Self-driving cars--seriously?

[Perry Hilbert Jr]

Allegedly a true story, a wealthy physician from overseas who routinely flew a jet plane but very rarely drove a motor vehicle, brought his family to see America., They rented a large motorhome and left Wshington DC after a few days seeing the sights next to the airport where they entered the US. As they proceeded down INTERSTATE 95, the physician felt nature calling, so he hit the button for cruise control and got up to walk back to the toilet. He wiped out the rented $150,000 motorhome, but no one seriously injured.

Frankly, if it keeps little arse wipes in their under powered zip cars from pulling out in front of semis and folks hauling trailers, I am all for it. Had to stand on the brakes too darn many times because of nit wits in three cylinder vehicles. I have that beeper in my car that tells me when i am close when backing up, or when some object is right along side. In my big f-250, that beeper is great and I have come to depend on it, instead of the mirrors. My in-laws have a back up camera on their SUV. That is a little weird but their both elderly and can't trn their heads like 20 yrs ago. There is a bit of a debate as to whether a bar patron can ride in such an autonomous vehicle with out being DUI. In many states just being drunk and the only person in a vehicle, except an rv, is enough for DUI

[Pat Barry]

Allegedly a true story, a wealthy physician from overseas who routinely flew a jet plane but very rarely drove a motor vehicle, brought his family to see America., They rented a large motorhome and left Wshington DC after a few days seeing the sights next to the airport where they entered the US. As they proceeded down INTERSTATE 95, the physician felt nature calling, so he hit the button for cruise control and got up to walk back to the toilet. He wiped out the rented $150,000 motorhome, but no one seriously injured.

Frankly, if it keeps little arse wipes in their under powered zip cars from pulling out in front of semis and folks hauling trailers, I am all for it. Had to stand on the brakes too darn many times because of nit wits in three cylinder vehicles. I have that beeper in my car that tells me when i am close when backing up, or when some object is right along side. In my big f-250, that beeper is great and I have come to depend on it, instead of the mirrors. My in-laws have a back up camera on their SUV. That is a little weird but their both elderly and can't trn their heads like 20 yrs ago. There is a bit of a debate as to whether a bar patron can ride in such an autonomous vehicle with out being DUI. In many states just being drunk and the only person in a vehicle, except an rv, is enough for DUI

I saw that same scene in a movie. Guess which one?

[Pat Barry]

I started this thread, time for me to update it:



Disclaimer: No amount of debate as to actual fault here will sway my opinion. Computers should not drive cars, period. Driverless tractors and other farm equipment, fine-- just keep them off public highways.

Actually I'd love to see self driving NASCAR. It would probably be way more entertaining than the current product.

[Lee DeRaud]

I saw that same scene in a movie. Guess which one?

"National Lampoon's Vacation"? (or the recent remake, which I haven't seen...)

[Lee DeRaud]

Actually I'd love to see self driving NASCAR. It would probably be way more entertaining than the current product.

There's a concept of autonomous cars communicating with each other and forming up drafting clumps on the freeway* that would look a lot like current NASCAR. But hopefully without all the intermittent multi-car "oopsies".

(*Can't remember what they call it, "platooning" maybe?)

[Larry Edgerton]

https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/innovation/self-driving-uber-car-involved-fatal-accident-arizona-n857941

Todays news, self driving car kills pedestrian.

[Carlos Alvarez]

Self-driving cars are the future, and easily out-drive humans. They are already safer than humans. It's so silly to think otherwise.

I do some work in the traffic management industry and have become very familiar with a lot of the technologies (and I work in tech) as well as the success reports and issues they've run into. The articles I've read don't tell us if the car was in fully self-driving mode or not, and what the pedestrian may have done to cause the accident. The area is also known for being a drinking town with a college problem, and having lots of entitled pedestrians doing stupid stuff.

Almost nobody has heard of the very cool successes with self-driving cars, such as saving one child's life. I got to watch the video and read the data on it. The child ran out between two cars, into the street. The car was in full braking before the kid was visible because its sensors could see him, where a human could not. When you have 26 cameras, LIDAR, FLIR, and other sensors on your head plus a brain that can read them all 1000 times per second, come tell me you're as good as a computer driving.

[Larry Edgerton]

I'm better than a computer. I've driven millions of miles and never killed anyone.

[Carlos Alvarez]

I'm better than a computer. I've driven millions of miles and never killed anyone.

The self-driving cars have driven millions of miles without killing someone, also. And we still don't know who was at fault and the details of how it happened. These cars have already saved lives that humans would have taken.

I can't even fathom how anyone thinks they have more abilities than a self-driving car. It must be how some people felt when the buggy whip makers were speaking against cars to start with.

[Bert Kemp]

True self driving cars are better then humans. The accident today here in Tempe a women was JAYwalking. Thet are not sure what happen for all we know she jump out in front of the car. They have been testing these cars for aqlmost 2 years now and very few accidents and most were cause by cars with a driver. The big Jumbo jets lamd them selfs as computers do it better then people. I my self would rather get in a driverless car then a taxi or uber with a person driving. You see cab wrecks all the timew out here.

[John Terefenko]

For every electronic device there is a hacker lurking. Just saying and you do the reading into.

[Lee DeRaud]

There were 40,100 traffic deaths last year. Will self-driving cars drop that number to zero? Obviously not, and the laws will need to catch up with liability issues and such. But it's highly unlikely that adding automation to the mix can make the situation any worse than it is now, with self-absorbed twits thinking it's more important to look at their Facebook status than what's in front of their car.

[Lee DeRaud]

For every electronic device there is a hacker lurking. Just saying and you do the reading into.

You do realize that problem already exists with respect to cars, right?

[Bill Dufour]

I heard she was not jay walking she was jay riding. She road her bike out into the middle of the block from the sidewalk and got t-boned by the car. Nothing the car could have done to prevent the accident, if it was an accident.

I wonder if it was suicide and she knew it was a computer car so her relatives could collect the insurance money.
Bil l.

[Rod Sheridan]

Think about this scenario. You are riding along in your self driving Tesla sedan and a car pulls up behind you and starts tailgating. Your car will immediately slow down to try to maintain a safe distance for the speed. The car behind just keeps pushing towards your bumper. Your vehicle will slow down some more. This will continue until your mighty Tesla stops to let the other car go on by. If you were driving the car, you might speed up a little and change lanes to avoid the bully. There might be lots of other options in that particular situation that a rule following computer can't even imagine, much less execute.

Art, you're making the assumption that the auto will accept non safety related inputs from the operator.

Once you go to autonomous vehicles, they can manage their operation to optimize traffic flow, reduce fuel consumption, follow all the road regulations so there won't be any speeding or dawdling in the passing lane....Rod.