The driverless future

[commando1]

I need to drive to Lowe's to buy a new drill.
FUGGIT. I'll order it online and have Brownie do the driving. He comes right by the house every day anyway...

 

[67Monaco]

Well I can say driving the freeways in the Bay Area is a nightmare in the mornings and evenings. There is so much stupidity on the roads in the morning which I really can't explain to those who don't live here. We now have 24 hours of traffic reports as no time is quiet anymore. It is very hard to even get my cars out for an enjoyable ride since I have to be on my toes at all times. Takes the fun out of things. Like the stock market I would love predictability on the roads. Yet right now things can be like a cat fight out here with all those untrained people behind those wheels.

When someone asked me a few weeks ago what I would really like to happen my answer was either a good recession or a good earthquake to chase at least 500,000 out of the region. I wasn't joking.

Do me a favor, ask them a hypothetical, if the car is about to be in an accident where it has to choose between harming the occupants or harming pedestrians or other drivers, which is the car going to be programmed to choose to harm? And is the manufacturer going to assume the liability of the crashes?

You know something fails on another car, and careens towards the one you're riding in, the collision avoidance system can choose to steer hard one way to avoid the crash, but there's pedestrians on the sidewalk that could maimed or killed, what does the car choose?

If my driverless future is still going end up with me being liable for the actions of an autonomous car, I'll drive myself thanks. Oh and planes (commercial jets) have been able to essentially able to take off and land themselves for nearly a decade maybe more, I notice there's no passengers lining up for the pilotless flights.

 

[amazinblue82]

Do me a favor, ask them a hypothetical, if the car is about to be in an accident where it has to choose between harming the occupants or harming pedestrians or other drivers, which is the car going to be programmed to choose to harm? And is the manufacturer going to assume the liability of the crashes?

You know something fails on another car, and careens towards the one you're riding in, the collision avoidance system can choose to steer hard one way to avoid the crash, but there's pedestrians on the sidewalk that could maimed or killed, what does the car choose?

If my driverless future is still going end up with me being liable for the actions of an autonomous car, I'll drive myself thanks. Oh and planes (commercial jets) have been able to essentially able to take off and land themselves for nearly a decade maybe more, I notice there's no passengers lining up for the pilotless flights.

I am with you man. I still want people in towers participating in the process as well as behind the sticks of 300 ton planes that can go 500 mph.

Likewise, I still want people behind the wheel of 2-50 ton vehicles that can go 100mph until/if the alternative (autonomy) is demonstrably better.

The Ethics Question looms large for me too. The sides have been staked out already...but the answer -- what will the car do, as determined by its "creator's' programming, if a life or death choice needs to be made? -- is not yet known.

The Driverless Car Debate: How Safe Are Autonomous Vehicles?

Ethical Issues
One of the most concerning aspects of the technology is how it would respond in emergency situations. For example, if a child ran out to chase a ball in the middle of the road, would the car swerve into oncoming traffic and potentially total the car, threatening the life of the passenger and the other vehicle's occupants, or would it know to immediately stop?

"There are fundamental ethical situations, and its difficult to understand how exactly the robot cars will be programed to deal with those kinds of kinds," Simpson (this guy is a consumer advocate) says.

However, Hagemann (this guy is a proponent of autonomy) says incidents like these would be extremely rare circumstances. "Most of those circumstances would probably just be resolved by the computer telling the car to brake instead of swerving one way or another. It doesn't matter that robots don't feel or emote, Hagemann says, since we are looking at split-second decisions. "Whether a human driver is making the decision or the algorithms in the car are, it's never going to be a perfect scenario."​

 

[MrMoparCHP]

Whereas I never thought we'd get to here in my lifetime we have. I do not think we'll get to the point where it will even be the majority for a very long time, 50+ years maybe. Still before the regulations start forcing you to have one the insurance companies will start charging more for old school cars to the point people will just give up.


Alan

 

[70bigblockdodge]

I need to drive to Lowe's to buy a new drill.
FUGGIT. I'll order it online and have Brownie do the driving. He comes right by the house every day anyway...

Buster Browns package car will be autonomous and sound the horn so you can come out and get your package, getting you to do the work for free.

 

[commando1]

Me and several other guys here rack, or have racked up 100k mi/yr. in the course of their careers. Seen it all but in reality haven't and never will even if you could drive a hundred years. The number of "what if" scenarios are beyond perception. For every rule you can think of, there will be a 1,000 exceptions to that rule.

Buster Browns package car will be autonomous and sound the horn so you can come out and get your package, getting you to do the work for free.

You're right. Never thought of that aspect.
Get rid of the Union drivers altogether...

 

[70bigblockdodge]

So does your autonomous car decide to hit the car with 2 Nuns or a empty school bus and how will it know how many souls are on board either and will it care.

 

[70bigblockdodge]

Get rid of the Union drivers altogether

Sounds like UPS, Fed Ex, and any others you can think of will be proponents.

You know that all the big trucking companies will be beating a path to be first to kick the drivers out of cab.

 

[67Monaco]

Oh my, I can't believe I'm going to say this... Unions are going to save us from autonomous vehicles.. How many boys in blue are going to want to lose their jobs because there's no more tickets to write? Think their union might have something to say about it?

 

[furyus 67]

I was born in the wrong time..... I would have much preferred surviving the depression,WW2 and dying 20 yrs ago after seeing my great grandson born!

 

[70bigblockdodge]

Oh my, I can't believe I'm going to say this... Unions are going to save us from autonomous vehicles.. How many boys in blue are going to want to lose their jobs because there's no more tickets to write? Think their union might have something to say about it?

Who is getting a ticket when your autonomous car and the one in front of it will not move when lights and siren emergency vehicle needs to cross line of traffic. Would like to see how much code would need to be written to pull up on the shoulder out of the way.

 

[Dobalovr]

Coming soon to a Walmart near you! This feature will be available in the very near future.

 

[300rag]

Coming soon to a Walmart near you! This feature will be available in the very near future.

I see how it cuts through the parking spots just like we see all the time.

 

[tbm3fan]

There is one true benefit to these cars. How many of you have parents where you clearly don't want them to drive yet they don't agree. There are quite a few people I know between 80-93 who really shouldn't be driving for various reasons. My mother has short term memory issues at 83 so she can't go down the street to a market. My father turns 90 and while sound of mind and heart still knows he should give it up but still needs to get around. I could go on with other examples but you get the idea. One day some of us will be in exactly the same boat in having the desire but not the where with all. This is a way of preserving independence and take my word for it that is a very important thing. Once you lose your independence then other things start downhill from there. There is no way I would want to rely on my son or younger wife to get me around as I value my independence very much. In today's day and age giving up driving is akin to giving up your life.

 

[commando1]

Hear, hear...

 

[saforwardlook]

I am thinking the unions won't save us, but the lawyers will. The lawsuits against the companies writing the software, or the sensor manufacturers, vehicle manufacturers, the guy on the assembly line who pinched a wire during assembly or someone/anyone they can pick on will force these self driving cars into oblivion rapidly. And I hear that NHTSA will be working with manufacturers to "roll out" autonomous cars in a fashion that makes sense. Uh huh.

I think this technology will be more successful by making robots to take care of our every need in our houses. No more cleaning the tub or making dinner.

And what will really kill the technology is that it will always be programmed to obey the speed laws. No one will stand for that based on all the pick up trucks with their huge snouts that tail gate me within a couple feet when I am already doing 75 on the freeways.

 

[cantflip]

I am sorry to be the voice of doom here, I agree with so many of these perspectives except one... once a statisical track record that shows these as being safer than driving yourself is established, the downward spiral will begin. Insurance carriers and government agencies are only going to look at statisics ... bean counters rule the world. Much of the technology has existed for some time and is already proven. Its more a matter of software and integration of systems than designing something from scratch. Any truckers who drove a rig with some kind of lane guidance system would know how long that has been around (long time). I drove the first car the dealer received on a pre-delivery inspection in 2000 that had adaptive cruise control and brake by wire in 2003 really putting much of the control into the computer...The driver makes the decisions, but the electronics are already driving the cars. Electronic power steering isnt very new either and your a soliniod or 2 away from having no direct control over anything in your car except in the case of failure. Some of the biggest software challenges for Google has been writing software to make a car operated by rules and logic be able to operate in a world without either... the streets you probably drive everyday.

Once this tech is established and proven, the biggest problem will be the human operated cars. Keep texting at the wheel and you'll just get the numbers there faster.

 

[70bigblockdodge]

They will come and they will work to fix/help drivers that need it but ultimately the person in the car is going to be responsible just like pilot PR engineer on a train have to have someone to blame. That's why drinking and letting your car get you home is never going to fly.

 

[67Monaco]

No one will stand for that based on all the pick up trucks with their huge snouts that tail gate me within a couple feet when I am already doing 75 on the freeways.

There's a cure for that too. Move right, they'll go right past you.

 

[GregG48203]

That's why drinking and letting your car get you home is never going to fly.

I recently watched a news program in which they demonstrated a self-driving car (Mercedes). At one point, the human driver had to take over because the car lost the lane (probably due to faded paint on the road). A drunk passed out at the wheel would hardly be able to take over on a snow-covered road.