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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.
Fear not. There are several levels of automated vehicles in concept. There are a couple of models of vehicles that have already achieved zero deaths and there a few brands that have zero deaths as their goal. That is a separate issue from automation.
There are five levels of automation,as defined by SAE and NHTSA, and of course there is level 0 = none. Level 5 is full automation and will negotiate any terrain without immediate supervision of the path or vehicle function. These will be purely military or exploratory vehicles, Moon, Mars, and such. We sort of have those already, too, but not for use on Earth.
Level 1: most functions are still controlled by the driver, but steering or accelerating can be done by the car.
Lots of those on the market now.
Level 2: at least one driver assistance system of "both steering and acceleration/ deceleration using information about the driving environment" is automated, like cruise control and lane-centering. This can be hands off but the driver has to be in position. Coming to a lot of dealerships near you soon.
Level 3: Will probably be skipped,drivers are still necessary, but shift "safety-critical functions" to the vehicle, under certain traffic or environmental conditions. It means that the driver is still present and will intervene if necessary. This transfer is tricky so we won't see level 3 much. Tesla can do this now.
Level 4: This is what is meant by "fully autonomous." These perform all safety-critical driving functions and monitor roadway conditions for an entire trip. But this is only within the defined ability of the vehicle. You can buzz down the highway but not through confusing neighborhoods.
What you hear about from the talking heads on TV is not ever happening. The results of the research will benefit the ultimate designs. "That's why they call it Research and Design."
Actually.....very few things are accidents. Most of what we cal accidents are entirely preventable, and computers will prevent them. The goal is for these self driving systems to be better then the top 10% of drivers.
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It would be a great benefit if automation could help the bottom 50% of drivers.
I honestly don't think we'll ever get there. Not that the technology won't be there, because it's almost there now. The issue is demand.
At any given time we have four generations of drivers on the road. Most of those on the road today won't accept fully autonomous cars, many because they don't trust the technology, but most because they simply like to drive and won't want to give it up. So we'll probably have to cycle through two generations to reach a point where we'd have a majority of drivers who would accept a fully autonomous car.
I just think that by the time that happens - and we're talking 50 years down the road - something else will come along that seems like an even better idea to most folks and will be even more efficient. By that time I could see personal vehicles banned from our largest cities, replaced by a more user-friendly mass transit system, and expanded commuter bus or rail systems running between towns. Given that the highest anticipated demand for autonomous cars would seem to be from city drivers tired of fighting traffic and those who commute to another town for work, it seems like advances such as this would put a huge dent in demand for autonomous cars.
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.
Both are round, edible fruit, grown on trees. You needa better contra example.
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, and Car A doesn't honk at car Q, following it off the exit road right on the bumper, throwing trash bottles at it...
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