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.
If someone is stopped in the road ahead and you don't see it in time, your car will be "stopping itself" one way or the other. Either when it applies automatic braking or when it slams into something. Which would you prefer?
I have been driving since 1958. Oh, sure, there have been accidents (after all, I am mnot even close to "perfect"), but none that radar guided automatic braking would have prevented.
Oh, wait, there was one when I was distracted by some girls playing lawn tennis, and ran into the back of a parked car. But I was riding an old Schwinn bicycle at the time, so I don't think that counts.
It's never happened in almost 40 years of driving.
One accident and it wasn't my fault, drunk slammed into the back of me...not stopped but doing 65 mph on I-85.
And you haven't died in an estimated 55 years of living but you eventually will and it could be at any time. Sorry, but millions of drunks out there could just as well say they haven't slammed into the back of a car in almost 40 years of drinking.
When you pass a serious wreck and see three or four cars in various stages of destruction arrayed wildy around a seriously totaled SUV or passenger car... at least two of the drivers in the crowd could drive really, really well... and? That saved them? Their cars? So spare me the hubris.
Navy fighter jets cost millions of dollars apiece, and landing them on aircraft carriers is hellish. Plenty have been lost. So now they land themselves, and on final approach the pilot has to show both hands in the air to the landing officer in the control tower so that s/he is not court martialed regardless of the outcome of the landing.
These won't be Windows 10 operating systems cars. Errors will be very rare. Nonexistent once the bugs are worked out. But given the sorry state of human driving, even beta versions of semi and fully autonomous vehicles will be a damn sight better than 3 in 5 drivers are.
When you pass a serious wreck and see three or four cars in various stages of destruction arrayed wildy around a seriously totaled SUV or passenger car... at least two of the drivers in the crowd could drive really, really well... and? That saved them? Their cars? So spare me the hubris.
Navy fighter jets cost millions of dollars apiece, and landing them on aircraft carriers is hellish. Plenty have been lost. So now they land themselves, and on final approach the pilot has to show both hands in the air to the landing officer in the control tower so that s/he is not court martialed regardless of the outcome of the landing.
These won't be Windows 10 operating systems cars. Errors will be very rare. Nonexistent once the bugs are worked out. But given the sorry state of human driving, even beta versions of semi and fully autonomous vehicles will be a damn sight better than 3 in 5 drivers are.
You sound like you would fully trust a computer with your life. Not me.
Frankly I can't wait to have the self driving cars, personally. Even if they putter along under the speed limit.. if I can remove my focus from the road onto my mobile device, I consider it freed up time, to a degree.
I wish the technology had trickled down faster. As I sit looking for a slightly used 2013-2015 model car, none of them have adaptive cruise except at the very highest, "touring" level builds.
If all this stuff raises the inflation adjusted price $5-10K it won't be worth it though.. they have to find a way to bring the costs down.
We have had the technology to do this for many years. They are called trains, buses, or taxis. No need to focus on the road.
If someone is stopped in the road ahead and you don't see it in time, your car will be "stopping itself" one way or the other. Either when it applies automatic braking or when it slams into something. Which would you prefer?
There are several solutions to that problem. See it in time or go around it. Your two choices are not the only choices.
My point was there are only two outcomes, you stop the car or it will stop itself (one way or the other).
Playing devil's advocate here...so if the car stops itself and prevents me from going around (which I've had to do with cars pulling out in front of me) and someone hits me from behind? I trust myself and my judgement more than the car's "brain".
You sound like you would fully trust a computer with your life. Not me.
Which is why, at some point in the nearish future, you won't be given a choice about it.
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.
