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What corporate legal department will go along with 'self driving' cars without some way to indemnify themselves? As there are major suits over design points as gas tank placement or accelerator pedal actions can you imagine the law suits over active actions taken by the vehicle. I don't expect (or want) a self driving car.
What corporate legal department will go along with 'self driving' cars without some way to indemnify themselves? As there are major suits over design points as gas tank placement or accelerator pedal actions can you imagine the law suits over active actions taken by the vehicle. I don't expect (or want) a self driving car.
You can bet a self driving car wont be having a gas tank as its power will be generated from an underground grid or transmission of microwave type power from satellites in space.
I wouldn't mind them as long as there's a way to disable the system and drive it manually. I can definitely see high speed lanes on busy highways for self-driving cars that are capable of communicating with other self-driving vehicles around and attain high speeds with very tight tolerances.
I wouldn't mind them as long as there's a way to disable the system and drive it manually. I can definitely see high speed lanes on busy highways for self-driving cars that are capable of communicating with other self-driving vehicles around and attain high speeds with very tight tolerances.
I cannot see the linked Video, but if this is the GM thing, it does not have a steering wheel. You call on the cell phone. It comes to your sell phone and the doors open. You get in and tell it where you want to go. It takes ou there and the doors open again. Somewhere in there, the doors close and you insert your credit card.
It is electric and must recharge after an hour of use. The idea is to have hundreds or thousands of them running around in a city and replace taxis, trains, cabs etc. They are not for driving between cities, just for getting around in the city itself.
Car already: tell you when to turn; slow down when approaching a slower moving or stationary object; park themselves; start the engine and warm up while you are inside our house or office; and communicate their locations via satellite.
This is really not that big of a step.
Weird thing is that our grandchildren will probably never learn how to drive a vehicle.
I think the video is talking about the "Google Car", but I agree that the GM EN-V system has a lot of positives going for it. The idea is that you can create a system composed of autonomous "pods" that you can beckon when you want them and get door-to-door service. Imagine as Coldjensens said, the grid of a major urban center. Then replace all forms of transportation with the exception of these "pods". No busses, no trains, no trolleys, no personal cars, you just call it when you need to go somewhere and it takes you. It would have a massive impact on the environment of a major city center and greatly lower congestion. Since the "pods" are all electric and incredibly cheap per unit, you could have thousands of them serving an area, providing better service and less congestion.
The above is something happening today in Tianjiang China where the EN-V concept is being launched next year as the first of several cities where they are trying the concept. Personally, I think this is a great direction for dense urban areas to go.
The next step of self-driving cars beyong that, which is what the Google Car is, would be a car that could drive itself anywhere. Yeah, we all want to "drive" to have fun, but I personally wouldn't mind being able to get in my car some afternoons and just tell it to drive me home.
Having watched more episodes of Air Crash Investigation that I care to admit, I can't think of a worse idea than driverless cars. In every incident where some automated system failed, only the actions of highly trained and experienced flight crews stood between disaster and survival. All too often when the outcome was a disastrous it was in part due to eroded pilot skills, pilots who learned to rely on their systems and not their training and experience.
When it comes to automobiles, drivers who have questionable skills already will become so reliant on their automated vehicle, they won't have a clue as to what to do. I'm not against systems like traction control, backup video cameras, even radar, but I'll be damned if I want to rely on a computer for making decisions about what evasive maneuvers that I need to make in order to avoid a collision. The system can only react to situations that programers can foresee not the one's that they didn't think of. That is what the brain is for, to react to what is before you not what some else didn't think of.
Our Honda Civic and Subaru Outback are the first cars that my wife and I have ever owned, and frankly I miss an automatic transmission as a safety feature. I can use changes of gearing as a control feature when entering or exiting tools depending how or where I enter a turn. The lack of a manual transmission only leaves me with braking. I don't like it and I certainly wouldn't like the car making those decisions.
Without sounding arrogant, I know that my driving skills are more advanced than the average driver which is my concern. If lesser skilled drivers already possess margin skills what is going to happen when what skills they have further erode as the result of relying on their automated cars?
Who is going to pay for the infrastructure required? Also, I am not keen on the idea of increasing capacity on highways of automated cars running bumper to bumper at 70 mph. If that is the goal, improve train transit; it's essentially the same thing and safer.
Even if the technology is perfect, you are still relying on individuals to maintain their cars properly, road maintenance, other variables.
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