Posted on 06/11/2017 7:06:36 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
Eliminating the Problem
How difficult is it to test autonomous vehicles (AVs) on public roads? Uber can probably tell you all about it. Much of the difficulty in obtaining the permits necessary for such tests comes from fear. Because self-driving technology is new, because the systems have been involved in incidents in the past, and so on, people aren’t quite ready to trust the tech.
The governor of Washington state, however, has a different perspective. Governor Jay Inslee signed an order on Wednesday that would allow for autonomous vehicle tests without a human driver behind the wheel. According to the governor’s official blog, the order could allow these tests to begin within the next two months. Self-driving system developers can already apply for permits for pilot program tests through the state’s Department of Licensing.....
(Excerpt) Read more at futurism.com ...
Reminds me of the world portrayed in The Matrix.
Silly humans are, at this very moment, rushing to create thinking machines that will soon surpass our own intelligence. Machines that will quickly gain control over the manufacture of their own kind. Such machines could design and build copies of themselves that are more intelligent than humans could produce.
The possibilities are frightening.
I’ve seen plenty of brainless drivers in cars lately.
Agreed. I think the looming lawsuits when something goes wrong will be huge.
beta testing of level 4 cars is rather widespread - appears there are around 5,000 level 4 cars being tested in the US today.
Auto makers are well on the way to offering level 4 retail by 2020.
my estimate is by 2025; level 4 & 5 will have a 20-30% market share of new motor vehicles
I just spent the better part of 2 months traveling - there are already a lot of “driverless” cars on the road.....hope the automated ones do better....
Fixed. For those that can afford and maintain all of this technology everything is hunky dory. We are turning cars into super complex machines and not affordable basic transportation. The word is "over-engineering".
Trains on rails still have drivers. Explain that.
Beta test 2 to see if they don’t kill anyone.
I think you are wrong. I think accidents will actually decrease with driverless cars. As any cop will tell you, 99 percent of all accidents are caused by human error. Besides, driverless cars don’t have egos or tempers. They don’t take it personal if they are cut off or honked at. They will slow down and make adjustments. Humans drive aggressively. Driverless cars will drive submissively.
If that were true, you would not have companies like Apple, Google and others spending billions on the technology today. Putting up that kind of money is the barometer that I use. A lot of smart people smell something big and they want to be in on the ground floor.
They would simply not pour money and resources into something that was decades away.
Speed limits are set artificially low to generate revenue. So in a robo-car world will the powers that be raise them up? Will they let go of a major revenue stream? I am not really interested in putting around county roads at the posted 45 MPH.
How often does a driver escape a police chase these days? Basically never. If the cops are coming for you, they are going to get you, driverless car or not. Even an off the grid cabin in the woods is no hiding place anymore. For better or worse, technology marches on and the world gets smaller. No place to run, no place to hide.
They won't. The NTSB will halt surface transportation at the flip of a switch. Only "emergency" vehicles will be out on the roads. Your car will have a remote kill switch with FedGov holding their finger on it.
One word. Unions.
Which is why we had toll collectors for decades after electronic tolling was perfected. Finally the toll collectors are going away.
If you had to operate that ATM @ 60mph, they would not have caught on. This is a worse pipe dream than Flying Cars were in the 50-60's. It's many many decades away. First, we have to rid ourselves of Microsoft. <<< "Please make note of the error code Driver, your system will reboot now. Press any key to continue!"
I believe that the speed of autonomous vehicles will adjust according to conditions of traffic, weather, etc. In general, I believe the average speed on roadways will increase once human error begins to be factored out.
I remember when my father used to growl about the ATM machines and vow to never use the confounded things. “I’ll just go into the bank and deal with a live person, thank you very much.”
He’s now 80 years old and does all his banking through a mobile app on his iPad.
Come on Sam, like that's never been done before? 'Bleeding Edge' much?
Of course it's decades away. We're looking at a complete infrastructure revamp here. A 100% revamp. Every road in every podunk town across the fruited plains. What about all of the unpaved roads? These such roadways change at times with just a run to the store and back. This is just the same sort of BS that comes with the Electric Cars, which will be even more decades working in some environments.
Not at this level. Sure, smart companies do some R&D for moon shots but they generally do not invest such a large percentage of revenue into a new technology unless they are relatively sure of it paying off soon.
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