Posted on 08/09/2017 6:22:22 AM PDT by Enlightened1
Driverless buses in Estonia have had a number of close calls, including ignoring a speeding police car's emergency lights.
The vehicles were introduced in the capital Tallinn in recent weeks as part of the Baltic state's presidency of the European Union.
Eyewitnesses have reported a few near misses since, including ignoring a red light, but no 'major incidents'.
Estonia's government brought in two of the buses on July 29 to operate a route between the city's Viru Square and the Tallinn Creative Hub.
This is the main venue being used by the Estonian presidency of the Council of the European Union.
Tallinn is the first city in which driverless buses will come in direct contact with live traffic, according to reports from state broadcaster ERR.
Each shuttle can carry up to eight passengers at a time and riding them is free of charge.
The vehicles only come into contact with traffic and pedestrians at one intersection, travelling the rest of the way following a currently unused tramway.
It is at this intersection where problems have been reported, according to eye witnesses speaking to ERR.
On another occasion, one of the Easymile shuttles ignored a green pedestrian light and surprised pedestrians by driving through the crosswalk.
(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...
"We hope you enjoyed the ride."
Give it enough time and manual driving will be outlawed.
Thing is, every specific thing that computers are designed to do, they do a LOT better than human beings. Humans DO beat them at being diverse in our capabilities, but when a single thing needs to be done, like calculating the day’s interest on a few thousand interest bearing accounts, or adjusting the color and lighting in every pixel in a photograph, computers do things that would be either extremely tedious or so difficult for humans as to be rendered impossible. HDR in photo processing is a good example.
And it will spill over into autonomous cars. A road designed specifically for these vehicles would not need traffic lights. Cars would zip through intersections making constant close calls with other autonomous cars in the same way that every time you take a step the toe of your shoe barely misses the ground as you bring your leg forward.
With autonomous cars, roads could handle substantially more traffic at significantly higher speeds. However, the coordination of events would be so orchestrated as to be impossible to navigate with a manually controlled vehicle. A human being controlled car simply could not be a part of such a system.
And, of course, eventually, no roads would allow human controlled vehicles. The good news is that by the time it happens, nobody would want to. Lamenting about the disappearance of the human controlled automobile will be like lamenting over the disappearance of the horse and buggy as a primary means of transportation. I don’t lament over the latter and my grandchildren will not lament over the former.
Nothing lasts forever.
Give it enough time and manual driving will be outlawed.
But the writing is on the wall, and, truth be told, as a Christian, I’m not “married” to anything technology brings me. I enjoy it while it is there to enjoy and enjoy something else when it comes along.
Ha!
I was a COBOL programmer for 21 years, I totally empathized with that line in the movie. :)
Been there, done that. :(
Apparently they only have a problem where there’s traffic.
They seem to do fine on straight empty roads.
Well played, Sir. Well played indeed.
I think there will still be enthusiasts for self-driving just as there are horse riding enthusiasts and bicycling enthusiasts
If in 10 years from now then there will be massive problems. The current taxi, bus, truck drivers will not be able to get retrained that quickly. Either there will be legislation to delay it or there will be chaos.
True enough, if it can be proven beyond all doubt that automated driving is safer. We’re talking about proving in 99.9999999% of the cases.
That’s how I see it as well.
When I travel with the family on trips (perhaps once a month) on holiday I rent the car I need.
This all works out cheaper for me than owning my own car and especially as it is a opex cost, its easier for me to track and manage
They will have to confiscate guns first. Once that is taken care of, confiscating vehicles will be much easier.
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