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First, keep in mind that autonomous cars don't have to be perfect, just better than humans. That's a MUCH lower bar! And 'driver aid' technology is already edging in to that area. Collision avoidance, lane keeping, sleeper alarms are all reducing insurance claims, so there's a financial motive too.
Next, it's not going to be a sudden 100% swap out of cars to where everyone, everywhere has a fully autonomous car, like Tom Cruse in Minority Report. The technology will slowly merge, as it gets better.
Short distance cars in limited environments like in-city Uber cars and Interstate only trucks that self-platoon are likely to be the first fully hands-off.
The mapping efforts also have a problem that's not yet gotten traction. Google Maps, and several other organizations are imaging the roads in high-def. This is so your autonomous car's cameras can use image-recognition for navigation steering. At the same time, those cameras are yet again imaging the roads and uploading the info to a central database so the highway image records are updated each time one of their cars drives down it.
--- So what about privacy? Some folk really disagreed with Google taking pictures for Street View. Now several services are planing on HD Street Views taken every time their cars drive.
Much of the control regarding autonomous cars is the vehicle to vehicle communication that will be occurring in addition to the mapping technology. Car A is talking to all the other cars around it. If car Q ahead needs to merge in front of car A so it can exit in a mile, car A is told to slow down just enough to give Q space.
Yeah, but there are fewer planes in the air than cars on the road. All pilots are trained and there is an air traffic control system that makes sure all the planes are properly directed. Apple to oranges.
More like apples to tennis shoes. Driving has no air traffic control, no driver to driver communications, nothing is tracked by radar or the FAA, there’s only 1 driver per car (no two like commercial airplanes), drivers require pretty much no education or skills, there’s 99.9% more obstacles, and far less than the 1000 ft separation requirements from other drivers. Autopilot is essentially just cruise control for airplanes.
I don't really understand this business of driverless cars or cars without steering wheels. Apparently these are in development now but can this occur without some sort of web of "smart" streets? I don't hear anybody talking about that.
I would be nice if fatal accidents were eliminated or decreased in number, but it sounds really frightening to put oneself in a high speed vehicle and trust your life to the technology.
We just cant wait to take the human element out of things. Thats another whole topic there. Just because somethings possible, doesnt make it necessary. Unless money can be made, at our lives expense. In the Industries our lives arent worth much, but they sure cant wait to take us out of the loop.
Personally I think its going to be a good thing, no more full coverage insurance, no more traffic lights, no more traffic offenses and fines, DUIs, etc etc.
How will the loss of revenue from traffic infractions be compensated for?
If you think of how many people might be incarcerated now, due to a burnt out 1157 ... Because it opened up another range of probable cause possibilities...
Much of the control regarding autonomous cars is the vehicle to vehicle communication that will be occurring in addition to the mapping technology. Car A is talking to all the other cars around it. If car Q ahead needs to merge in front of car A so it can exit in a mile, car A is told to slow down just enough to give Q space.
Is this part of the equation? What if there aren't any other driverless cars close by?
I don't think "driverless" will happen to any great degree. There are some notable shortcomings and so far, driverless cars actually have someone in them.
There will likely believe an "automatic" mode in a lot of cars, but it's just an assist.
There are plenty of completely driverless cars being tested right now in California, Arizona and Pittsburgh. G.M. just applied to NHTSA for a driverless car service - no steering wheel, no accelerator or brake pedal that they have scheduled to be rolled out in 2019. It’s arriving much faster than you believe. I don’t know of which slew of shortcomings you are speaking of. Autonomous cars are far far safer than human piloted vehicles and have driven millions of miles with only a handful of accidents. The less idiot people drivers out there I have to deal with the better.
Us on the retirement forum don't need to worry about driverless cars thank goodness.
Well, that may depend on the age of the respective retirees. And, a few of the eldest, bad, elderly retirees probably shouldn't be driving today let alone several years to a decade+ down the road. Unfortunately, a few too many pitifully bad, uber aggressive drivers of all ages probably shouldn't be driving now.
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