Self-driving cars...

[DanEC]

It will be interesting when four self-driving cars arrive at a 4-way Stop sign intersection at the same time.

Will they know what to do when they arrive at a controlled light intersection when the controls are out and Police are directing traffic.

Will they pull over when a funeral possession is approaching?

Will they know not to drive into a flooded underpass (submarine technology?)?

Will they try to avoid running over turtles in the road in the spring?

Will they dodge, tire shredding potholes in Detroit?

When it's snowing will they know to speed up before the hill in order to have enough speed to carry itself over the crest before spinning to a stop. Or as soon as it detects moisture and temps of 32 and below will it just pull into the nearest parking lot and shut down to hibernate?

Will a squirrel crossing the road in front of them send their computer into a psychotic conniption fit?

Will they pause for panhandlers at intersections approaching the door or drive off?

Can they be programmed to park out in the far areas of the parking lot at Walmart to avoid all the housewife and kids banging up your doors and running shopping carts into your pride and joy?

Inquiring minds would like to know.

Just had a thought - I should have Googled these questions.

[Jaydee]

Scarier thought are driverless semi trailer trucks. What if a big moth hits the camera lens. Does it hit the brakes?
If you break the windscreen in one of the auto braking cars, like Subaru. You have to have a genuine windscreen fitted and the cameras calibrated.
I remember a funny story years ago, someone rented a motor-home with cruise control. So he set it, and went in the back to make a cup of coffee. He hit a tree, and successfully sued the company for not explaining it properly.

JD

[Tommy]

DanEC,
It will be interesting when four self-driving cars arrive at a 4-way Stop sign intersection at the same time. If they are networked, there will be an algorithm that tells them the correct order. It might be based on traffic patterns downstream from that intersection.

Will they know what to do when they arrive at a controlled light intersection when the controls are out and Police are directing traffic. When all the cars are networked, you won’t need a policeman to direct traffic. In fact, you may not need traffic lights at all.

Will they pull over when a funeral possession is approaching? If the cars are networked and the funeral procession cars are identified, yes it could be done.

Will they know not to drive into a flooded underpass (submarine technology?)? Maybe not the first car. But unlike with human drivers, none that follow will make the same mistake.

Will they try to avoid running over turtles in the road in the spring? It would depend on the resolution of the forward looking radar, the size of the turtle, and the risk to other traffic while dodging the turtle. BTW, the location of the turtle would be shared with following cars.

Will they dodge, tire shredding potholes in Detroit? The radar will see the potholes. Whether they are dodged will depend on traffic conditions.

When it's snowing will they know to speed up before the hill in order to have enough speed to carry itself over the crest before spinning to a stop. Or as soon as it detects moisture and temps of 32 and below will it just pull into the nearest parking lot and shut down to hibernate? I see no reason the algorithm could not account for the highway coefficient of friction. And unlike with human drivers, it would not attempt a maneuver it already knows is impossible to complete.

Will a squirrel crossing the road in front of them send their computer into a psychotic conniption fit? I would expect the erratic movement of the obstruction to identify it as a squirrel and the computer would do as I do: Ignore it and drive on.

Will they pause for panhandlers at intersections approaching the door or drive off? As the occupants will likely be looking at their devices rather than outside, the panhandling trade will die from lack of income.

Can they be programmed to park out in the far areas of the parking lot at Walmart to avoid all the housewife and kids banging up your doors and running shopping carts into your pride and joy? I’m sure it could if that’s what you told it to do.

Inquiring minds would like to know. Imaginative minds like to answer.

Just had a thought - I should have Googled these questions. No need. I got it.

[Joe's Garage]

Even more scary, your driverless car sends out a signal to DPI if it encounters a problem the on-board computer can't handle. DPI is Drone Pilots Inc.

[NewYorkGuy]

Skynet is coming.

[Buzz]

I can just picture an old cowboy looking suspiciously at a newspaper article about the new horseless carriages and asking the same type of questions.

- They can't get see or get spooked so how you gonna know if there's a rattlesnake in the barn?

- They can't duck for low hanging branches or jump over a fallen tree!

- How're you gonna train them to recognize their owner?

- If you have two of them will they be able to make little ones?

- If one wanders off how will it find its way home?

- Folks will loose their horse ridin' skills so how they gonna get around when them damn machines break down?

- ...

[REAL 1]

Skynet is not an impossibility in the far future. Who years ago would believe in driverless cars?

[Bernica]

Just require them to be painted bright safety orange so we all know where they are!

[DanEC]

Originally Posted by Tommy

DanEC,
It will be interesting when four self-driving cars arrive at a 4-way Stop sign intersection at the same time. If they are networked, there will be an algorithm that tells them the correct order. It might be based on traffic patterns downstream from that intersection.

Will they know what to do when they arrive at a controlled light intersection when the controls are out and Police are directing traffic. When all the cars are networked, you won’t need a policeman to direct traffic. In fact, you may not need traffic lights at all.

Will they pull over when a funeral possession is approaching? If the cars are networked and the funeral procession cars are identified, yes it could be done.

Will they know not to drive into a flooded underpass (submarine technology?)? Maybe not the first car. But unlike with human drivers, none that follow will make the same mistake.

Will they try to avoid running over turtles in the road in the spring? It would depend on the resolution of the forward looking radar, the size of the turtle, and the risk to other traffic while dodging the turtle. BTW, the location of the turtle would be shared with following cars.

Will they dodge, tire shredding potholes in Detroit? The radar will see the potholes. Whether they are dodged will depend on traffic conditions.

When it's snowing will they know to speed up before the hill in order to have enough speed to carry itself over the crest before spinning to a stop. Or as soon as it detects moisture and temps of 32 and below will it just pull into the nearest parking lot and shut down to hibernate? I see no reason the algorithm could not account for the highway coefficient of friction. And unlike with human drivers, it would not attempt a maneuver it already knows is impossible to complete.

Will a squirrel crossing the road in front of them send their computer into a psychotic conniption fit? I would expect the erratic movement of the obstruction to identify it as a squirrel and the computer would do as I do: Ignore it and drive on.

Will they pause for panhandlers at intersections approaching the door or drive off? As the occupants will likely be looking at their devices rather than outside, the panhandling trade will die from lack of income.

Can they be programmed to park out in the far areas of the parking lot at Walmart to avoid all the housewife and kids banging up your doors and running shopping carts into your pride and joy? I’m sure it could if that’s what you told it to do.

Inquiring minds would like to know. Imaginative minds like to answer.

Just had a thought - I should have Googled these questions. No need. I got it.

You have more faith in technology than I do.

[Bernica]

Isn't there a country song called "Jesus take the wheel"?

[CompClassics]

Unfortunately we are on our way to the driverless pod, most manufacturers today don't offer manual transmissions. If anyone here is near a new free way that is being built or an existing freeway that is going through major modifications one of the things that is being incorporated in the structure are tubular objects (about a foot long) that are used in guiding "self driving" cars and keeping them on course, we are already witnessing cars that correct drivers inputs or lack of.

[Tommy]

Originally Posted by DanEC

You have more faith in technology than I do.

Don't mistake my prediction of the future with a desire to see it done, nor a prediction that it will come about without serious growing pains. My point was that none of the problems you mentioned in jest were beyond solving with today's technology plus a lot of money and political will. ... In my experience, people want better transportation and lower taxes. One way for politicians to have both (and keep their jobs) is to require car makers to find ways to stuff more and more cars on existing roadways. Networked self driving cars seem the obvious solution.

P.S.
Somewhere around 1954, the Weekly Reader for my elementary school class included an article about self driving cars. It anticipated that the government would bury electrical cable in center of each lane of the Interstate system that would send a signal to a system on the car to keep it in its lane. That plus an early cruise control would allow the driver to relax more and be responsible only for braking and occasional passing. Of course the Interstate highways were not nearly as crowded back then.

[Dimis]

Originally Posted by Tommy

Don't mistake my prediction of the future with a desire to see it done, nor a prediction that it will come about without serious growing pains. My point was that none of the problems you mentioned in jest were beyond solving with today's technology plus a lot of money and political will. ... In my experience, people want better transportation and lower taxes. One way for politicians to have both (and keep their jobs) is to require car makers to find ways to stuff more and more cars on existing roadways. Networked self driving cars seem the obvious solution.

Very plausible thoughts.... But if so, I'd suggest they put more time into public transport first. It would be a much simpler starting point. Light rail is yet to be automoted and they have their own tracks to keep to.

[DanEC]

I'll have to fall back on my original post and that personal injury lawyers will probably kill the whole thing. The first one hit and resulting in an injury will result in a class action lawsuit claiming the manufacturer failed to include measures in the programs that should have avoided the accident. Insurance companies and manufacturers will get the heebie jeebies over all the bad publicity and possibility of billion dollar judgements and can the technology. But in the meantime I guess we will see.

[Tommy]

Originally Posted by Dimis

Very plausible thoughts.... But if so, I'd suggest they put more time into public transport first. It would be a much simpler starting point. Light rail is yet to be automoted and they have their own tracks to keep to.

I'm far from expert on rail, but my understanding is that the most heavily used rail system in the USA, Amtrack, is heavily subsidized by the government because its passengers don't want to pay the actual cost of riding on it. That means someone else has to be taxed to make it a feasible mass transit system for those that use it. Most of our politicians are not keen on taxes, even those that many think are needed. The fact that those who pay the most taxes are among those who least use mass transit is one reason mass transit it a challenge for many communities.

[Dangerous Doug]

Think of the reams of data Google will be able to collect with hundreds of thousands, if not millions of these SDC's running around. GPS data on movement, flow, and video everywhere these things go.

This data will be harvested and the results (if not the data itself) sold just as they currently do in their current business model.

As paranoid as this must sound, there has to be a monetary motive for spending all this cash on SDC development---and the money is in the data, and selling it.

DD

[Tommy]

Originally Posted by Dangerous Doug

.....As paranoid as this must sound,....
DD

Combining the theme of predicting the future with paranoia, let me add this observation to the mix. ... I recently noticed a city police car with a strange array of cameras on the rear deck. I realized it was one of those tag reading systems that relays pictures of the car tags of every car passed to a system that records the observation and compares the tags to those of interest to the police (e.g., stolen car). It makes it easier for police to spot and respond to tags of interest. ..... But that's not all.

Because the system records the tag number of EVERY car passed, it can also be used to retrieve a history of any tag of interest. For example, if a particular tag was used in a robbery, they could find out when and where the car with that tag was spotted before by the roving camera system. Again, it sounds like a good tool for police use, but that's not all.

The database of spotted tags must belong to someone. Let's presume it is the local police department. Now let's assume some enterprising business man approaches the city with an offer to buy its database. Always on the lookout for ways to increase revenues without increasing taxes, the city agrees. A few weeks later a new app appears offering customers the opportunity to see the travel history of any tag (for example, that of a suspected cheating spouse) for $49.95. If this app does not already exist, it will soon. ... But that's not all.

The same technology that allowed the police to scan tags in the first place will begin to show up along side well traveled roads. As the system reads the tag of a passing car, it identifies the likely driver, reviews their Google search history, and brings up an ad on an electronic billboard just as the car passes. I envision driving down an Interstate behind a big truck and seeing every sign advertise the nearest adult toy shop as it approaches. Then, it will swap to senior living communities as I approach. None of us will have many secrets then.

[Paul F]

A timely thread. 60 minutes has a story on this tonight.

Some points of the show:

1. Mercedes, Uber, Apple, and other car vendors all working in Silicon Valley on this.
2. Mercedes car has run 20K miles so far with no accident. A small number to be sure, but impressive.
3. During the driving demonstration on the streets and freeways of Silicon Valley, with the journalist, a few incidents happened where the car told the driver to take over.
4. Google has logged 1million miles.
5. The car understood the difference between a stopped car and a car stopping to parallel park. So it stopped behind the car space so the driver could parallel park.
6. Can't handle snow or rain.
7. Can't distinguish police hand gestures vs civilians hand waiving
8. Telsa has hands free highway driving today
9. Issues raised - Hacking - Drivers developing too much trust
10. Google built 25 fully automated cars with a max speed of 25 mph
11. Google cars have been in 9 minor accidents - Google claims they were all the other drivers fault
12. Google says it will accept all liability for its car's actions.
13. Asked when it will be available, the Google person says his goal is to have his 14 year old son own a driverless car in 4.5 years.

[Dimis]

I'm reminded of this:

Bill Gates reportedly compared the computer industry with the auto industry and stated: "If General Motors had kept up with the technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00 cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, GM issued a press release stating: "If General Motors had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be driving cars with the following characteristics:

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would have to pull over to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some reason, you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable, five times as fast and twice as easy to drive -- but would run on only five percent of the roads.
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be replaced by a single "General Protection Fault" warning light.
7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time GM introduced a new car, car buyers would have to learn to drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.


My computers has crashed twice today... thankfully my car hasn't

Originally Posted by Dangerous Doug

Think of the reams of data Google will be able to collect with hundreds of thousands, if not millions of these SDC's running around. GPS data on movement, flow, and video everywhere these things go.

This data will be harvested and the results (if not the data itself) sold just as they currently do in their current business model.

As paranoid as this must sound, there has to be a monetary motive for spending all this cash on SDC development---and the money is in the data, and selling it.

DD

Pretty sure they've already got this covered with mobile phones.

[Paul F]

The book 1984 scared a lot of people. But in a city, you are probably being recorded by a security camera most of the time you are in a commercial district. People in general, are not concerned. People completely expose their lives on facebook and are comfortable with it. So these things that were a concern for us in the past become pase' when they are actually implemented.

Fear of the unknown is common. But the youth does not have these fears. They easily adapt to the emerging technologies. The old people stagnate. So we'll drive our old manual car. The young people will leave us behind.

And be sure not to fly. The 28,000 flights flown in the US every day have no physical connection between the stick and the controls. It's all computers. Not only that, the pilot and first officer are largely along for the ride like you.