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Study: Self-Driving Vehicles Could Eliminate 90% Of Car Accidents In United States
Consumerist ^ | march 5, 2015

Posted on 03/07/2015 3:05:54 AM PST by SMGFan

Although we’re likely a decade or two away from every person on the block owning a driverless car, when the time comes we could be saving billions of dollars and spending far less time dealing with auto accidents.

The Wall Street Journal reports that a new study found that widespread use of self-driving cars could eliminate 90% of all auto accidents in the U.S. and decrease the costs related to accident damage and health issues by around $190 billion each year.

(Excerpt) Read more at consumerist.com ...


TOPICS: Society; Travel
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To: Alberta's Child

If something as simple as a microphone — that has been in use for decades — has a failure rate of 40% right here in this room, does anyone here trust that a “self-driving car” will ever work?”


Yes. A car is not a microphone.

When I think of stuff like this, I think of remote control.

Back in the 1960’s, a tv had a barrel tuner. Most remote controls consisted of a hand held “tuning fork” and sound activated controller for a motor to drive the tuner. Although technology was getting better and better, the people then had no idea what infra-red remote control and electronic tuners would do to the whole concept.

When it comes to self driving cars, we are at the “hey, some guy said he can make an electronic tuner” phase.

It’s coming, and the speed at which it comes will shock the hell out of the average person.


61 posted on 03/07/2015 6:28:21 AM PST by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: pa_dweller

I think that a “critical mass” point will come with telecommuting.

I think our whole culture is about to be upended on so many levels. If I were not a Christain it would scare me to death.


62 posted on 03/07/2015 6:29:26 AM PST by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: cuban leaf
When it comes to self driving cars, we are at the “hey, some guy said he can make an electronic tuner” phase. It’s coming, and the speed at which it comes will shock the hell out of the average person.

I don't know what "speed" you're referring to when you describe the development of the self-driving vehicle. As I said in my post, I rode in one of these things almost 25 years ago -- and I'm still waiting to see one of these in a car dealership. LOL.

63 posted on 03/07/2015 6:34:53 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("It doesn't work for me. I gotta have more cowbell!")
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To: SMGFan

So who will be responsible for the accidents that do occur? Blame the programmer!


64 posted on 03/07/2015 6:36:26 AM PST by ImJustAnotherOkie
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To: GreenAccord
The tipping point will simply be the moment accident rates for self-driven cars fall below the current accident rates. They do not have to be infallible, just less fallible. And then, insurance rates for non-*smart* cars will begin to rise until there’s a financial reason to switch.

Oddly enough, insurability might actually be a fatal flaw in self-driven cars. If something malfunctions and my "self-driving car" gets involved in a crash that causes a serious injury to another motorist or a pedestrian, then who is liable for the damages?

Since a self-driving car is so reliant on interactions between a car and other technology outside the car that are out of the control of the car's owner, I can see us getting to the point where insurance companies will refuse to insure them!

65 posted on 03/07/2015 6:38:19 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("It doesn't work for me. I gotta have more cowbell!")
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To: NorthstarMom

It’s crazy. The first time someone told me to hold the handrail, I laughed in their face...I thought it was a joke.


66 posted on 03/07/2015 6:38:48 AM PST by EEGator
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To: Alberta's Child

I still have on VHS a PBS special on a self driving car made in the early 1990’s. The car would go a foot or two, spend many minutes analyzing data, turn the wheels slightly, go another foot or two, spend many minutes analyzing data, etc.

It took quite a while for it to go a painfully short distance. We are at 20 years later. A lot has changed. And the next five will bring at least as much change as the last 20 did. We are on the cusp of so many technological advances that will hit people in their day-to-day lives that the mind boggles.

Self driving cars is just one of them. The funny thing is that we tend to view the future from the eyes of the past. The advent of self driving cars may come at a time when cars themselves are nowhere near the part of our culture that they are now. E.g. “virtual reality telecommuting”.


67 posted on 03/07/2015 6:41:34 AM PST by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: Alberta's Child

Here is current reality.
https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=self+driving+car+research


68 posted on 03/07/2015 6:43:18 AM PST by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: Alberta's Child

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ol3g7i64RAI

Self driving at 149 mph. Humans don’t stand a chance.


69 posted on 03/07/2015 6:45:08 AM PST by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: 9thLife

One of my favorites...:)

I love the scene where he and the other guy on the side of the wall are fighting for the "desk" they share through the wall...

And the piece of paperwork they can't figure out how to get rid of it.

70 posted on 03/07/2015 6:47:00 AM PST by rlmorel ("National success by the Democratic Party equals irretrievable ruin." Ulysses S. Grant)
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To: Alberta's Child

And here is a fun glimpse of the future:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DYTV4d-Gn0s


71 posted on 03/07/2015 6:51:03 AM PST by cuban leaf (The US will not survive the obama presidency. The world may not either.)
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To: Paladin2

SWAT teams serving warrants would wither away. Your car will just deliver you to the popo station when they want you.

........................................

The point of SWAT home invasions isn’t to make arrests but to make SWAT home invasions. They do it because they love to do it. Actual reasons don’t matter and are only offered as after-the-fact rationalizations.


72 posted on 03/07/2015 6:52:26 AM PST by samtheman
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To: cuban leaf
The car I rode in was fully functional. If you didn't see the "driver" sitting at the wheel doing nothing, or turning around and engaging in conversation with the passengers while the car moved, you wouldn't know the difference between the self-driving car and a "real" car.

Almost all of the technology was in place to do this once fuel-injected engines and on-board computers became standard equipment for vehicles. The only thing unresolved at the time was how the computer would be guided. In my case, the car was driven by the road (it interacted with transmitters and transponders in road signs and other roadside elements). Today, there's a GPS component that wasn't developed at the time.

The flaws that I identified to those guys are still there even though the technology has advanced. It's not a technological flaw, so your statements about rapid technological advances doesn't really apply here. The problem is failure rate, impacts of multiple failures and failsafe actions, and these are huge obstacles because a system of self-driving cars has very little room for failures.

A self-driving car is more technologically advanced that NASA's space shuttles, and those shuttles had catastrophic failure rates of 40% (measured by the number of vehicles) and 1.5% (measured by the number of flights), respectively.

I find it kind of silly to see a nation that can't even operate trains on time -- in a completely controlled environment, from a transportation operations standpoint -- so fixated on the idea that self-driving automobiles are anything close to feasible.

The advent of self driving cars may come at a time when cars themselves are nowhere near the part of our culture that they are now.

In other words, self-driving cars may come at a time when the need for them is diminished, and the cost of them is higher than a standard automobile. What kind of auto manufacturer is going to devote enormous resources to develop and perfect this sort of thing?

73 posted on 03/07/2015 6:55:46 AM PST by Alberta's Child ("It doesn't work for me. I gotta have more cowbell!")
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To: SMGFan

Very little actually. Driving is just another repetitive task human have a habit of doing poorly that WILL be automated.


74 posted on 03/07/2015 6:58:28 AM PST by discostu (The albatross begins with its vengeance A terrible curse a thirst has begun)
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To: cripplecreek

Out of price for now. Just like person driven cars were. 4 years after the first mass market self driving car hit the first used self driving car will be sold and poor people will no longer be priced out of the market.


75 posted on 03/07/2015 7:01:14 AM PST by discostu (The albatross begins with its vengeance A terrible curse a thirst has begun)
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To: GreenAccord

I guess only the well to do Freepers will be driving. Normal people will have to live in city utopias because throw away high tech cars are WAY TO EXPENSIVE.


76 posted on 03/07/2015 7:05:11 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: central_va

Multiple car makers are predicting they’ll be shipping self driving cars by 2020. This isn’t 50 years, and it isn’t a few applications. Driving is joining manufacturing as something that will no longer be done by people.

The metro rail in DC has a driver because they have a union.


77 posted on 03/07/2015 7:05:48 AM PST by discostu (The albatross begins with its vengeance A terrible curse a thirst has begun)
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To: discostu

Yeah Willie Green tried to sell the same BS about trains to FReepers too.


78 posted on 03/07/2015 7:10:40 AM PST by cripplecreek ("For by wise guidance you can wage your war")
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To: cuban leaf

Although I am of the opinion that the self driving car is mental masturbation, I admit it would be cool to text the local Food Lion my order send my car to the supmarket parking lot have it loaded with my groceries and drive itself home. And beep when it arrives.


79 posted on 03/07/2015 7:10:43 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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To: discostu

As soon as one of these self drivers runs over a little kid that is the day it would end. Heck you could be in the back asleep and when you get he the victim could be stuck in your grill. Pleasant dreams.


80 posted on 03/07/2015 7:12:56 AM PST by central_va (I won't be reconstructed and I do not give a damn.)
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