Self Drive Cars

[speckytecky]

Who would have thought that a company that started out as a humble search engine would develop into such a major player so quickly making such a huge difference:

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-27587558

 

Well done Google maybe one day we will have multi layer transport systems all with self driving vehicles and even better still maybe Google will have worked out a prevention / cure for that other frightening scourge that sadly like road collisions touches so many lives - cancer.

Edited May 28, 2014 by speckytecky

[Arthur]

I think I'll wait for the GTI edition.

 

 

I bet Google's car will be very popular with OAPs though.

 

Edited May 28, 2014 by Arthur

[Arthur]

BMWs self-driving (and drifting) M235i is very cool too.

 

[Davit2005]

The more need we take from humans to think for them selves the less humans will need ability to think for themselves.

[unixman_again]

My mother needs one. It really is about time the police took her licence away; she is a nightmare on the road. Very inattentive. She doesn't have any accidents but she sure sees a lot of them.

[Guest Guest]

My mother needs one. It really is about time the police took her licence away; she is a nightmare on the road. Very inattentive. She doesn't have any accidents but she sure sees a lot of them.

 

Yep, my dad is similar. Thankfully it's extremely rare he drives now after having a bump in stationary traffic! That was his choice, and that's the problem; how can you tell someone who's been driving for years that they are now past it? After a certain age or major change in health you should be made to sit a "refresher" test.

[elsiegee40]

If you have concerns about someone driving, it is best to shop them to the DVLA. They can get the person assessed. My family had to do this for my grandfather. His license was, eventually, taken away.

[pcstru]

The more need we take from humans to think for them selves the less humans will need ability to think for themselves.

Glib and ... wrong? Perhaps I just don't get what it is meant to mean.

 

In relation to the automation of tasks, we have increasingly automated more and more since the earliest recorded history. Not having to "think about" fetching water from the stream simply freed us up to think about other things, some of which were how to automate more complicated things. Taking away our need to think about something doesn't mean we will think less.

 

In relation to driving - I'm not even sure how much 'thinking' plays a part. Drivers seem to make more mistakes when they start to 'think' about what they are doing. Most people drive on a sort of automatic pilot - they actually 'think' about other things.

 

Finally it seems to me to miss an essential characteristic of humans; we could accurately be described as "thinking machines". Try for a moment not to think - to clear your mind and eliminate entirely the process of thought. It is barely even possible to consider the notion of not thinking as a possibility. Your "need" to "think" is built in in the same way as a CPU's need to change state. You can't not do it and someone inventing a new machine to perform a task, doesn't really affect it.

 

I like the idea of driver less cars. At least if one crashes into you it won't be because it thought it had a right to use a public road as a race track, be just a little drunk, or driving along the M1 at 80 swerving around the general area of the middle lane because you are sending a text message on your iPhone. Well, not unless it's the AI in Assetto Corsa.

[hawc]

I would love a Bugatti Veyron edition. From my house to school in under a minute. From here to the conference in tad over an hour.

[teejay]

If they're made by Google, you'll tell the car to go to Sainsburys and you'll end up at Tesco as they've paid Google a bigger advertising fee.

[rich_tech]

My grandad was stopped driving by his insurance company refusing to cover him with his motability car, my family breathed a huge sigh of relief as he was intent on staying on the road and would not listen or entertain giving up driving despite being 77 at the time, with poor reflexes, attention and awareness, he was politely refused a renewal because of minor accidents where he's pranged the car and not damaged anyone else thankfully, being egged on to keep driving by my grandmother unbelievably, it's been hard on them to give up that freedom though since then

 

Something like this would be good for them if it ever took off nationwide, though I do think a comment I read about it on another website, you will have probs in urban areas with people thinking its funny to jump out in front of these vehicles and slow the journey to a crawl essentially.

[abillybob]

I wouldn't like it. The one thing I like about driving is that we drive the cars we can have some fun in them, imagine that one day a Bugatti Veyron is sitting in front of you.... You want to drive it right? Well guess what you can't the car drives itself! Pfft. Boring.

 

Also on another note, what about age limits on driving surely if the car drives itself then in theory a minor could hop into it and it would drive it where that person wants to go, what about the billion pound industry that is Taxi's are we going to put them out of a job as people wouldn't need a driving license or even be sober to "drive"? How needed is insurance if the car could never crash and would keep to legal limits, public transport blah blah.

The impact on the overall economy and an already congested Britain would cause mayhem, more people will buy these things then use public transport, though I suppose it would make Google even richer than they already are. I for one am not for these cars ever becoming public.

[Davit2005]

Glib and ... wrong? Perhaps I just don't get what it is meant to mean.

 

In relation to the automation of tasks, we have increasingly automated more and more since the earliest recorded history. Not having to "think about" fetching water from the stream simply freed us up to think about other things, some of which were how to automate more complicated things. Taking away our need to think about something doesn't mean we will think less.

 

In relation to driving - I'm not even sure how much 'thinking' plays a part. Drivers seem to make more mistakes when they start to 'think' about what they are doing. Most people drive on a sort of automatic pilot - they actually 'think' about other things.

 

Finally it seems to me to miss an essential characteristic of humans; we could accurately be described as "thinking machines". Try for a moment not to think - to clear your mind and eliminate entirely the process of thought. It is barely even possible to consider the notion of not thinking as a possibility. Your "need" to "think" is built in in the same way as a CPU's need to change state. You can't not do it and someone inventing a new machine to perform a task, doesn't really affect it.

 

I like the idea of driver less cars. At least if one crashes into you it won't be because it thought it had a right to use a public road as a race track, be just a little drunk, or driving along the M1 at 80 swerving around the general area of the middle lane because you are sending a text message on your iPhone. Well, not unless it's the AI in Assetto Corsa.

 

From a safety point of view yes it may be a good idea, whether it will work in practice I guess they should try it in the center of Paris or somewhere like that if they are brave enough.

[Guest Guest]

I wouldn't like it. The one thing I like about driving is that we drive the cars we can have some fun in them, imagine that one day a Bugatti Veyron is sitting in front of you.... You want to drive it right? Well guess what you can't the car drives itself! Pfft. Boring.

 

Also on another note, what about age limits on driving surely if the car drives itself then in theory a minor could hop into it and it would drive it where that person wants to go, what about the billion pound industry that is Taxi's are we going to put them out of a job as people wouldn't need a driving license or even be sober to "drive"? How needed is insurance if the car could never crash and would keep to legal limits, public transport blah blah.

The impact on the overall economy and an already congested Britain would cause mayhem, more people will buy these things then use public transport, though I suppose it would make Google even richer than they already are. I for one am not for these cars ever becoming public.

 

Taxis - tough. It's called progress.

Insurance - good, about time that money making racket was put in its place.

Public transport - good riddance. That's what it gets for decades of underinvestment.

 

Don't really see your argument tbh. Would you really have us all living in caves and foraging for food because we don't want to put the hunter gatherers out of business by creating farms?

[Theblacksheep]

The impact on the overall economy and an already congested Britain would cause mayhem, more people will buy these things then use public transport, though I suppose it would make Google even richer than they already are. I for one am not for these cars ever becoming public.

 

They could ease congestion by being more efficient in their progress, they could talk to each other and move as one, they wont cut into a lane reduction at the last min causing more traffic jams, they wont go at 100mph or up the wrong lane of a motorway and they might be able to actually park correctly unlike 90% of the people that live in my road.

 

Public transport sucks balls, the old victorian bridges restrict train height and width of trains and no one wants new HS lines. Buses only go to limited places at limited time. Taxis are too expensive.

 

I prefer to see this as this the future of public transport or like the PAYG bikes in cities rather than a straight car replacement.

[Arthur]

Europe demands driverless cars be driveable « Ars Technica

 

"The legislation is just not in place for us to be able to put these vehicles on the market," explains a BMW spokesperson.

 

Essentially, EU law has not yet worked out applicable assumptions and rules that would apply to the kind of intermittently autonomous vehicles currently available, never mind the sort of design just shown off by Google—which lacks a steering wheel.

 

The UN Convention on Road Traffic was until very recently considered a major stumbling block to European progress in this area. Based on a 1968 agreement, the original ruling demanded that a driver be in control of his or her vehicle "at all times." Now that's been changed to allow for autonomous systems but the law still stipulates that the human driver be able to retake control at any moment. Cars without steering wheels aren't coming to the EU any time soon.

[laserblazer]

If they're made by Google, you'll tell the car to go to Sainsburys and you'll end up at Tesco as they've paid Google a bigger advertising fee.

 

You listen to Radio 4 as well

[psydii]

You listen to Radio 4 as well

 

Sometimes satire isn't funny because you know it's horrifically true.

 

On the topic of progress I really recommend this horizon special from the late 70's. Quite thought provoking.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p01z4rrj/horizon-19771978-now-the-chips-are-down

[teejay]

You listen to Radio 4 as well

 

Eh, confused.com moment, I'm being a bit thick obviously ;-)

[laserblazer]

Eh, confused.com moment, I'm being a bit thick obviously ;-)

 

The same joke was told on The Now Show on Friday.

[Norphy]

The same joke was told on The Now Show on Friday.

@teejay made the joke on Wednesday

[teejay]

@teejay made the joke on Wednesday

 

The barstewards stole my joke! *phone lawyer*