Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
a 10 car sample size of prototypes doesn't mean much. I think the safety is unproven because they haven't gone into production yet. they are unproven on a commercial scale.
beyond that I think the biggest problem they seem to have is the bulky awkward-looking radar system that must be mounted high above the roofline, which destroys not only the aesthetics of the car but more importantly the aerodynamics. and that will have a huge negative impact on your fuel economy. driving with such a bulky contraption on your roof could cut your fuel economy by up to half. it seems kinda pointless for Google to have these running on a bunch of Prius hybrids because your fuel efficiency is going to go out the window anyway. you may as well be driving a Hummer. appearance-wise I can't imagine anyone who would want to put this thing on their car. it'll make you look like the biggest dork.
its a bird, its a plane. its the Google car!
Visual appeal is not usually a high priority of technological prototypes. I would be surprised if the final technology is any more noticeable than the back-up technology on cars.
Visual appeal is not usually a high priority of technological prototypes. I would be surprised if the final technology is any more noticeable than the back-up technology on cars.
a back up camera only has to see a few feet in the back of a vehicle moving at low speed. it doesn't have to transmit radar signals hundreds of feet 360 degrees in every direction while moving up to 70 mph or more. big difference. I doubt something like that could be made very unnoticeable, unless you're going to sacrifice a great deal of safety.
a back up camera only has to see a few feet in the back of a vehicle moving at low speed. it doesn't have to transmit radar signals hundreds of feet 360 degrees in every direction while moving up to 70 mph or more. big difference. I doubt something like that could be made very unnoticeable, unless you're going to sacrifice a great deal of safety.
I wouldn't underestimate technology's ability to be made smaller and less noticeable with time.
I wouldn't underestimate technology's ability to be made smaller and less noticeable with time.
good luck with that. even technology as impressive as it can be has its limits. the roof mounted radar alone or Lidar as its called currently goes for $70 thousand. or triple the average retail price of a new car. and that's just for the stuff on the roof. the interior equipment needed to make it work goes for another 80 or 90 thousand. even if they eventually got all that down to 10 to 20 thousand, a big if, it would still be out of reach for most people. good luck.
good luck with that. even technology as impressive as it can be has its limits. the roof mounted radar alone or Lidar as its called currently goes for $70 thousand. or triple the average retail price of a new car. and that's just for the stuff on the roof. the interior equipment needed to make it work goes for another 80 or 90 thousand. even if they could get all that down to 10 to 20 thousand, a big if, it would still be out of reach for most people. good luck.
Plenty of people drop 40k+ on a car. I'll go into a business park even in Sacramento (which is relatively non-flashy, not a ton of money) and it's at least half BMWs, Lexi, Mercs. In San Francisco or San Jose, that rises up to 80%. At 10-20k, it'd be doable for quite a few. It almost certainly wouldn't trickle down to your Civics or even CamCords, but I could see it being an option on the Avalon or Ford Taurus. Most wouldn't buy it, of course, but then most people don't buy the Taurus SHO either.
I think this view is optimistic. People like their cars. I admit that, eventually, as younger generations overtake older ones, vehicle ownership might almost disappear. But, for the foreseeable future, people like car ownership. I, personally, don't want to "share" a car. I like to leave things in my car. I like having some measure of control over who is in my car. And I doubt I'm alone in this. So, if people don't give up car ownership, the cityscape won't change entirely; sure, vehicles will be able to park remotely, etc., etc., but the garage, driveway, or apartment parking space will still stick around.
Quote:
Originally Posted by jsvh
There has been a lot of talk about self driving cars recently. Google is apparently making good progress on their's and racking up miles on public roads.
Assuming we work through any issues and these start to become a reality and eventually a common thing in the near future, how do they affect how we design our cities? Will it be as dramatic a change as when cars came into use? More density? More suburbanization / exurbanization?
I think it may spur a lot of changes. I think most people will eventually no longer own a car. Just use a "taxi" service to drive them around. Self driving cars would increase road capacity and reduce the stress of long commutes so I think that will continue people moving to land further out from the city. It will also allow for easier connections to mass transit if it would let you by pass traffic / save time / save money.
I think it will get rid of a lot of surface parking. Driveways and garages will disappear from houses allowing suburbs. The huge lots surrounding big box stores and all our buildings will go away and be replaced with more buildings creating more walk-able areas. All allowing for suburbs and urban areas to be denser.
On a whole I think it will shift us to cities that have dense cores and support easier urban living but will allow for people to still live far away and get into town with less stress. It will make it easier to live what lifestyle you choose.
good luck with that. even technology as impressive as it can be has its limits. the roof mounted radar alone or Lidar as its called currently goes for $70 thousand. or triple the average retail price of a new car. and that's just for the stuff on the roof. the interior equipment needed to make it work goes for another 80 or 90 thousand. even if they eventually got all that down to 10 to 20 thousand, a big if, it would still be out of reach for most people. good luck.
Can someone explain to me how this would reduce traffic? I don't want to read the paper or do homework while I'm in the car. I would never be able to concentrate or focus as the car makes turns, stops, etc. Maybe it's just me, but I don't see how the improved safety measures and fewer car accidents can compensate for the fact that millions of people will lose their jobs, the logistics of this entire system will take years upon years of headaches to figure out, and most of all, I will never be able to enjoy a ride on a summer day with the windows down. By the way, out of all the possible problems, I think the aesthetics of the car is the least important. Every person's car will be exactly the same, albeit color and maybe shape, but the radar will need to be implemented until they think of something else. But, it will not matter if it looks ugly or artistically displeasing since uniqueness will be traded in for uniform conformity via the advent of robot cars .
I think it may spur a lot of changes. I think most people will eventually no longer own a car. Just use a "taxi" service to drive them around. Self driving cars would increase road capacity and reduce the stress of long commutes so I think that will continue people moving to land further out from the city. It will also allow for easier connections to mass transit if it would let you by pass traffic / save time / save money.
I think it will get rid of a lot of surface parking. Driveways and garages will disappear from houses allowing suburbs. The huge lots surrounding big box stores and all our buildings will go away and be replaced with more buildings creating more walk-able areas. All allowing for suburbs and urban areas to be denser.
On a whole I think it will shift us to cities that have dense cores and support easier urban living but will allow for people to still live far away and get into town with less stress. It will make it easier to live what lifestyle you choose.
I think not. Cars do more than just drive one person to a destination, a taxi mode might be helpful for the handicapped or those who can’t drive but do not see people giving up car ownership. If anything this technology could lead to more traffic and less use of public transit systems(buses, Trains).
The problem with taxi’s driverless or not is that it is going to take some time for this thing to drive to the person who needs it(i.e. This would be like waiting for a bus or a train) most people who prefer not waiting at all. People also like to store items in cars and people use their cars to make more than one stop. The net effect of this is that it favors car ownership over taxis.
I do not see the garage going away, although mostly used for cars people also use it for storage(i.e. the lawn mower, snow shovels that you don’t want in the house ect..)
I can see this feature being used as follows: Stores, esp. grocery and big box ones could have a lane where yourself driving car pulls up to allow you to put items into the car. The reduces or eliminates the need to pay someone to return carts and is a great convince to the shopper (not having to walk across the lot). The also could have a lane for the car to drop you off before it heads into the lot to park itself.
Parking will not disappear (i.e. you gota have somewhere to park the thing and the farther you park it away the longer it will take to get there and the less you could use it for storage).
Last edited by chirack; 03-13-2013 at 11:39 PM..
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
.
