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It's going to be more suitable for highways than city traffic. Similar to how you wouldn't use autopilot to land a plane, even though it's *technically* doable.
I can imagine a park-and-ride service on urban highways that operates like a HOV carpool lot and a personal rapid transit (PRT) system on dedicated express/HOV lanes. It would have to be flexible enough that you can "call up" a car if none are parked there at the moment. Within the city you're going to want a mass transit system to connect to this, that too should be computerized and automated (e.g., Vancouver Skytrain). Or have it only go to high demand centralized locations that would likely need dedicated ramp connections (e.g., airports, employment centers, downtown garages).
However, I don't believe all driving will be automated any more than I believe we'll all have flying cars. By the way, IF automated cars ever became the standard, we will have squeezed the middle class out of car ownership...
Google is now testing their self driving cars in city traffic. Why wouldn't we at least try this stuff? People used to think bottled water was a bad idea.
I am. People end up hating others if they have to drive them around, I guess that's understandable. Robots and computers won't get mad at you, cause they're programmed to do whatever, and they're machines, so they can't get mad at you. Pretty sad it has to go to that. Relying on robots because people don't want to help others, so we have to build robots and program them to help us (that'd probably happen anyway, but that's not my point).
Google take the wheel (literally)
Hell yeah. Even more ready for OTHER people to let go. Too many idiots that can't pay attention to the damn road anymore.
Not at all. I hate the idea of this technology. And as with the growing mechanization of society, it will just put more people out of work if it were to be fully implemented: commercial vehicle drivers, bus drivers, etc.
I am. People end up hating others if they have to drive them around, I guess that's understandable. Robots and computers won't get mad at you, cause they're programmed to do whatever, and they're machines, so they can't get mad at you. Pretty sad it has to go to that. Relying on robots because people don't want to help others, so we have to build robots and program them to help us (that'd probably happen anyway, but that's not my point).
Underneath all the hype, oversimplification. and unrealistic expectations, there is a grain of truth with tremendous potential, but implementing it is going to require a very long lead time and a whole lotta money.
Let's consider, for openers, a form of transportation which operates over a very fixed, and very finite network -- the railroads. I know of only a handful of urban transit systems where the vehicles don't require an operator, and most of them operate in situations like subways where the possibility of disruptions from outside that environment -- such as pedestrians in danger on the track, is limited. The DC Metro, which began construction nearly 45 years ago, was originally intended for fully-automated, crewless operation, but reality intervened.
I've been familiar with rail dispatching and operating practices since I was a teenager, and I can introduce anyone here to a Yahoo group which deals with simulation models suitable to this craft.
A number of people from that group (not to mention those actually confronting the issue for pay) have dabbled with the prospect of simulating a dispatcher's thoughts and rationale. it can be done, of course, but the process is "open-ended"; that is, there are so many possibilities, and the number of potential "dead-ends" (places where programming is not in place because the situation was not anticipated) increases at a near-geometric ratio to the scope of the territory covered.
And that's only railroading -- with a fixed right-of-way, and a limited number of moves and options; now, let's consider the problems on an open highway.
Some of us, if we're lucky, get enough miles of practice that we're able to at least anticipate, if not always keep things under control in the really nasty situations -- snow or freezing rain, intense fog, etc, but there are always limits. Back in the Seventies, when I worked for a couple of trucking lines, I cleaned up the mess after one of our drivers, without warning, blew a steering (front) tire at 60 mph. That man (with 25 years experience) was able to guide the wreck away from the opposing lanes, and he escaped serious injury, but the rig was totaled. Few casual drivers are capable of those reactions, and I don't like to think what could have happened with only a collection of semiconductors "behind the wheel".
Yet having raised those concerns, I want to point out that the most basic parts of the technology have been developed and that a real-world laboratory and "proving ground"does exist -- specifically, the handful of superhighways; New York Thruway, Ohio and Indiana Toll Roads, Florida and Kansas Turnpikes -- where "double-bottom" operation of full-size (45-53 ft) trailers rather than the 23-28 ft "pups" is permitted. The concept wouldn't work in hilly territory like the Pennsylvania Pike, nor with sharp curves (ever watch a driver wrestle a 53-foot box around a tight corner in an urban setting?) and separate lanes, or even roadways would have to be designated and likely fenced, but the potential for eventual economies is enormous.
Last edited by 2nd trick op; 04-29-2014 at 03:55 PM..
MyNameIsNotPeter, you last posted here at 3:25. At 4:15 you were asking how to delete your account?
Why?
This has to be at least the 5th or 6th thread you've started about self-driving cars. Those go along with your innumerable threads about college.
The answers never change.
To "delete" your account just stop posting.
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