autonomous modules/ not owning a vehicle in the future

I was just at a conference where a senior VP with IIHS spoke about autonomous car. While there are some luxury cars out there now with active cruise which drive for you on a straight highway, they all have issues. All of the cars require a lot of attention from the driver as going over a hill or around a curve can make the cars lose sight of the lane and they start alerting you to takeover.

This wouldn't be so bad except some of the cars actually start veering left or going back and forth searching for the lane. We saw a lot of video where the cars almost hit guard rails while searching for the lane before the driver took over.

He has also ridden in the Google cars. Now matter how good they say the statistics are, it basically has 3 drivers: the car, the driver at the wheel and the co-pilot in the passenger seat giving it commands by computer.

His assessment was it would be several decades before completely autonomous vehicles were viable. And this was not a person opposed to them. He only looks at them in dollars paid out by insurance and likes all the automated safety features.
 
I've had enough times driving that *I* could hardly discern a lane -- fortify project on 40 is a good example -- much less a computer trying to do it.
 
drkelly said:
Self-driving shuttle crashes in Las Vegas hours after launch
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"can hit a top speed of just 25 mph, but is only expected to ride around at about 15 mph." Was this on i485 in Charlotte at rush hour?

shawn said:
They've actually simulated that. The human drivers quickly learn that they can cut off robots, etc, and the robots always yield, which fucks up traffic for everybody.
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Unfortunately this is how traffic works currently anyway. When Dontrell cuts around everybody merging by rolling down the should for 200 more yards, somebody yields when he starts to move over because they don't want to be hit. Then Dontrell goes home and writes a facebook article about "zipper merging".
 
I’m all about being able too get from points A to Z on any given weekend night if I can kick back drink beer and roll on that’s a plus. On the other hand working during the day I would want full control of my vehicle.
 
Until a robot can clean my house, feed and care for all our animals and cook me dinner... Not really concerned about losing my driving privileges! Back roads are made for a reason!
 
C.Berry said:
Until a robot can clean my house, feed and care for all our animals and cook me dinner... Not really concerned about losing my driving privileges! Back roads are made for a reason!
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Holy shit, get with the times...We've had them since the 80s.

rockyrobot.jpg


:Edit: and demolition man is based in 2032--totally on track with that timeline...
 
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Hell no! then it'll be happy wife&robot, happy life and I'll just be living in all my damn vehicles I can't drive anymore...
 
Futbalfantic said:
What about towing or hauling heavy loads? Not OTR I think that will be the first thing to become driverless. What's the future of that?
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At work we are collaborating with group in the Netherlands government who are working on exactly this - autonomous systems for convoys of "lories" (hauling trucks) to follow along in a train. A leader (human driven) followed by a bunch of close automated followers. They expect it to be a thing in European countries in 5 years.
 
I was thinking more along the lines of, "I need a door/mulch" or "let's take the boat out this weekend"
 
Futbalfantic said:
I was thinking more along the lines of, "I need a door/mulch" or "let's take the boat out this weekend"
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And the answer is - that stuff would be delivered to you, not you going and getting it, so you need your own vehicle..
 
Ron said:
horses weren't represented by multi billion dollar companies.
Auto makers have strong lobbyists.
Insurance companies have stronger lobbyists.

I think you will see autonomous vehicle lanes/paths/services in select markets in 20 years.
I think we are more than 100 yeas away from autonomous vehicle service reaching ym neighborhood
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From an Insurance standpoint... Insurance companies would just charge companies running the vehicles a premium. Even more so than they would a personal auto. Transfering that cost to the sucker in the back seat (you or I) Its already happening for uber drivers
 
RatLabGuy said:
At work we are collaborating with group in the Netherlands government who are working on exactly this - autonomous systems for convoys of "lories" (hauling trucks) to follow along in a train. A leader (human driven) followed by a bunch of close automated followers. They expect it to be a thing in European countries in 5 years.
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What happens when the rig in the middle blows a tire, or breaks down?
 
LBarr2002 said:
What happens when the rig in the middle blows a tire, or breaks down?
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It tells all the others to stop.
All the vehicles are constantly in communication w/ one another. WiFi, Sat, etc. They operate as a whole, so that when the lead one brakes, the others know it and brake accordingly. Same w/ steering etc.
vehicle "swarming" has been a thing for awhile, the DoD has been working on this for drones and using them this way a long time.

This is sort of a hybrid baby-step into full autonomous driving. It's not really autonomous, in that the following vehicles are communicating with other vehicles which are human controlled. So there is much less "prediction" based on unknown things, as much as rapid communication and adaptation to changes.
IMO it's a good segue into it.
 
RatLabGuy said:
It's not really autonomous, in that the following vehicles are communicating with other vehicles which are human controlled
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To me...this is the weak link (in a multiple's scenario....where the effect is much greater than individual controls)

WHO do you put in control, and how MUCH control do you give them?

Example (somewhat political, but it illustrates the severity of the concern best) : Some folks wanted to give Obama ultimate control while he was in office as president. That works great if they were FOR Obama....but now that Trump's in office those same folks are shitting bricks.
 
CasterTroy said:
To me...this is the weak link (in a multiple's scenario....where the effect is much greater than individual controls)

WHO do you put in control, and how MUCH control do you give them?

Example (somewhat political, but it illustrates the severity of the concern best) : Some folks wanted to give Obama ultimate control while he was in office as president. That works great if they were FOR Obama....but now that Trump's in office those same folks are shitting bricks.
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I'm not sure how that's a useful metaphor for semi-autonomous vehicles.
 
RatLabGuy said:
It tells all the others to stop.
All the vehicles are constantly in communication w/ one another. WiFi, Sat, etc. They operate as a whole, so that when the lead one brakes, the others know it and brake accordingly. Same w/ steering etc.
vehicle "swarming" has been a thing for awhile, the DoD has been working on this for drones and using them this way a long time.

This is sort of a hybrid baby-step into full autonomous driving. It's not really autonomous, in that the following vehicles are communicating with other vehicles which are human controlled. So there is much less "prediction" based on unknown things, as much as rapid communication and adaptation to changes.
IMO it's a good segue into it.
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That's what I was assuming. When one breaks you get a traffic jam. If the faulty vehicle could pull to the shoulder (and wait for human assistance) while the one behind it picks up communication with the truck that was in front of the faulty one, that would be a huge step.
 
I think hauling is where the benefit of autonomy would be successful. But currently many long line trains aren't even autonomous, as that's much simpler to control vs vehicles. There are far more controls on them, but many still have human control.
 
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