RE: Google's car is go...

[Dammit]

145,571 recorded injuries on the road in 2012, of which 1,754 were fatalities - I wonder what those figures would be in (say) 2020 when the human element has been removed from motorised transport?

[inman999]

Initially I was sceptical of self driving cars but in reality I can think of a lot of things I'd rather be doing while commuting 230 miles each way Monday to Friday.

The car didn't kill the horse, self driving cars won't kill the sports/classic car.

[andyps]

Vaud said:

I'd buy one... Providing that:

The core code for safety critical systems was either open source or subject to very tight peer review to acknowledged experts in the field.
They carried extensive recording tools - so that cars driven by humans could not "crash and claim it was the Google car" - or at least reduce the risk of the blame...
Gordon Murray is hired to design one.. sounds like his brief for design.

Then I'd buy one as a second car/town car/etc. Sounds fun for bumper to bumper crawling. Sit back, listen to some music, read the paper. Worst case is a low speed shunt.

Save the fun car for weekends.

This car actually concerns me most in the respect that it could make the T25 redundant before it is even available, certainly as a city car to be worth driving. Hopefully though, it is a perfect candidate for the iStream technology he has developed.

[Terminator X]

They will never convince me. Thin end of the fookin wedge for sure

TX.

[Terminator X]

inman999 said:

The car didn't kill the horse, self driving cars won't kill the sports/classic car.

How often do you ride a horse?

TX.

[joema]

Herman Toothrot said:

Jimmm said:

I like the idea TBH my own private bus.

It's only use would be getting back from the pub when pissed.

Awesome. No more taxis! Can go out at night and not worry about last train home. Go to cities far away and sleep on the way home

[Terminator X]

lamboman100 said:

The next 5 to 30 years will see an unprecedented transport revolution. Cars replaced horses in the 20th century. Computers will replace humans in the car-driver seat in the 21st century.

What could possibly go wrong?!



TX.

[Ed.]

CraigyMc said:

Ed. said:

Max_Torque said:

MonkeyMatt said:

In theory this would only work properly if all the cars on the road where driverless. The vast majority of the general public can't or won't drive properly and would just end up driving into or cutting these up!

This is an interesting point, since the autonomous program must ALWAYS act in the safest fashion, you should be able to cut these things up with impunity! ;-)

Hard to see them making comfortable progress in a busy city with pedestrians, cyclists, motorbikes all weaving through traffic. While thankfully rare, those who find it funny almost step out in front of traffic to make people slam on the brakes will have a field day with these.

They can already drive in busy cities, and the technology is much better than you seem to understand.
Here's a video showing the systems understanding of the world (clue: it has better situational awareness than humans do already, because it sees a 360 degree field of view all the time).

This is 3 years old but gives an idea of where they were back then: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eXeUu_Y6WOw

Thank you for the old video I have seen it before and it is interesting, I am not disputing that these vehicles can have better situational awareness than people.
If you had understood MaxTorque's point about these vehicles acting in the 'safest fashion' to mean they will be extra cautious as I did you may understand how I think repeatedly stopping for all the people who don't look or intentionally make it stop will not be very comfortable for the occupants.

[Ed.]

Dammit said:

145,571 recorded injuries on the road in 2012, of which 1,754 were fatalities - I wonder what those figures would be in (say) 2020 when the human element has been removed from motorised transport?

But that's the thing, there would be far less injures if you replace irrational bad tempered people with patient attentive machines but when the first person gets injured let alone die with google at the wheel the liability will be huge unless they can blame it on a hacker.

[Kawasicki]

Dammit said:

145,571 recorded injuries on the road in 2012, of which 1,754 were fatalities - I wonder what those figures would be in (say) 2020 when the human element has been removed from motorised transport?

Say 2040, maybe.

I've worked in driver assistance technology, I think there may be a little overconfidence on the imminent arrival of self driving cars. Human visual processing is pretty impressive, though it does involve looking out of the windows, which many drivers seem to struggle with. Should be an interesting few decades, that's for sure.

[Ed.]

CraigyMc said:

lamboman100 said:

Soupie69uk said:

The end of taxi drivers?

For most people this would be amazing. As someone said you could just get dropped off and the car can go park miles away then pick you up later.

Sometimes when in stop start traffic it would be better to just flick into auto pilot and you can check emails or read the paper.

Yes, the end of taxi and limo drivers.

The end of van and truck drivers.

The end of bus and coach drivers.

The end of plane and copter pilots.

If you work in those industries and are aged under 50yo, then you need to be thinking of a new career elsewhere.

The next 5 to 30 years will see an unprecedented transport revolution. Cars replaced horses in the 20th century. Computers will replace humans in the car-driver seat in the 21st century.

Planes already fly themselves and can do so in worse conditions than humans (in fact, in fog, only the computer can do it - Cat III landings). Humans pretty much supervise. In a cruise condition, you'd probably be surprised how much time the crew spend asleep.

Whether that continues to be a requirement or not isn't a question of technology. In London, the DLR doesn't need a driver at all and yet it always has TFL staff on board, some of whom like "driving". The Jubilee line has the same signalling and can run automatically but it's never run like that.

I'm yet to come across a helicopter autopilot but I'm sure there is one (or there will be in my lifetime)

Some Helicopters have very good Autopilots as do some planes, AF447 had multiple autopilots.

[Dammit]

Yep, as has been said- actually driving a car will become a hobby, a fringe activity.

And that's a good thing, given how terrible most people are at it.

[Vaud]

andyps said:

This car actually concerns me most in the respect that it could make the T25 redundant before it is even available, certainly as a city car to be worth driving. Hopefully though, it is a perfect candidate for the iStream technology he has developed.

Given the Google car is probably 10 years away, I think it leaves the T25 well placed in the medium term.

[Dave Hedgehog]

lamboman100 said:

Yes, the end of taxi and limo drivers.

The end of van and truck drivers.

The end of bus and coach drivers.

The end of plane and copter pilots.

If you work in those industries and are aged under 50yo, then you need to be thinking of a new career elsewhere.

The next 5 to 30 years will see an unprecedented transport revolution. Cars replaced horses in the 20th century. Computers will replace humans in the car-driver seat in the 21st century.

thats an excellent point, there are large number of professional drives, i bet stobbart will replace their drivers the second they can

[Vaud]

Dave Hedgehog said:

thats an excellent point, there are large number of professional drives, i bet stobbart will replace their drivers the second they can

Taxis first.

[cianha]

So the only way to win is not to play at all?

You're assuming these cars use artificial intelligence, when they're just scanning and repsonding to the outside world. The Google car is no more intelligent than a Garmin.

Terminator X said:

TX.

[Low Pro]

but whats wrong with a taxi? I wonder if you can program Drift Mode

[andyps]

Vaud said:

Given the Google car is probably 10 years away, I think it leaves the T25 well placed in the medium term.

I doubt Google will work on such a long time scale, think of what they have done so far in the few years they have been going.

[Vaud]

andyps said:

I doubt Google will work on such a long time scale, think of what they have done so far in the few years they have been going.

Yes, but you need willing, flexible cities as well.

I think the US will be first, then somewhere like Tokyo. The UK will be laggards.

[anonymous-user]

KimJongHealthy said:

Ed. said:

Hard to see them making comfortable progress in a busy city with pedestrians, cyclists, motorbikes all weaving through traffic. While thankfully rare, those who find it funny almost step out in front of traffic to make people slam on the brakes will have a field day with these.

You couldn't be more wrong..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BrmorE5W1tM

It tracks all objects on and close to the road (cars, cyclists, pedestrians, dogs, you name it) and predicts all possible scenarios for each, always choosing safest option. So getting close to the junction for example, it assumes that every pedestrian might decide to cross the road and slows down, or car turn suddenly without indicating. When it detects a cyclist and car parked ahead of him, it also slows down assuming cyclist will need more space to avoid parked car.

It's driven by algorithms more complex than any of us could imagine. And will never rear-end someone just because it was checking out hot girl in yoga pants on the pavement.

http://www.ted.com/talks/sebastian_thrun_google_s_...

Yes, indeed, but precisely those control laws will make the google car always get cut up! It cannot be programmed (see note) to say "f**k you" to the idiot who doesn't look right at a mini roundabout and proceed anyway, relying on that idiot to stop/swerve at the last moment, unlike 1000's of human drivers who do that everyday!!

• ** Of course, you CAN program the car to do just that, but legally, and ethically, i can't see that happening