. we will wonder how people in the past ever got along with them.
It will happen.
I doubt anyone would consider lost life a ‘bug’ to simply keep working on until they get the kinks out.Do you really believe everyone involved in this effort is just going to give up and quit when some problems come along? of course not, sure they will problems with the 1st gen, 2nd gen, 3rd gen self driving cars, but from the extensive effort I see going into all this, they will keep going until they get all the bugs out.Too many industries involved to just give up and go back to manual driving.
The benefits are going to be well worth it in the long run, eventually there will be no more DUIs, no one killed by a drunk driver, older and disabled people will not be home bound, collision insurance coverage will go away, texting and driving will be something people laugh about, remember when people actually had to drive a car? lol In time, just like we talk today about cell phones, computers, etc. we will wonder how people in the past ever got along with them.
It will happen.
Look back to when the very first cars were created, it was extremely dangerous, it took awhile to catch on, many people wanted the horse and carriage to stick around, many lives are lost due to technological progress, but we saw the car eventually replaced the horse and buggy.I doubt anyone would consider lost life a ‘bug’ to simply keep working on until they get the kinks out.
Actually, they have been shown to be better drivers than humans.I am certainly not willing to bet my life on a defect free computer program, or on defect free hardware. It will be a very long time before you can convince me that non human systems are more safe than humans. I would probably have a stroke the first time I rode in such a vehicle.
This is similar to when computers started getting popular, many people didnt trust them at first, and avoided them for awhile, claiming, doing things the ‘manual’ way is always better…of course, we know better today.Actually, they have been shown to be better drivers than humans.
As a scientist involved in the effort of making CAV (connected and autonomous vehicles) happen, I can say that the statistics of fatalities, injuries, and material property due to crashes per year are related to human error. In addition, Machines can drive at closer headways than humans (i.e. humans are restricted by their reaction time) and thus help reduce the overall congestion of vehicles. Of course, everyone here is assuming we will OWN the vehicles. There are better ideas for these innovations such as Mobility on demand services, where you use your smartphone through apps to hail a connected and autonomous vehicle service to pick you up and drop you at your desired destinations. Advanced booking is also a possibility, where you can book the trips for your whole day with flexible time windows.Actually, they have been shown to be better drivers than humans.
Those first cars did not have the litigious society we have now to hamper progress.Look back to when the very first cars were created, it was extremely dangerous, it took awhile to catch on, many people wanted the horse and carriage to stick around, many lives are lost due to technological progress, but we saw the car eventually replaced the horse and buggy.
Many people still die because of defects in cars, things break and cause accidents, but we dont hear anyone suggesting going back to horse and buggy because of it, instead, efforts are made to make them safer.
There are other problems that will need to be overcome aside from vehicle ownership issues. The current liability law will be one, and the other are software performance validation and verification issues, a particularly difficult example being “state explosion.” I imagine that just exploring the state space itself in a test environment will be challenging, and a contributor of end costs due to certifications needed.As a scientist involved in the effort of making CAV (connected and autonomous vehicles) happen, I can say that the statistics of fatalities, injuries, and material property due to crashes per year are related to human error. In addition, Machines can drive at closer headways than humans (i.e. humans are restricted by their reaction time) and thus help reduce the overall congestion of vehicles. Of course, everyone here is assuming we will OWN the vehicles. There are better ideas for these innovations such as Mobility on demand services, where you use your smartphone through apps to hail a connected and autonomous vehicle service to pick you up and drop you at your desired destinations. Advanced booking is also a possibility, where you can book the trips for your whole day with flexible time windows.