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I remember when I was a kid back in the 80s, everyone thought we'd all be driving around in hovering cars by now (think Back to the Future II). The truth is, things haven't advanced all that much since then. I'm 37 and I don't see driverless cars becoming the norm in my lifetime. In 2020 pretty much all vehicles sold will still have a steering wheel, and the average vehicle stays on the road for at least 15 years, so we're looking at normal cars being in the road at least until 2035.
Driverless cars may come onto the market, but they're going to have to coexist with normal ones driven by humans. If it turns out driverless cars cause a lot of accidents, it'll turn into a huge liability for the automakers and they'll bail, so there's not much room for error. Americans love to sue automakers, and driverless cars will create an even bigger opportunity.
I remember when I was a kid back in the 80s, everyone thought we'd all be driving around in hovering cars by now (think Back to the Future II). The truth is, things haven't advanced all that much since then. I'm 37 and I don't see driverless cars becoming the norm in my lifetime. In 2020 pretty much all vehicles sold will still have a steering wheel, and the average vehicle stays on the road for at least 15 years, so we're looking at normal cars being in the road at least until 2035.
Driverless cars may come onto the market, but they're going to have to coexist with normal ones driven by humans. If it turns out driverless cars cause a lot of accidents, it'll turn into a huge liability for the automakers and they'll bail, so there's not much room for error. Americans love to sue automakers, and driverless cars will create an even bigger opportunity.
Cars will have steering wheels for a long time. People like me enjoy driving cars but on a 10 hour trip like I just took, I'm ok with a nap or a movie or something while the car drives itself.
Driverless cars will statistically have fewer accidents. I almost got ran off the road 3 times yesterday by people drifting into my lane as i passed them on a corner. I saw about 8 wrecks and one car on fire. At one point I was at a complete stop while everybody in my lane gawked at a fender bender on the opposite side of the interstate. I have people passing me at 95 mph, then slowly drifting back to 60 mph just to realize they needed to pass me again. People get bored on long trips and break up the boredom by either driving like idiots or playing in their phone. The fewer human drivers the better.
Cars will have steering wheels for a long time. People like me enjoy driving cars but on a 10 hour trip like I just took, I'm ok with a nap or a movie or something while the car drives itself.
I doubt any auto manufacturer is ever going to tell you it's okay to nap or watch a movie. They will always put the responsibilty on the owner and expect you to be alert. If there's ever an error and the accident report comes back that you were asleep, you pretty much have zero right to sue, in fact you may be the one getting sued. I doubt your auto insurance would even cover something like that.
I doubt any auto manufacturer is ever going to tell you it's okay to nap or watch a movie. They will always put the responsibilty on the owner and expect you to be alert. If there's ever an error and the accident report comes back that you were asleep, you pretty much have zero right to sue, in fact you may be the one getting sued. I doubt your auto insurance would even cover something like that.
Basically what we have now is level 2. Volvo is skipping to Level
4. If you give a human an inch they'll take a foot, so you either have to fully automate it or humans won't pay attention anyway.
The first time someone is killed in or by a self-driving car, the whole thing will vanish and be just a blip in history.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Ziggy100
Becuse human driving cars are so much safer?
It's not hard to get a better safety record than human drivers have now.
We you saying this about cruise control when it first came out?
Safety records won't matter. The human response to a death caused by a driverless car, will doom it. And I've always recognized cruise-control as dangerous. It takes a driver's mind off the task of managing the throttle and awareness of everything else is also diminished. It would be so much easier to fall asleep at the wheel, with cruise-control. Even automatic transmissions make it too easy to drive and dilute the attention to the task. Four-on-the-floor, with a clutch, would be the only way to go, if I drove a car.
Safety records won't matter. The human response to a death caused by a driverless car, will doom it. And I've always recognized cruise-control as dangerous. It takes a driver's mind off the task of managing the throttle and awareness of everything else is also diminished. It would be so much easier to fall asleep at the wheel, with cruise-control. Even automatic transmissions make it too easy to drive and dilute the attention to the task. Four-on-the-floor, with a clutch, would be the only way to go, if I drove a car.
And yet cruise control and automatics live on. In fact, do they even make cars without cruise control anymore?
I agree if cars still required all 4 of your appendages to operate, had no radio or cruise control, we probably wouldn't need driverless cars.
That's a test vehicle. Its just doing right so world testing. That's where the driverless car will get its data. Baby steps.
Surely you meant to say Roomba steps?
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I'm sorry, Dave, I can't do that ...
