Contributor
Ignoring the continued existence of pedestrians and bicycles, that assumes 100% market penetration, with zero manual-drive vehicles. That's not happening in any near term (i.e. most of our lifetimes) without extremely draconian regulatory action, like outlawing/confiscating a couple hundred million existing vehicles with substantial remaining value and operating life.Originally Posted by Greg Peterson
Yoga class makes me feel like a total stud, mostly because I'm about as flexible as a 2x4.
"Design"? Possibly. "Intelligent"? Sure doesn't look like it from this angle.
We used to be hunter gatherers. Now we're shopper borrowers.
The three most important words in the English language: "Front Towards Enemy".
The world makes a lot more sense when you remember that Butthead was the smart one.
You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much ammo.
Contributor
There might also be retrofitting companies..
Who knows. Interesting times ahead. That's for sure.
Contributor
Their current business model depends on paying human drivers: there's a reason Uber et al are investing so heavily in autonomous vehicles.
(I've always wondered why people sign up to work for a company that is reinvesting pretty much every earned dollar to put them out of work, but so it goes.)
Yoga class makes me feel like a total stud, mostly because I'm about as flexible as a 2x4.
"Design"? Possibly. "Intelligent"? Sure doesn't look like it from this angle.
We used to be hunter gatherers. Now we're shopper borrowers.
The three most important words in the English language: "Front Towards Enemy".
The world makes a lot more sense when you remember that Butthead was the smart one.
You can never be too rich, too thin, or have too much ammo.
Member
You don't need 100% penetration, or even 50%. When there are enough vehicles doing predictive maneuvers like slowing down to maintain proper flow, then the meatbag cars will have to flow with them. There will also be special self-driving lanes, like HOV but much more useful. The self-drivers can also get packed in there VERY tightly, and will never have the rubber band effect caused by humans being dumb. Remember that cars are already shipping with much of the communication and predictive stuff. Volvo has cars that advise you on the optimal speed ahead, for example.
Member
The police are being careful about statements, but this sounds like confirmation that it was the pedestrian's fault:
"And as soon as she walked into the lane of traffic, she was struck by the vehicle."
Contributor
The article didn't read that way to me. I read it as a bad market to be in. Regardless of cost. Say you introduce autonomous vehicles first. You capture the market for short term. Then the next company comes and it's a race to the bottom again.
Not sure robots can fix that
Member
Having had the recent experience of driving through Tacoma, WA on a Friday afternoon, I can only conclude that the roadways have unwittingly been designed to exploit humans worst instincts.
It tool an hour and a half to travel from Fife to Lacy, and we were in the HOV / left lane the entire time. Countless times traffic came to a complete stop. There were no accidents or construction. And this was five lanes wide in most areas.
Absolute madness and proof that more lanes is not the solution. My guess is there are too many exits and entrances.
Measure twice, cut three times, start over. Repeat as necessary.
Member
It's always a balance. Get rid of all of "X" and the roads become great, but X is always important. Limited-access highways obviously prove that limiting access means moving faster most of the time. But at what cost? When have we limited it so much that things become useless.
In tech, I like to say that computers would be great if humans didn't use them. Servers, for example, run "forever" while end user machines are constantly a mess. So it's always a baby and bathwater problem.
Contributor
Also regarding this magical future where people opt to not own a car anymore but simply pull out their personal communication device and order a vehicle to pick them up, how exactly is that different from calling a taxi in today's world? How long has that vehicle been in service? How many thousands of people have sat in those seats? A vehicle is a personal possession and most of us don't want to share it with hundreds or thousands of others. Period. When you get in your car, you want your stuff to be right where you left it. And you want it to smell the same as it always does.
Whether it is self driving or not is a completely different issue.
Contributor
OOOOHHHH!!!! How about this!?!?!?
You go to an event of whatever sort, upon arrival, you exit your pod, it parks itself, after the event, you press a button on your PCD, and your pod enters the queue of other pick up pods, a few minutes later you step in and are driven home while you make out in the back seat with your sweetie.
Works for me.
Contributor
I`m in. More making-out is a good benefit!
"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."
“If you want to know what a man's like, take a good look at how he treats his inferiors, not his equals.”
Contributor
Hi Dave,
As a parent of small kids, it would be an amazing thing to be able to call up an autonomous vehicle and send them to Grandma's house, and then have her send them back the same way. Same with other events. Sometimes parents are in a bind when one kid is sick and the other needs to go somewhere and there's only one Mom available. I don't know too many people that would trust kids with a strange taxi driver. But an autonomous vehicle loaded with sensors and safety technology is not going to present any harm, or at least way less harm.
This is not to say I'd give up my own vehicle, but I don't think it's an either/or proposition. What if you used autonomous transport for commuting during the week, and kept your vehicle for evenings, weekends, hauling lumber, and fun stuff?
I think all this technology is amazing. This past year I spent some time in Paris. I know the inner city and metro (underground) system pretty well, but using the immediacy and point to point precision of Uber was a total game changer. Less expensive than the metro too.
Edwin
Contributor
Andrew,
A few years ago I would have shared your perspective. But now I can't help but recall a time not that long ago, when nearly everyone was saying the same exact thing about......... Amazon.
Edwin
Contributor
I can certainly appreciate that. While I have no idea what will actually happen, I do believe it will be a very long time before government allows self driving cars without a "watcher" or whatever they will be called sitting in the drivers seat ready to take control in the case of a technology failure. If that is actually the case, then it is no different from trusting the children to the care of a taxi driver. I would be interested in learning the statistics of taxi drivers as the cause of any kind of problems at all. I would expect it to be insanely low. Like statistically non existent.
Man, it will be a major culture change when we conclude we can't trust anyone anymore.
Contributor
Probably way more dangerous to be the driver than the passenger.
Well, that's a depressing thought about trusting people. Hmmm.
Well, selfishly at least, the more boring crap (grocery shopping, picking up screws at BORG, etc) that I rid my life of, the better. But, I'm not a clerk, so what do I know?
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