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Self-driving vehicles.... dangerous?
freerepublic.com ^ | 03/20/2018 | self

Posted on 03/20/2018 6:32:48 AM PDT by a little elbow grease

Now that an Arizona woman was killed after being struck by a self-driving Uber vehicle many questions come to mind not that they shouldn’t.

We live in Pittsburgh, lots of hills, and lots of snow and ice.

There are times when we have difficulty controlling a car in those conditions (our weather forecast is for 6 inches of snow later today and tonight).

A couple months ago my wife, after driving to and from work in terrible road conditions, wondered how a self-driving car would handle it. What do you think of these self-driving cars navigating snow and ice?


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; News/Current Events; Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: belongsinchat; cars; chat; selfdriving; uber; vanity
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To: CodeToad
The vehicle software can only decide what it’s sensors detect. As a sensor systems engineer, the sensors are not absolute in their ability to detect everything around the vehicle and determine what’s what.

_________

If I ever see one of these things heading toward me as a pedestrian, I'd be alarmed at what the world has come to.


121 posted on 03/20/2018 9:31:00 AM PDT by a little elbow grease (A)
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To: windsorknot

Forced software updates?


122 posted on 03/20/2018 9:33:50 AM PDT by Ozark Tom
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To: vette6387
Hillary ----- In an oven mitt?

____

Hillary is a fashion plate.


123 posted on 03/20/2018 9:36:33 AM PDT by a little elbow grease (A)
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To: a little elbow grease

We live in a home that stays in the high 60’s/low 70’s at night and 63 at night with clean air filtered through metal air filters, cleaned on a schedule or if our Nest systems tell us.

Besides the clean and controlled indoor environment, we use Comcast Business Internet which is more reliable than any internet we have ever used.

The modems and wifi enhancers are connected to separate battery backup systems in case there is a power failure.

In spite of the above, it is a rare day when one or more of our smartphones, Chromebooks, Kindle and smart tv works properly without a failure, often unexplained.

Most of these failures are short in time and handle themselves. What happens in a driver less vehicle when these problems happen while driving themselves down the road.

Every once each week, we may to have reboot the entire system or a smart phone, Chromebook, Smart TV or Kindle.

Sometimes after a couple of minutes of not working the systems reboot themselves and are working. The good news, we were not driving a vehicle with these outages.

If these problems happen in controlled environments in our home, what the heck happens in a vehicle exposed 24/7 to outside temps, dust, road grime and other crud on the road or parked in a parking lot or our driveways.

A vehicle dependent on all systems working perfectly to be a safe and driver less vehicle.

We live on a cul de sac with some fairly well off neighbors who buy or lease a new car every couple years. It is a rare week not to see the AAA truck going up the hill to start one of these new computer loaded vehicles or to tow it to a garage.

My wife said that she is not trading in her 14 year old Lexus for a computer driven vehicle. I will keep my Ridge line, with even less years and mileage and less computers.

One of our relatives got an early inheritance of an OJ Simpson Bronco. He will never trade his computer less vehicle. He sees the same thing re AAA trucks on his street and in their corporate parking lots with basically new vehicles not starting.


124 posted on 03/20/2018 9:47:28 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (Dems are having trouble with their MAMA campaign (Make America Mexico Again) versus MAGA!)
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To: Howie66

If these “self driving cars” are limited to being operated in Liberal enclaves. Then they can be seen as performing a necessary community service.

So these self driving cars can be looked at as late term abortionists for liberals.


125 posted on 03/20/2018 9:49:07 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (Dems are having trouble with their MAMA campaign (Make America Mexico Again) versus MAGA!)
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To: mewzilla

SELF-DRIVING CARS WILL KILL PEOPLE. WHO DECIDES WHO DIES?

A combination of Face Book, MS and Google?

If you/our driver less vehicle is headed for a dangerous head on collision with a top dog from Facebook, Google, MS, Intel, DOJ/FBI or the DNC in their driver less vehicle?

One guess as to whom comes out on the short end and whose vehicle does not get a scratch?


126 posted on 03/20/2018 9:58:23 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (Dems are having trouble with their MAMA campaign (Make America Mexico Again) versus MAGA!)
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To: JohnBrowdie

That’s the only way your 100% goal is going to happen.


127 posted on 03/20/2018 10:06:33 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (Hillary: Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass GO. Do not collect 2 billion dollars.)
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To: JohnBrowdie

That’s the only way your 100% goal is going to happen.


128 posted on 03/20/2018 10:06:58 AM PDT by Fresh Wind (Hillary: Go to jail. Go directly to jail. Do not pass GO. Do not collect 2 billion dollars.)
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To: a little elbow grease
One thing I have noticed is that folks with 4 wheel drive do not realize they DO NOT have 4 wheel stop.

The laws of Physics can be cruel as they apply to everyone.

When we were stationed in North Dakota my wife and I would leave base when the roads were "cleared" after a blizzard and travel the 15 miles to town. We would count all the vehicles stuck or upside down and most of them were four wheel drives. Every single time.

129 posted on 03/20/2018 10:13:19 AM PDT by OldMissileer (Atlas, Titan, Minuteman, PK. Winners of the Cold War)
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To: a little elbow grease

We already have enough cars around here that are practically self-driving while the operator texts, puts on makeup, eats breakfast, has a dog in their lap, talks on phone, fiddles with gps, takes selfies, etc etc.


130 posted on 03/20/2018 10:17:11 AM PDT by pnz1 (#IMNOTWITHHER)
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To: JohnBrowdie

Riiiiight


131 posted on 03/20/2018 10:29:21 AM PDT by Nifster (I see puppy dogs in the clouds)
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To: Grampa Dave

That works for me. :-)


132 posted on 03/20/2018 10:49:56 AM PDT by Howie66 ("Tone down the tagline please." - Admin Moderator)
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To: OldMissileer

“We would count all the vehicles If thestuck or upside down and most of them were four wheel drives. Every single time.”

Too much testosterone and a big 4 wheel drive PU/SUV can be a bad combination.

If the snow isn’t knee high on a 9’ basket ball player, I prefer front wheel drive with the anti skid option. My wife’s Lexus 300 in rain and medium snow handles great. Better than my previous Blazer and Bronco with 4 wheel drives.

The Honda Ridge Line with its auto all wheel drive is very surefooted.

One of our younger generation got a Nissan Rogue helwith all wheel drive for his teen agers to drive a curvy 20+ mile each way trip with rain and sometimes snow/sleet to and from school. It has been an excellent and economical vehicle for two teen drivers.


133 posted on 03/20/2018 11:08:30 AM PDT by Grampa Dave (Dems are having trouble with their MAMA campaign (Make America Mexico Again) versus MAGA!)
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To: a little elbow grease

Yep. I said the same about Facebook, and look at how that’s working out.


134 posted on 03/20/2018 11:33:47 AM PDT by cincinnati65
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To: discostu
The primary market for self-driving vehicles is with users who can realize a major cost reduction by eliminating a paid driver from the business model.

That's not what we're dealing with here in the broader "self-driving car" market. I've said for years that one of the biggest flaws in the market is that there simply aren't enough customers out there who are willing to pay a premium for a car that drives itself. It's really a narrow market of people who are incapable of driving (elderly, disabled, etc.) and those who regularly commute very long distances.

As these vehicles get more advanced and interconnected (i.e., they "talk" to each other instead of just detecting and avoiding each other), they start to look and function more and more like mass transit systems.

135 posted on 03/20/2018 11:37:05 AM PDT by Alberta's Child ("I saw a werewolf drinking a pina colada at Trader Vic's.")
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To: Alberta's Child

Agreed....
These vehicles are just another extension
of the corral, to be used to control the
masses. Tracked where ever you go.


136 posted on 03/20/2018 11:42:32 AM PDT by Lean-Right (Eat More Moose)
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To: a little elbow grease

They have smooth curved front ends for a reason.


137 posted on 03/20/2018 12:09:49 PM PDT by CodeToad (Dr. Spock was an idiot!.)
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To: Grampa Dave

“Too much testosterone and a big 4 wheel drive PU/SUV can be a bad combination”

So to with a self driving car vs someone
walking a bicycle.

Those dudes with the big 4x4’s usually
learn (once upside down), that their
driving style needs some attention.
IF they were actually driving like
a maniac. I’ve see pickups roll that
we’re traveling at 20 mph. It just
requires the right conditions.
I’ve owned a few “lifted vehicles”.
I’ve never been upside down in one.
And I’m pretty sure my testosterone
levels are pretty much on par with
every other male driver on the road.


138 posted on 03/20/2018 12:16:25 PM PDT by Lean-Right (Eat More Moose)
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To: Alberta's Child

There are plenty of customers willing to pay a premium for cars that drive themselves. Don’t knock that old people market, with 15% and growing of our population over 65 the old people market is good juice. And keep in mind you don’t really need that big a market to do well. What percentage of the vehicle market are motorcycles? They’re doing fine, and a lot of them are really expensive too, especially when you factor in no passengers, no storage and no AC.

They’ll have one serious beat on mass transit: door to door on your schedule. That’s why people don’t like mass transit.


139 posted on 03/20/2018 12:51:07 PM PDT by discostu (It's been so long, welcome back my friend, to the show, that never ends.)
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To: Lean-Right

“I’m pretty sure my testosterone
levels are pretty much on par with
every other male driver on the road.”

Our siblings and we have adult children in their late 40-mid 50s.

It is amazing to hear them discuss some testosterone bursts while driving one of our SUV’s or family cars decades ago.

The suv’s and muscle cars like my wife’s 67 Camaro Convertible V8 had the most interesting stories like how did all the lug nuts on a rear wheel of an SUV get broken.

Guess at what speed Mom’s Camaro’s rear wheels started to float in air in spite of the spoiler?

Fortunately, they and we survived.

Now they have the fun providing vehicles to teen drivers.


140 posted on 03/20/2018 1:35:52 PM PDT by Grampa Dave (Dems are having trouble with their MAMA campaign (Make America Mexico Again) versus MAGA!)
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