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The Road to the Future (Autonomous Vehicles)
For Construction Pros ^ | March 6, 2017 | Jessica Stoikes

Posted on 03/16/2017 1:12:53 PM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks

New research suggests that children born today will never drive a car. The auto industry's embrace of self-driving technology has been accelerating fast and those technological advances mean that by the time today's toddlers come of age, they'll likely never even have to get behind the wheel of a car, according to Henrik Christensen, the director of the University of San Diego’s Contextual Robotics Institute.

“My own prediction is that kids born today will never get to drive a car,” Christensen told the San Diego Union-Tribune in mid-December. “Autonomous, driverless cars are not 10, 15 years out. All the automotive companies—Daimler, GM, Ford—are saying that within five years they will have autonomous, driverless cars on the road.”

So what does that mean for our roads? Upgrades. And sooner rather than later.

“This transition is happening a lot quicker than we anticipated,” says Ronique Day, a government transportation analyst in Virginia, one of several states studying ways for roads and cars to communicate.

Other states across the country are following suit, installing digital signage above lanes that will aid in communication when self-driving cars become an everyday reality.

The signs are a first step toward what highway planners say is a future in which self-driving cars will travel on technology-aided roads lined with fiber optics, cameras and connected signaling devices that will help vehicles move as quickly as possible—and more safely.

Transit planners also say self-driving cars will unlock bigger benefits, including fewer accidents, faster trips and fuel savings.

While concrete and asphalt have long been the simplest solutions to easing congestion or meeting the need for extra road capacity, these technological advances have created new opportunities for addressing challenges. What that means is that we are going to have to figure out how to begin developing a smarter highway.

So far, the infrastructure behind these autonomous vehicles is lacking, having been built into just a few miles of highway in a handful of states.

How Will it be Done?

So how are states handling this? The first step will be deciding how to communicate with cars as an array of auto makers and tech companies independently have developed autonomous-driving technology. No common standard has been established for how a new generation of smartcars will receive information from smart roads—or how they will handle alerts once they get them.

Policymakers looking for blueprints on designing smart highways should look to the states that are currently piloting studies on their roadways like Virginia, California and Utah.

Utah is undertaking a test of the technology on a stretch of Salt Lake City’s Redwood Rd, a major north-south commuter route. Sensors on traffic lights connect to public buses and can adjust red and green signals to help buses stay on schedule.

But highway researchers say their biggest hurdle is ensuring they have technology that can work. CLICK HERE FOR MORE INFORMATION

Road connections to cars have mostly used dedicated short-range communications, or DSRC, a wireless link commonly used in transportation systems to manage stoplights and tolling. But researchers say the industry may settle on cellular-data systems used for smartphones or WiFi if the technology can handle information more rapidly and reliably.

Virginia has strapped one-foot-square DSRC devices on light poles and bridges on various roads, including Interstate 66 outside Washington, D.C. The gadgets watch the highway and allow workers at a central-control site to change recommended speeds lane-by-lane depending on traffic and communicate that to drivers with the signs mounted over the highway. They also send messages to state government road-maintenance vehicles about traffic flows and road conditions.

Those emergency messages will be communicated on electronic boards on many highways and would arrive through a smartphone-like app that displays alerts on drivers’ dashboards. The sensors can then monitor traffic flows and see that wheels are losing touch with the road as a rainstorm builds. The signs can lower the speed limit for the current situation and the road devices could alert cars miles away to slow down or even give them new routes to their destinations.

Planners say billions of federal dollars will likely be needed to wire the nation’s more than 4 million miles of paved roads and 250,000 intersections and with many states struggling to cover basic highway maintenance, this infrastructure seems far fetched.

Right now, it seems car manufacturers have put the cart before the horse in developing autonomous vehicles before the infrastructure to support it is ready. Still, we hope this means funding for this type of work and plenty of jobs for contractors in 2017 and beyond.


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events; US: Virginia
KEYWORDS: autonomousvehicles; driverlesscars; infrastructure; postmillennials; sensors; transportation; virginia; warnings
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To: Alberta's Child
Who really believes that requiring two operators in a train and ZERO operators in a car makes any sense?

The railroad union, obviously!

101 posted on 03/16/2017 5:32:27 PM PDT by LambSlave
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

“Self driving car, please take me down to the river.”

“Car, please call a tow truck to pull us out of the river.”


102 posted on 03/16/2017 6:18:31 PM PDT by TheNext (RyanCare is FAKE Healthcare! VETO VETO VETO)
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To: Mariner

Robot trucks are 200 years away, and no proof of feasibility. The junk gadgets installed in commercial trucks make them more dangerous. When they kill children, Govt hides it.

Decades after auto pilot airplanes, they still have human pilots.

Robot cars are junk science appealing to non techies.


103 posted on 03/16/2017 6:32:33 PM PDT by TheNext (RyanCare is FAKE Healthcare! VETO VETO VETO)
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To: TheNext

Once you categorize and count the defects of just one automation driving gadget, reality hits.

Touch your inner engineer to count the 100 defects, many dangerous, of only a single electronic gadget,

just 1 gadget, 100 defects,

then you see self driving is 200 years away.


104 posted on 03/16/2017 6:42:32 PM PDT by TheNext (RyanCare is FAKE Healthcare! VETO VETO VETO)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

This is the obvious end game to come. The only thing that you can’t teach a driving computer to avoid is human randomness, so out it goes. Imagining my safe, boring ride up the interstate at exactly 70.00 MPH while I read and try not to get car sick......


105 posted on 03/16/2017 7:58:41 PM PDT by Some Fat Guy in L.A. (Still bitterly clinging to rational thought despite it's unfashionability)
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To: TheNext
That crash in Florida last year -- where the driver was killed when his Tesla drove into the side of a tractor-trailer while it (the Tesla) was operating in "auto-pilot" mode -- should be a big clue about the limitations of this technology.

If a car can't detect the presence of a tractor-trailer, then I'd say it's time to go back to the drawing boards and start all over again.

106 posted on 03/17/2017 5:58:08 AM PDT by Alberta's Child (President Donald J. Trump ... Making America Great Again, 140 Characters at a Time)
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To: lacrew

Actually there are kids today that are never going to drive and it’s got nothing to do with self driving cars. Not everybody drives, some folks live in cities where you just never need to. And we’re seeing a trend of that group increasing in recent generations, a growing number just aren’t interested in it. With public transit and ubers it’s simply becoming an optional skill for good chunks of the world.

The article doesn’t say that within 16 years nobody will be driving as all the cars will be self driving, that’s you moving the goal posts again.

You just did. The article says that SOMEDAY in the FORESEEABLE FUTURE and you turned that into current kids, 16 years. Then of course there’s you demanding the cars be autonomous, since the cars will be taking orders from owners (not really a market for cars that just do what they want) they’ll never technically be autonomous. That’s moved goal posts.

Plenty are using cameras, because they know LIDAR has great limitations.

I already gave you info on cars driving themselves today. Your demand for parking space to parking space is a moved goal post that is outside of what I said.

Tesla and Oryx are going no LIDAR, and most of the others are using cameras and probably will be phasing away from LIDAR because, as you yourself point out, it just isn’t the right solution.


107 posted on 03/17/2017 7:54:30 AM PDT by discostu (There are times when all the world's asleep, the questions run too deep, for such a simple man.)
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To: discostu
Sigh

"The article says that SOMEDAY in the FORESEEABLE FUTURE and you turned that into current kids, 16 years."

No. It does not. This is precisely what it says:

"New research suggests that children born today will never drive a car."

“My own prediction is that kids born today will never get to drive a car,”

Can you understand that? The article is absolutely stating that kids born today (who would normally drive 16 years from now) will not drive. Its very clear.

"Then of course there’s you demanding the cars be autonomous, since the cars will be taking orders from owners (not really a market for cars that just do what they want) they’ll never technically be autonomous. That’s moved goal posts."

Again, from the article:

"Autonomous, driverless cars are not 10, 15 years out. All the automotive companies—Daimler, GM, Ford—are saying that within five years they will have autonomous, driverless cars on the road."

As far as I'm concerned, a DRIVERLESS car is pretty darned autonomous. How on earth have I moved the goal posts, when this lunatic is stating that there will be DRIVERLESS cars in FIVE years. So no I am not 'demanding' they be autonomous - the snake oil salesmen pushing this are guaranteeing it.

"Plenty are using cameras, because they know LIDAR has great limitations."

'Plenty' is not very specific. You still haven't named one large player who isn't using LIDAR. I ask again, who isn't using LIDAR? You can't tell me.

Your demand for parking space to parking space is a moved goal post that is outside of what I said.

Can you not comprehend that this article is peddling the notion of DRIVERLESS cars?

"Tesla and Oryx are going no LIDAR"

Psst - not even Tesla claims their cars are self driving in any way. Their owner's manual implores the driver to stay vigilant with his hands on the wheel.

Oryx doesn't make cars.

I've noticed in your posting history, you like to argue with fellow Freepers...in an off putting manner. Normally no more than 3-4 posts between the arguments. In this case, its as if you didn't even read the article posted...as absolutely nothing you have typed has matched the content of the article in any way. I find that fascinating. The goal is not discussion of the article...the goal must be to be argumentative, for its own sake.

108 posted on 03/17/2017 10:47:22 AM PDT by lacrew
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To: lacrew

As I pointed out there are kids RIGHT NOW not bothering to learn to drive. It is becoming an unnecessary skill with or without self driving cars. And thanks to generations being raised on the internet cars are no longer the great symbol of adult freedom they once were. These kids are raised with the world at their fingertips, driving to the mall just doesn’t excite them.

They will have self driving cars on the road. That doesn’t mean it’s going to take over the entire industry overnight. It will phase through the way every other car feature has: first in the high end cars, then over the course of the next 5 to 10 years working down to the economy cars. Even then it will be another 20 years before the majority of the non-self driving cars are off the road.

Can you not comprehend that I was TALKING ABOUT THINGS BEING IN DEVELOPMENT. I’ve only said it half a dozen times now.

Tesla’s autopilot is a step along the way, they’re working on self driving, and it won’t be LIDAR. And Oryx on the system, if they get the system right they sell it to car makers. Get into the guts of your car, lots of that stuff was bought BY your car company.

You started this argument with me. You decided on the tone of the argument. If you don’t like it, don’t be such a condescending ass.


109 posted on 03/17/2017 2:51:54 PM PDT by discostu (There are times when all the world's asleep, the questions run too deep, for such a simple man.)
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To: Tolerance Sucks Rocks

I think it’s hard to predict exactly what the future is going to look like in a general sense. I was a nerdy movie buff who hung out in video stores as a teen. We used to talk how about how cool it would be if there was a system to get any movie you wanted immediately. I think a friend and I had worked out a general idea that involved pay per view and 800-numbers. We did have a general idea that the number of tv channels would continue to expand. We had no earthly idea that the internet even existed. So, we kind of made due with the technological limitations we had. (Today of course, I can actually order and watch nearly any movie I want in the history of the world instantaneously on a tv that is darn near the size of movie screens in the 80s).

The point is, I think a lot of us are trapped in a vision of what a driverless future would look like based on today’s model. Why are we assuming that people would “own” these cars? Why are we assuming that we would still be driving on four line highways with dotted passing lines? Why are we assuming that the car’s computer would be in the car itself?

This stuff changes so dramatically so quickly. The world’s record for joke that went from hilarious to dated was the joke in Zoolander about how cell phones were getting smaller and smaller and smaller. 5 years later and the Iphone took the technology in the absolute opposite direction.

So, I think this will happen but it probably won’t be a Tesla self driving car costing as much as a house in 1991.


110 posted on 03/17/2017 2:58:57 PM PDT by WVMnteer
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To: discostu
"Can you not comprehend that I was TALKING ABOUT THINGS BEING IN DEVELOPMENT.

No, statements such as the one made below do not equal 'being in development'.

“this IS happening”

Again

"That doesn’t mean it’s going to take over the entire industry overnight"

does not compute with

"this IS happening”

But I will take your changing story as a tacit admission that this IS NOT happening at all, as I said.

As for the tone...I know you are incapable of dispassionately reviewing our exchange (or any of your dozen other 'fight threads'.)

You called me an ass. There's a saying about that - if you find them everywhere you go...well maybe you've misidentified him.

111 posted on 03/17/2017 3:26:03 PM PDT by lacrew
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To: lacrew

Yes actually it does. Remember the original poster compared them to flying cars, now how many miles did major companies put on their experimental flying cars? How many miles have major companies put on their experimental self driving cars? See, that’s something that IS happening. These cars ARE being worked on, by dozens of companies, with the goal of making a purchasable product. That is a revolution that IS happening.

I didn’t change the story. Now you’ve descended into being a full on LIAR.

You care an ass. Your first post to me on this thread was filled with condescension and was needlessly confrontational. Now you’re whining that I’m not nice to you. THAT is the behavior of an ass.


112 posted on 03/17/2017 3:29:36 PM PDT by discostu (There are times when all the world's asleep, the questions run too deep, for such a simple man.)
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To: discostu

I can see this thread has been an emotional roller coaster for you.

For me it hasn’t.

You should work on that.


113 posted on 03/17/2017 3:35:02 PM PDT by lacrew
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To: lacrew

Hasn’t been emotional for me at all. As soon as you leaned in with your condescending BS I lost all respect for you and have treated you as you deserve. Nothing emotional there. In order to get emotional I’d have to care what you think, for that I’d have to respect you, your behavior is such that I cannot respect you, so no emotions. Funny how you were talking about projecting.


114 posted on 03/17/2017 3:37:52 PM PDT by discostu (There are times when all the world's asleep, the questions run too deep, for such a simple man.)
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To: discostu

Counting to 10 can help.


115 posted on 03/17/2017 3:45:30 PM PDT by lacrew
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To: lacrew

Take your own advice. I notice you can’t be bothered to address what I said. Now you’re just scrambling for the last word. Another sure sign of being an ass. The facts are in, this WILL happen, this IS happening. Deny it all you want, doesn’t change reality. You’re in 2005 denying the smartphone revolution. Now since I’m feeling generous today I’ll give you the last word, go ahead, post whatever condescending drivel you wish, I won’t rebut, hell I won’t even read it.


116 posted on 03/17/2017 3:52:53 PM PDT by discostu (There are times when all the world's asleep, the questions run too deep, for such a simple man.)
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To: discostu

See, that was cathartic.


117 posted on 03/17/2017 3:56:31 PM PDT by lacrew
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