Posted on 10/23/2017 8:28:31 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
On my fourth day in a semi-driverless car, I finally felt comfortable enough to let it stop itself. Before then, I’d allowed the car — a Volvo S90 sedan — to steer around gentle turns, with my hands still on the wheel, and to adjust speed in traffic. By Day 4, I was ready to make a leap into the future.
With the car traveling 40 miles an hour on a busy road in the Washington suburbs, I pushed a button to activate the driverless mode and moved my foot away from the brake and accelerator. The car kept its speed. Soon, a traffic light in the distance turned red, and the cars in front of me slowed. For a split second, I prepared to slam on the brake.
There was no need. The cameras and computers in the Volvo recognized that other cars were slowing and smoothly began applying the brake. My car came to a stop behind the Ford ahead of me. I began laughing, even though no one else was in the car, as my anxiety turned to relief.
If you’re anything like most people, you’re familiar with this anxiety. Almost 80 percent of Americans fear traveling in a self-driving car, a recent poll found.
When a friend saw me in the Volvo last week and I explained that I was test-driving it for work, she asked which roads I’d be using — so she could avoid them. Another friend asked if driverless cars could be hacked. Colleagues said they feared semiautonomous cars lulling people into ignoring the road.
Driverless cars tap deep into the human psyche. We want to be in control, or at least to give control to trained professionals, like doctors. We don’t want computers to be in charge.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Hmmmm.. So I buy a car and the mfg still has control over it's function? (What is this, an Apple product?)
Like Mr Horse sez, "Nossir, don't like it."
So now yer car can be cut off remotely for whatever reason the PTB, or some of their pimple faced beta minions determine? Or in the case of these self-drive deals, it takes you where the PTB want you? Didn't pay your taxes fast enough? Yer goin "downtown" instead of to Walmart? Vehicle ownership will be treated as a "privilege" that can be yanked for any kindof trivial "infraction". Etc., etc.
Fugg that crap. d;^)
NTSB simulations of the Airbus A320 (the Sullenberger flight) landing at either of two local airports resulted in survivable landings eight out of 15 times. Sullenberger landed the plane in the Hudson, and the passengers survived. Some have said that he made the wrong decision, but it sounds like the survivability of an automated landing was essentially a coin flip.
I trust human control much more than machine control of autos.
Today.
But I remember the drverless cars of the 90’s that drove a foot. Stopped to analyze their surroundings for 45 minutes, made minor corrections, and then went forward another foot.
How you and I see that car today is how people will see the driverless cars of today in the fairly near future.
Technology marches on.
I just spent two weeks on vacation in N. VA and DC area. If you don’t live there the roads are a real challenge and change daily. I can’t imagine a driverless car meeting all the challenges. Traffic. Construction zones, changeable lanes, weather..(snow, blinding rain and ice storms). Mixing driverless cars and manual cars is just not possible. Sure 97% of driving is straight and level, but the other 2-3 % requires flexibility that it is difficult for any set of sensors and computer to handle.
I’m curious what a driverless car would do in a snowstorm? Or in a whiteout on a freeway?
The 35,000 deaths per year on US roads is mostly due to drunk and distracted (phones) driving. Congress is looking at this technology to radically reduce this statistic.
The machines have fail-over and fail-safe modes via redundant systems. It’s actually quite easy to get a car to “not hit something” with just a few sensors. You’re seeing the beginnings of this with Advanced Driver Assist Systems which can stop you automatically, keep you in your lane, or brake when reversing due to cross-traffic (or people).
This stuff is coming...
Thanks - but I'll ask a Pilot.
Freedom will be taken away by those who control those centralized car platforms.
Better to keep human independence and ownership of cars as a viable and realistic option.
And just like in cars, the level of technology varies. Smaller regional jets and older airframes have limited ability and may not be able to handle a CAT III landing.
Even with the most advanced systems, the pilot is NOT redundant because there are always ATC instructions that will deviate from the planned route.
Jets have a three-mile separation rule, don’t they? That means they have a lot of distance to respond. They also don’t have a lot of cross traffic, or other jets suddenly stopping in front of them.
Do the jets also take off and land pilotlessly, or just cruise pilotlessly?
At 550 mph, it takes only 20 seconds to close 3 miles.
Auto takeoff, no. Autoland, yes.
https://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/Autoland
Conservatives made me nervous, until I voted for one. :-)
-PJ
The instant a driverless car veers off the road is the instant that pucker factor will return...well, for a few seconds until the person careens into a post or cliff or something else that kills them.
As a high-performance safety-critical engineer, there is no way I would design a driverless car and feel I have done the job needed. It simply cannot be done with today’s roadways and technologies. The error rate is still far too high to be considered safe.
Big deal — the car stops when the car in front of it stops. You can buy a car today that does that. The hard part are most of the other maneuvers that are required in a typical trip.
Someone else mentions the liability issue when a self-driving car wrecks. That could be a show stopper.
My father has dementia at an early age (70). At doctor’s recommendation against driving, we took his car last weekend. He’s only been driving to the golf course and CVS but the risk was too great. It’s been a horrible ordeal. A self-driving car would have let him keep his independence a little longer.
As for me, I’ll go on a lot more long range road trips if I don’t have to drive.
Bring on the future.
Have you ever flown or do you know any pilots? These systems are not fool-proofed and the last thing you would want is a connectivity issue when trying to take over remotely.
There are a number of high-profile situations that have happened in recent memory where the computers would have crashed the planes were it not for pilots onboard to override commands. The most recent that comes to mind is when a rudder was locked into the full side position. Overcoming that scenario is not something that was possible from a remote location because even the pilots onboard didn't know the extent of the problem. The only thing they could do was work to counter the forces... especially at landing.
There are any number of scenarios that come up during routine flights that require hands-on trained pilots to navigate and trouble-shoot.
I find your faith in technology disturbing...
One of my friends bought his wife a Tesla when she retired.
I had the chance to drive it about a month ago.
I’m sold on the ability to turn on self driving.
It was great in stop and go traffic, the car took care of itself. I also like to drive it, acceleration was great and the cues of where other cars, motorcycles, and people helped out , especially as we went through the old downtown area. When a small dog ran across the road in front of us,a small animal figure showed up. It was like the Jetsons. I grew up in the area around cape canaveral, so I’m predisposed to future tech. If I could afford one, I would have one.
I’m curious what a driverless car would do in a snowstorm? Or in a whiteout on a freeway?
It will do better than a human is that a human is only getting visual input as to where the road is (and I’ve been in snowstorms where the only clue were the tail lights of the car in front.) A driverless car would have input from geolocation satellites as well as LIDAR.
The NTSB ultimately cleared Sullenberger due to this fact.
-PJ
Driverless cars. The Beta’s dream.
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