Posted on 01/12/2020 8:45:12 AM PST by Moonman62
Waymo’s fully driverless vehicles are doing passenger trips in the suburbs outside Phoenix, Arizona. We got to experience it first hand, and our ride included a close brush with a construction site, a wrong turn, and a flock of pigeons. But more importantly, it got us thinking about what it means when Waymo says the future is driverless, and what we lose when we eliminate human driving.
Link to video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=__EoOvVkEMo
Link to article:
https://www.theverge.com/2019/12/9/21000085/waymo-fully-driverless-car-self-driving-ride-hail-service-phoenix-arizona
You don’t have to be driving to get a DUI. You only need be in the vehicle, it’s called “Care and Control”.
Just like nobody needs to have been drinking for an accident to be “alcohol involved”. There just needs to be a bottle of booze in one of the vehicles.
Stop trying to convince me that driverless is good for me.
Maybe where you live in Missouri if the driver has not been drinking your buddy who called you because he was too drunk to drive will be ok
the argument would be who is driving if the car is self driving it would be interesting to see how a judge ruled I think most would rather you ride in self driving car than try to drive home drunk.
:) at least you’re honest - I get your sentiment.
For the others here, thinking that all the engineers are just idiots who “haven’t thought of this or that”, realize that they will actually consider snow, construction sites, strong side winds, leaves and pigeons, including that jumping kangaroos shouldn’t be mistaken for birds (that was a real fail), etc..
They will use High-Definition maps, accurate within centimeters, that include the tilt of the road, allow for handling out-of-sight upcoming curves, every lane position, etc.. The high precision GPS systems work just fine. Does anyone REALLY think that they’d be used if they weren’t accurate? C’mon. They won’t drink and drive or be distracted by phones. They’ll have 360 degree awareness with arrays of sensors, 100% of the time.
It’s not going to happen as quickly as some have predicted (2021). There’s still lots to do to bring down costs (standard interfaces to sensors/actuators). However, everyone should accept it is GOING to happen AND they will be better than “good” drivers.
I am with you brother. I find it terrifying.
I meant if you were in the car alone, IE
“sleeping it off” in the back seat.
There’s nothing more fun than a one-person bus.
And always remember, “Never trust a naked bus driver!”
All this will become so unnecessary when we perfect electronic transporting.
Just make certain, no insects are sharing the transporter with you.
“Stop trying to convince me that driverless is good for me.”
Fly much?
When Do Pilots Turn On the Autopilot?
“. Sperry developed the gyroscopic-based autopilot in 1912, just nine years after the Wright Brothers first flew, and built it on Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, where the company was headquartered. In a 1914 demonstration, Lawrence Sperry and a sidekick stood on the wings of a plane while it flew straight and level past a crowd of stunned onlookers. Later, it took off and landed without assistance from a pilot.”
“If it’s a sunny day at a quiet airport, every pilot in the world would rather fly the plane by hand,” said the pilot from a major airline. “But if it’s busy or stormy, then a smart pilot decides to let the autopilot do some of our work.”
“If there’s weather, like storms we need to navigate around, or if it’s a very busy air traffic environment, like at JFK, LAX, or ORD, then it makes sense to put the autopilot in earlier—usually within the first few minutes after takeoff,”
https://thepointsguy.com/news/meet-george-when-do-airline-pilots-turn-on-the-autopilot/
Ten times more expensive than Tesla, and it only works in Phoenix.
Yeah but there is always a pilot and a copilot
It’s like cruise control on your car. Fine, use it. But still be awake and alert and on the job.
Sorry. I know any statement has to insult or denigrate someone. In this case engineers by my anti-driverless vehicle questions. I have been friends with several engineers and my wife’s brother is one. Didn’t mean to claim they blundered into giving us a seat of the pants driverless juggernaut.
One discussion I heard had the pro expert say to the questioning interviewer “Until we have nearly all vehicles talking to each other and intersections and other places updated, we may have to accept there will be some amount of loss of life from crashes in the early years.” (paraphrased). I think when they happen it will shock and upset people.
If memory serves I think I read when the first locomotives pulled trains it was the consensus by learned experts at the time that if a train passed 30 miles per hour the human brain and the body’s blood supply would be pressured beyond capacity and people would be killed.
I saw two different stories that said experimental driverless vehicles boldly drove right through an intersection on a red light. And supposedly such stories are being suppressed (oh boy, a conspiracy promoted here on FR and who could have guessed I’d be the guilty party.) Maybe an out of control drone could crash into such a vehicle delivering Amazon groceries and save us.
Forgive me, please, for being a late adopter Luddite suspicious of the future (despite the fact I used to be a book columnist for two science fiction magazines years ago.)
Incredible. Someone other than myself remembers Jack Douglas the great humorist. Author of My Brother Was An Only Child and Never Trust A Naked Bus Driver among others.
To others: He was a comedy writer and guest on TV shows in the 1960s. ...for television, Douglas wrote for Bob Hope, Jimmy Durante, Bing Crosby, Woody Allen, Johnny Carson, Jack Paar and Laugh-In. The producer of Laugh-In, George Schlatter, said, "He saw the world from a different angle than the rest of us. He was not only funny, he was nice."
Bless you for mentioning his work by inference.
Pilotless aircraft will come first, IMHO. Simpler problem, bigger payoff for safety.
Glad you enjoyed it!
I do believe it’s actually very healthy to question new technologies. Although my concerns are always driven from a “government abuse of power” perspective as I have the background, from a technical merit point-of-view, to determine BS from reality. What makes me laugh are those that, while not being experts, think the experts are dolts whom haven’t thought of one of the hundred-thousand challenges.
Ultimately, the NHSTA perspective will focus on what is safer, people or automated drivers? Once they’ve the data showing it’s not people they’ll allow the mass production and not look to punish automakers unnecessarily when something happens. Yes, it’s an argument over what lowers death rates - not eliminating them. There will be deaths, just like with aircraft, or allowing people to drive something called an “automobile” in the first place!
...at some point I can imagine that people will question the intelligence of somebody that still drives a car themselves! It will be considered immoral, a dangerous activity that puts others in danger :)
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