Autonomous cars: Atlanta's transportation future? (shop, safe, drivers license)

[cqholt]

Originally Posted by primaltech

And Atlanta will be saved. Metropolitan areas like Atlanta and Los Angeles especially, that designed around the automobile and then bad traffic happened, will be saved by this future. Our quality of life, mobility issues, parking requirements, bad drivers, safety, urban density and human-scale streets, all of it could really be fixed by embracing this technology. Especially if transit is a part of it as well. Automated bus routes mixed in with all the automated cars. (Plus we also still have traditional rail transit.)

If every day I can just hit a button and a small pod comes and picks me up wherever I'm at, and drops me off literally wherever I want to go in the whole metro, then any congestion delay experienced along the way is no big deal, because I can be multitasking or relaxing or doing anything I want while riding in the pod (car).

Basically it would turn our vast connected roadway system into one big transit system. Personal Rapid Transit pods, mixed with mass transit vehicles, and everything in the middle, such as pools of 4 people or 6 people or whatever. And freight and trucks are automated as well. And parking is no longer a concern at all. Everybody just gets dropped off everywhere, like transit. With some exceptions, like families or some people who might want to own their own car and customize it and such.

Just imagine how this world could transform the face of Atlanta as we know it. There could be maybe 90% fewer parking inside the city limits. With all that space re-purposed into human space, and productive buildings. You could walk around so much easier, and just plain get around so much easier. You don't even own a car. Let's say you live in Virginia Highland and want to go to some place you like on Howell Mill- just hit a button, it picks you up, goes there, drops you off, bills your credit card (for cheaper fare than what Uber/Lyft currently cost). Or you want to go to the airport, so you hail a ride to a MARTA station a couple miles away, for free, or for really cheap.

We'll come back to this statement in 5-10 years.

[jsvh]

Google's Waymo heads to Atlanta to test its self-driving cars

Watch them in action:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aaOB-ErYq6Y

[tikigod311]

Whoooo! Bring. it on.

[Need4Camaro]

Cool stuff and all but I truly would hate to give a computer the role of driving a vehicle.. maybe if ALL cars on the road are self driving it would be alittle better.. but in general, there's just too many unexpected and unaccountable variables when driving that a machine alone cannot account for that a human's eye (thats not watching a cellphone) can.

By the way, who gets the ticket when that thing gets pulled over... ...or better yet...will it pull over?

[primaltech]

AV's would reduce road fatalities by like 90% or something. Everyone who opposes or holds back AV from production/adoption, should have to explain to grieving mothers why you murdered their kid because you were a Luddite.

[Need4Camaro]

Originally Posted by primaltech

AV's would reduce road fatalities by like 90% or something. Everyone who opposes or holds back AV from production/adoption, should have to explain to grieving mothers why you murdered their kid because you were a Luddite.

When that actually comes to past I'll believe it but until AV's are actually the main vehicle on the road there's no way to officially prove that. Their dependency on electronics (and quite a broad array of them) to function properly where as some of these components even by today's standards are still unreliable (GPS for example) will always be a turn off for me. There is simply put no replacement for a human driver.

What causes accidents is people not paying attention, not following the road rules, playing on the phone, speeding, and simply put not driving by the book. 90% of accidents could be prevented by strengthening drivers awareness, and this can be seen in places like Germany where you cannot get a license out of a cereal box.

In a PERFECT WORLD, AV's would hold an advantage, but in a real world scenario, anything can happen - and a machine cannot account for anything more than its programmed to account for.

As for the mothers... It was a improperly driven vehicle that caused the accident, thus a drivers fault. Not my own nor my decisions, if she truly has an issue with it then like many -- we need to push for strengthening drivers regulations. Far too many people on the road get away with crap and end up right back on the highway a couple of months later.

[brown_dog_us]

You can't strengthen driver awareness.

[samiwas1]

Originally Posted by primaltech

AV's would reduce road fatalities by like 90% or something. Everyone who opposes or holds back AV from production/adoption, should have to explain to grieving mothers why you murdered their kid because you were a Luddite.

I can't help but feel you're the forum Devil's Advocate. Sometimes, you argue against things that you wildly support in another thread. Confused.

I think self-driving cars are great, but I am firm in my belief that they should have a manual takeover. There any number of situations in which the vehicle may not be able to figure out what to do, where to go, or how to get to a location. Especially when you get out into rural areas, or large business lots, or even some neighborhoods. Let's not even get into bad weather situations and fallen trees. So, so many things in which having a manual option would be a necessity. I am not willing to give full, sole control to whatever algorithm some guy programmed in.

[primaltech]

Originally Posted by samiwas1

I can't help but feel you're the forum Devil's Advocate. Sometimes, you argue against things that you wildly support in another thread. Confused.

It's performance art. JK.

I'm pro-cars (and transit). I'm pro-driving. But I'm also very pro-advancement and technology.

AV is a game-changer. We need to go all in. And that includes our attitudes about it.

[MattCW]

We don't even have fully automated trains yet, and those have far less variables than cars do!