Are you looking forward to self driving cars?

[imoldernu]

One of the great joys of life, is meeting at the light with that 21 year old, driving his GTO with the mag wheels... A little nod, and a smile, and I leave him in the dust with my '96 Caddy STS.

Local transit service here is anywhere in 3 counties...$1, and no tipping.

Life is good!

 

[ampeep]

I enjoy driving and had 'fun' cars like RX-7, Supra, MR2, GS300, IS300 & GS350. However, wouldn't mind it in heavy traffic or if I was really sleepy.

 

[aja8888]

One of the great joys of life, is meeting at the light with that 21 year old, driving his GTO with the mag wheels... A little nod, and a smile, and I leave him in the dust with my '96 Caddy STS.

I think the kid and the GTO was letting you have a free one!

 

[growing_older]

In the US alone, automotive deaths are in the 30 and 40 thousands a year. For ages 5-34 they are the leading cause of death. We spend billions on medical research to reduce all the other top causes of death. While car makers do devote research efforts to make cars safer, they devote a lot more efforts to make cars "fun" and attractive to buyers. We have an entire cottage industry in every major city to fly overhead every weekday and report which major roads are blocked by accidents. We routinely report the deaths of celebrities in car accidents, but there are so many that we don't even report every local fatality in prominent media. It's too common to be news.

https://www.yahoo.com/music/s/bob-burns-former-lynyrd-skynyrd-drummer-dies-car-194156511.html

If self driving vehicles deliver on their promise to significantly reduce this carnage, then I eagerly await them. I was probably never going to buy a Ferrari or Lamborghini and see how fast I could drive them, even on a track, anyway. But I'd be very happy if aggressive, drunk, or overly immortal entitled drivers in big SUVs could no longer cut me off at dangerous speeds. I'll happily trade my ability to zip satisfyingly around corners under my own direction for an overstuffed chair, good reading material (maybe even internet browsing e-r forum) while my car safely drives me where I want to go. Cannot come too soon for me, except for my concerns about problems not yet solved.

 

[aja8888]

In the US alone, automotive deaths are in the 30 and 40 thousands a year. For ages 5-34 they are the leading cause of death. We spend billions on medical research to reduce all the other top causes of death. While car makers do devote research efforts to make cars safer, they devote a lot more efforts to make cars "fun" and attractive to buyers. We have an entire cottage industry in every major city to fly overhead every weekday and report which major roads are blocked by accidents. We routinely report the deaths of celebrities in car accidents, but there are so many that we don't even report every local fatality in prominent media. It's too common to be news.

https://www.yahoo.com/music/s/bob-burns-former-lynyrd-skynyrd-drummer-dies-car-194156511.html

If self driving vehicles deliver on their promise to significantly reduce this carnage, then I eagerly await them. I was probably never going to buy a Ferrari or Lamborghini and see how fast I could drive them, even on a track, anyway. But I'd be very happy if aggressive, drunk, or overly immortal entitled drivers in big SUVs could no longer cut me off at dangerous speeds. I'll happily trade my ability to zip satisfyingly around corners under my own direction for an overstuffed chair, good reading material (maybe even internet browsing e-r forum) while my car safely drives me where I want to go. Cannot come too soon for me, except for my concerns about problems not yet solved.

I agree with your concern for safety, and also believe that self driving cars can help reduce traffic accidents (unless of course the electronics fail or the drunk driver T bones the self driving car). I would feel better if places that serve alcohol price in a cab ride home for those who are going to get loaded. But that's another topic.

The trouble with trying to minimize accidents is really that there are a lot of people out there that are stupid or just don't pay attention to what's going on around them, and not everybody will be driving these futuristic high priced self driving cars.

 

[LARS]

Here is hoping by the time I really need a self driving car (which should be long after they perfect them both mechanically and legally), I will still have the mental capacity to be able to PROGRAM the darn thing to actually go where I want it to go!

 

[aja8888]

Here is hoping by the time I really need a self driving car (which should be long after they perfect them both mechanically and legally), I will still have the mental capacity to be able to PROGRAM the darn thing to actually go where I want it to go!

What, you will have to program it? And we have a nation full of people that can barely figure out how to turn on their computer or install a virus scanner!

 

[clifp]

What happens when a car breaks down. Does it just block the road or will it know to pull off?
God help us if Microsoft develops the software for these cars!

My Tesla continually monitors itself and if something is wrong, I'll get a call from the Tesla service center. So presumably self driving cars will more aware of when something bad is about to happen and go to service center where robots will fix them..

 

[Walt34]

The trouble with trying to minimize accidents is really that there are a lot of people out there that are stupid or just don't pay attention to what's going on around them...

When I was a patrol officer that was the number one cause of accidents. No specific violation like speeding, DWI, or red lights (although those certainly contribute to the total) caused more than plain old simply not paying attention.

MD does have a statute on that - "Failure to pay full time and attention to driving" - but of course it is impossible to tell if someone is zoned out just by looking at them through a car window. Unless like one idiot who had a book propped up on the steering wheel on the interstate. And when I wrote him the ticket he had the audacity to whine "But I wasn't speeding!"

Some people will never get it.

 

[unno2002]

I hate to drive.

But given how little confidence I have in the reliability of computers, I have NO interest in trusting a computer to drive any car I occupy.

We had a Prius, which is significantly dependent on its computer(s). When the battery started to go bad, and the voltage was off, the computer essentially lost its mind.

 

[6miths]

Can't wait. Just made the 21 hour drive to Florida 3 weeks ago and it would be great to let the car do the driving. I would trust the computer more than DW, DS or DD to do the driving. And as mentioned, I would much rather have computers driving others' cars.

 

[LARS]

What, you will have to program it?

Your destination, dude!

In all seriousness, this advancement could do wonders for many elder seniors who no longer are capable of driving, but if you are one of the many with cognitive failures it will sadly not be of much use.

 

[NW-Bound]

If and when robot cars are widely available, I suspect that road accidents will be reduced only if human driving is banned. Else, your robot car cannot prevent some guys in a Hummer from plowing into you. Just design cars with no steering wheel.

So, what if not everyone can afford these fancy-shmancy cars? You want to prevent poor people from being able to drive to work, to school? Ah, we can subsidize them, just like healthcare right now. Maybe it's cheaper to force people to take public transit.

Don't get me wrong. I am getting old enough that driving is becoming a chore, and I stopped looking at cars with excitement more than 2 decades ago. Right now, I would not recognize a Tesla if it drives by me. OK, I may notice the quietness. But back to robot cars, I am afraid it may take a bit longer than people anticipate.

How long ago was it that Toyota throttle "unintended acceleration" was blamed on the poor drivers? We talked about that a lot on this forum. Then, finally when the controller software was determined to be in error and Toyota was fined $1.2B, there was not much public coverage. I started a thread here (http://www.early-retirement.org/forums/f27/toyota-fined-1-2b-over-faulty-pedals-71162.html), but not too many people cared anymore. And it was just the throttle, for crying out loud.

It costs a lot of money to design and build autopilots for airplanes (avionics is a big part of the cost of airplanes), to test them and make them safe. The problem is more than having the software do the right thing in normal conditions. A fault-tolerant software must also recognize when one of its associated hardware or sensors has a failure or becomes flaky, and take proper corrective action. A robot car has to do a lot more, and I mean a lot, than the autoland autopilot I worked on 30 years ago.

 

[NW-Bound]

I forgot to comment on the article quoted in the OP.

There's an article in Wired about a car created by Delphi (the parts manufacturer) that just drove 99% of the way across the country autonomously, with human intervention only when they left the highways and drove in city traffic. This is Big: A Robo-Car Just Drove Across the Country.

Several projects have achieved similar objectives of autonomous driving on the freeway, back in the 1990s (20 years ago!). It is the city driving that is tough for the reasons I cited.

See: History of autonomous car - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

 

[harley]

When I was a patrol officer that was the number one cause of accidents. No specific violation like speeding, DWI, or red lights (although those certainly contribute to the total) caused more than plain old simply not paying attention.

MD does have a statute on that - "Failure to pay full time and attention to driving" - but of course it is impossible to tell if someone is zoned out just by looking at them through a car window. Unless like one idiot who had a book propped up on the steering wheel on the interstate. And when I wrote him the ticket he had the audacity to whine "But I wasn't speeding!"

Some people will never get it.

True enuff. My Sheriff's Deputy buddy used to say they only needed on traffic law, a DWS (Driving While Stupid).

 

[Rustic23]

Not that wild about a fully autonomous car, however, lane keeping assist is something I will look for in my next car. Honda seems to be there. There are YouTube video for both the Honda CRV and Acura. Also Mercedes also offer this feature.

 

[NW-Bound]

Ah, driver assistance is something that is easier, cheaper, and safer to achieve.

For safety, as a geezer before his time, I would not mind them putting in a speed governor to prevent drivers from exceeding the speed limit of the road they are traveling on. The speed limit info can be looked up from an onboard database using the car GPS location.

If the game is to reduce accidents, there are things we can do now. Why am I the only one who likes red light photos?

 

[samclem]

For safety, as a geezer before his time, I would not mind them putting in a speed governor to prevent drivers from exceeding the speed limit of the road they are traveling on. The speed limit info can be looked up from an onboard database using the car GPS location.

No, thanks. There are too many times when exceeding the speed limit is safer than observing it (e.g. passing on a two-lane road: higher speed=less time on the other side of the yellow line). I've read some studies that lead me to believe that speeding is a relatively small factor in accidents--at least compared to popular perception. An interesting study on posted speed limits, real driving speeds, and accidents. Lower speed limits frequently caused higher accident rates (because most people drive a reasonable speed, and if the speed limit is too low, then the speed differential causes accidents. Speed differential is the more significant factor in accident causation. So, maybe your GPS-linked system could be just as effective if it sped up the slow drivers).

If the game is to reduce accidents, there are things we can do now. Why am I the only one who likes red light photos?

I'm okay with them, too. And I don't even care if the municipalities make a lot of money with them. But I do care if they reduce the length of yellow lights in order to boost the take (which has occurred in some places).

 

[Sarah in SC]

Heck, I'd be happy if people would just learn how to zipper merge in my hometown!
I'd love a car that would drive me to work and back, but wouldn't like to give up the controls most other times.

 

[HFWR]

Heck, I'd be happy if people would just learn how to zipper merge in my hometown!
I'd love a car that would drive me to work and back, but wouldn't like to give up the controls most other times.

If the damn thing insisted on driving me to work, I'd trade it post haste!

 

[aja8888]

Speaking of safety and GPS monitoring of speed, etc, one of our clients (Southwestern Energy specifically) put in speed monitoring devices (tiwi units) in the 1/2 to 3/4 ton trucks of their oilfield personnel. I happened to have spent a couple of days with those folks and saw first hand what a disaster these monitors turned out to be. Many GPS indicated speeds were wrong, and the voice warnings were enough to drive you batty.

tiwi™

Southwestern sold the asset package of wells and the new buyer opted to have all the tiwi units removed from the field vehicles as they showed no historical long term improvement in safety performance for the fleet and were very expensive to maintain.

 

[Fermion]

I am all for it. Computers are reliable now and I have never had one cra

 

[ERD50]

When I was a patrol officer that was the number one cause of accidents ... plain old simply not paying attention.

MD does have a statute on that - "Failure to pay full time and attention to driving" - but of course it is impossible to tell if someone is zoned out just by looking at them through a car window. ....

Ah, driver assistance is something that is easier, cheaper, and safer to achieve. ...

And realistically, the assisted driving features will continue to develop, and we may not even notice when we get to 'autonomous' - it will happen step by step.

But I'm also concerned that the more the car watches out for you, the less attention people will pay - so back to Walt34's point...

What I hope to see is a camera/detector monitoring the driver's eye movement. If the driver isn't paying attention to things, some alarms activate, and finally, the car pulls itself over.

From what I've read, there are times a human will have to make the decision, even the best computers can't figure some of this stuff that has been mentioned. So make sure the human is still paying attention (maybe an exception for special hazard free, smart-car only stretches of the highway).

-ERD50

For safety, as a geezer before his time, I would not mind them putting in a speed governor to prevent drivers from exceeding the speed limit of the road they are traveling on. The speed limit info can be looked up from an onboard database using the car GPS location.

If the game is to reduce accidents, there are things we can do now. Why am I the only one who likes red light photos?

Agreed, and I don't get all the angst over the red light cameras either. Better to collect money from people breaking the law than to raise taxes on everyone. Free the police do the less routine stuff.

-ERD50

 

[harley]

If the game is to reduce accidents, there are things we can do now. Why am I the only one who likes red light photos?

I'm okay with them, too. And I don't even care if the municipalities make a lot of money with them. But I do care if they reduce the length of yellow lights in order to boost the take (which has occurred in some places).

IF! they reduced accidents, I might buy into them. However, all they've done is change the type of accidents into read-enders, often resulting in an increase in the overall number of red light related accidents. When added to the quotas included in the contracts with the private companies that supply and administer the cameras, resulting in situations like shortening the yellows, it turns what might have been a good idea into a typical bureaucratic fubar. I vote no.

 

[aja8888]

IF! they reduced accidents, I might buy into them. However, all they've done is change the type of accidents into read-enders, often resulting in an increase in the overall number of red light related accidents. When added to the quotas included in the contracts with the private companies that supply and administer the cameras, resulting in situations like shortening the yellows, it turns what might have been a good idea into a typical bureaucratic fubar. I vote no.

Red light cameras were removed in total from our town of 100,000. Seems like the politicians who signed the contract for them forgot to have the mandatory studies done to justify the locations of the cameras.