Driverless cars in the UK

Driverless cars in the UK

Author
Discussion

CTrickle

300 posts

179 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
quotequote all
TTmonkey said:
CTrickle said:
This could be excellent. Can I drive to the pub in one. Drink freely then get it to drive me home?

WIN WIN!
The current law says no. You will still be in charge of a motor vehicle, therefore the police will be able to stop the car and force you to do a breath test, which you will fail, and then you will be banned. You wont be allowed to use your driverless car, as to use one you will still need a full valid drivers license.

Those that beleive this is a free taxi ride home for piss heads from the pub are rather silly.
It was really meant as a joke, but it would be good for Pubs and the roads.

Engineerino

281 posts

165 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
quotequote all
I'd be interested to see how these work somewhere like oxford circus.

I'm guessing these things won't be programmed to show aggressive nature / honk and edge forwards in heavy pedestrian traffic, I'm kind of envisioning the cars to just sit there and never move again until the shoppers go home biggrin

Mr Will

13,719 posts

206 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
quotequote all
TTmonkey said:
Those that beleive this is a free taxi ride home for piss heads from the pub are rather silly.
The "market leader" for driverless cars is Google. Google owns Uber (the Taxi service). How long before Uber uses driverless cars?

Yes, to begin with you'll need to be alert and in control. 50 years from now you won't need to be. Precisely when the law will change I don't know, but it will one day.

Rawwr

22,722 posts

234 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
quotequote all
I bet the M25 would flow a lot more freely.

Paul O

2,716 posts

183 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
quotequote all
Have to admit, its an interesting development, but also one I'd approach with huge caution.

Whilst ever there are manually driven lorrys on the motorways, I'll stick with something that lets me get the hell out of the way if they aren't paying attention.

For this to really work safely, it needs to be an all-or-nothing scinareo. I don't think we've managed driverless trains yet, and they just move up and down on rails... cars, far too complex at this stage.

How about we improve rail/tram tech for commuters and leave the cars as a thing that people who enjoy them want to use.

Mr Will

13,719 posts

206 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
quotequote all
Paul O said:
...I don't think we've managed driverless trains yet...


y2blade

56,089 posts

215 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
quotequote all
Rawwr said:
I bet the M25 would flow a lot more freely.
It'd sort all the motorways out.




AnotherClarkey

3,593 posts

189 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
quotequote all
Mr Will said:
Nearly 30 years ago too.

TTmonkey

20,911 posts

247 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
quotequote all
Paul O said:
Have to admit, its an interesting development, but also one I'd approach with huge caution.

Whilst ever there are manually driven lorrys on the motorways, I'll stick with something that lets me get the hell out of the way if they aren't paying attention.

For this to really work safely, it needs to be an all-or-nothing scinareo. I don't think we've managed driverless trains yet, and they just move up and down on rails... cars, far too complex at this stage.

How about we improve rail/tram tech for commuters and leave the cars as a thing that people who enjoy them want to use.
I think the driverless trains thing has mor to do with the strength of the train drivers Unions than with technology issues.


RIP Bob.

AA999

5,180 posts

217 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
quotequote all
Well, it seems modern day legislation/law changes are more often than not aimed to pander down to the lowest common denominators of society.
As society becomes dumber and dumber then law changes to force everyone out of their responsibilities becomes more the norm.


Dog Star

16,117 posts

168 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
quotequote all
I'd love to see them roll this out on the streets of Oldham/Bradford/Burnley/Birmingham/Leicester/Slough and other similar hotbeds of insurance fraud. They'll be dancing in the streets!

Negative Creep

24,962 posts

227 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
quotequote all
y2blade said:
Hoofy said:
Can't wait. Obviously, pointless for a trackday but my regular dull commutes, I'd rather do something more interesting.
+1 I've said it for years, I'd love to be able to push a button and let the car do some of the driving for me.


bring it on
But again, it's only the first step to banning human controlled cars from the roads completely, and if they do that there is no way they'll allow motorbikes on a public road either

Riley Blue

20,940 posts

226 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
quotequote all
Hoofy said:
Can't wait. Obviously, pointless for a trackday but my regular dull commutes, I'd rather do something more interesting.
Isn't that supposedly one of the advantages of public transport?

deltaevo16

755 posts

171 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
quotequote all
This will not work in large numbers, I see it as a bit of a gimmick really. Are you really going to throw driverless and non driverless cars into the same mix? As someone else posted it has to be all or nothing.

Really cannot see how the major car makers are going to handle this, as everything becomes dumbed down to a box on 4 wheels, with some electronics thrown in. I just cannot see how this will work on a grand scale. Who will manage the data? what will it cost to use this data?. Yes google have tested cars over thousands of miles, they have not tested thousands/millions of cars doing complex journeys. What happens if the network/satellite goes down. If I run out of fuel or get a puncture I can sort it out myself fairly easily. Too many questions not answered.

In the main I believe this to be more about control of people, I trust Google about as much as the labour party.

Mr Will

13,719 posts

206 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
quotequote all
Riley Blue said:
Hoofy said:
Can't wait. Obviously, pointless for a trackday but my regular dull commutes, I'd rather do something more interesting.
Isn't that supposedly one of the advantages of public transport?
Yes. But public transport has disadvantages as well (getting you from where you aren't to somewhere you don't want be, having to share with the public, restrictive schedules, etc). This combines the best of both worlds.

BGarside

1,564 posts

137 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
quotequote all
I can see this working if all vehicles were using the same system, so that the movements of other vehicles were predictable, but I'm not so sure it would work with a mixture of automated and human-controlled vehicles, as the software would need to be capable of responding to individually-unpredictable patterns of behaviour.

I also cannot see it being introduced compulsarily, as this would be politically a vote-loser, and so it would have to be adopted voluntarily, e.g: by business people wanting to work on the move or arrive at meetings less fatigues, etc. I guess companies might also want to adopt it for their fleets for insurance and/or health and safety reasons.

Under those circumstances, it's most likely a mix of automated and human-controlled vehicles would exist on the roads and so I'm not sure if the technology would be able to handle that.

It would certainly be a great leap of faith to get in a self-driving car, though I'd welcome it for long boring trips and also as a cyclist I'd have more confidence that automated cars would not hit me....

Hoofy

76,321 posts

282 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
quotequote all
Riley Blue said:
Hoofy said:
Can't wait. Obviously, pointless for a trackday but my regular dull commutes, I'd rather do something more interesting.
Isn't that supposedly one of the advantages of public transport?
It is if there's a door-to-door service that carries all your kit around. Like a driverless car.

Hoofy

76,321 posts

282 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
quotequote all
Negative Creep said:
y2blade said:
Hoofy said:
Can't wait. Obviously, pointless for a trackday but my regular dull commutes, I'd rather do something more interesting.
+1 I've said it for years, I'd love to be able to push a button and let the car do some of the driving for me.


bring it on
But again, it's only the first step to banning human controlled cars from the roads completely, and if they do that there is no way they'll allow motorbikes on a public road either
Sure they will. My newly-formed company will produce riderless bikes. Are you not listening?

toerag

748 posts

132 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
quotequote all
Hoofy said:
I have a business idea... RIDERLESS MOTORBIKES! Gonna patent it before Google think of it.

silly
Riderless bicycles programed to be unable to over/undertake *anything*, that's where my money's going wink

MC Bodge

21,614 posts

175 months

Wednesday 30th July 2014
quotequote all
Negative Creep said:
But again, it's only the first step to banning human controlled cars from the roads completely, and if they do that there is no way they'll allow motorbikes on a public road either
I suspect that may be the end-point, although we may take a few decades to reach it.

Most people won't care at all so it wouldn't be resisted very strongly.