Google's self driving cars

[Nick]

This is a fascinating article.

http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2013/11/25/131125fa_fact_bilger?currentPage=all

It's cool to hear about some of the specifics of challenges they engineers face - example is those subtle "nonverbal" cues we as drivers give to each other. Example,

"

Four-way stops were a good example. Most drivers don’t just sit and wait their turn. They nose into the intersection, nudging ahead while the previous car is still passing through. The Google car didn’t do that. Being a law-abiding robot, it waited until the crossing was completely clear—and promptly lost its place in line. “The nudging is a kind of communication,” Thrun told me. “It tells people that it’s your turn. The same thing with lane changes: if you start to pull into a gap and the driver in that lane moves forward, he’s giving you a clear no. If he pulls back, it’s a yes. The car has to learn that language.”

I'm really looking forward to seeing this, it could be a huge huge shift in transportation.

One of the really interesting things they talk about is risk ...

Still, sooner or later, a driverless car will kill someone. A circuit will fail, a firewall collapse, and that one defect in three hundred thousand will send a car plunging across a lane or into a tree. “There will be crashes and lawsuits,” Dean Pomerleau said. “And because the car companies have deep pockets they will be targets, regardless of whether they’re at fault or not. It doesn’t take many fifty- or hundred-million-dollar jury decisions to put a big damper on this technology.” Even an invention as benign as the air bag took decades to make it into American cars, Pomerleau points out. “I used to say that autonomous vehicles are fifteen or twenty years out. That was twenty years ago. We still don’t have them, and I still think they’re ten years out.”

When you think about it. What's better ...

a) You driving a car where you have a 1 in 100,000 chance of killing yourself, but at least you are controlling it and maybe in that final moment you know you f*(&ed up and it's your fault or

b) You are in a self-driving car that has a 1 in 500,000 chance of killing you, but when it happens it's like ... holy crap a software glitch.

I would hazard a guess that society would feel that B is worse than A just because it was totally out of someone's control, even though on the whole you would be much safer.

So many interesting questions around this concept.

 

[wa-loaf]

It would be nice to hop in the car early in the morning and nap on your way to skiing or work. Just as long as I can go into manual mode whenever you want.

Would it be legal to drive home if you went to the bar and got wasted? I also predict a rise in highway sex acts if you don't have to focus on the road ...

 

[bvibert]

It's interesting technology, but I have zero interest in using it.

 

[dmc]

I can't wait... Would be so nice to curl up and sleep on the way home.. Or get drunk and let the car drive.. Or send the car out to a friends house so they can use it.. Or... mmmmm... the future....

 

[ScottySkis]

This is awesome, I been talking about this forever no more accidents due to mistakes by driver.

 

[ctenidae]

It's interesting technology, but I have zero interest in using it.

-1.

Because I have than no interest in using it. Would love others to, though.

 

[Glenn]

It's interesting technology, but I have zero interest in using it.

I'm split. I love driving, but I hate traffic. It amazes me how few people watch their mirrors on the highway. In a perfect world, I'd be able to set the cruise control in VT, and not click it off until I exit. I can make it maybe 1/2 way on a good Sunday night. Friday rights up? No way.

 

[Nick]

I don't like the idea of removing the option of me to drive myself, but TBH this would be great for certain trips.

Skiers should love it. Imagine getting in your car at 4AM and just hitting the destination and taking a nap (although I think in the current iterations you still would need to be aware in the car .... )

 

[bvibert]

If I had to drive in traffic on even somewhat of a regular basis my opinion might be different. I do get frustrated with traffic from time to time on my commute, but that just means I'm forced to keep the speed down to 65 due to "congestion". I avoid true traffic like the plague.

 

[dmc]

I don't like the idea of removing the option of me to drive myself, but TBH this would be great for certain trips.

Skiers should love it. Imagine getting in your car at 4AM and just hitting the destination and taking a nap (although I think in the current iterations you still would need to be aware in the car .... )

It would be so great... And with all my driving in the NYC area- it would be great to just not care about driving...

I even dream of a world where if you need a car - one shows up at your house for you and you let it drive you somewhere. Then when you're ready to go somewhere else - you just have another show up.. Maybe you own the cabin portion and the driving portion disconnects and goes on to the next person.. I love the future...

 

[ScottySkis]

It would be so great... And with all my driving in the NYC area- it would be great to just not care about driving...

I even dream of a world where if you need a car - one shows up at your house for you and you let it drive you somewhere. Then when you're ready to go somewhere else - you just have another show up.. Maybe you own the cabin portion and the driving portion disconnects and goes on to the next person.. I love the future...

+1 we so agree on this.

 

[Nick]

It would be so great... And with all my driving in the NYC area- it would be great to just not care about driving...

I even dream of a world where if you need a car - one shows up at your house for you and you let it drive you somewhere. Then when you're ready to go somewhere else - you just have another show up.. Maybe you own the cabin portion and the driving portion disconnects and goes on to the next person.. I love the future...

I've been thinking recently about how much has happened in 100 years and how bummed I am that I wont be able to witness the cool things that will exist 100, 200, 400 years from now*.

*Unless there is a huge war and lots of devastation.

 

[C-Rex]

I've been thinking recently about how much has happened in 100 years and how bummed I am that I wont be able to witness the cool things that will exist 100, 200, 400 years from now*.

*Unless there is a huge war and lots of devastation.

+1
I'd love to see what the world is like in a few hundred years. And even more than that, I'd love to see it in a couple thousand years. Will we even make it that far?

As far as the cars go, I'd like to see autonomous driving on the highways but I like driving too much to give it up on the back roads. It'd be cool to pull on to 91, set the car to get off at exit X in VT, and then drive the rest of the way to the mountain. All it would need is an alarm like 2 or 3 miles before to make sure I'm ready to take over.

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[dmc]

I've been thinking recently about how much has happened in 100 years and how bummed I am that I wont be able to witness the cool things that will exist 100, 200, 400 years from now*.

*Unless there is a huge war and lots of devastation.

Yeah cause nothing amazing has really happened in the last 25 years... It's true... i just checked the internet... haha..

 

[dmc]

+1
I'd love to see what the world is like in a few hundred years. And even more than that, I'd love to see it in a couple thousand years. Will we even make it that far?

As far as the cars go, I'd like to see autonomous driving on the highways but I like driving too much to give it up on the back roads. It'd be cool to pull on to 91, set the car to get off at exit X in VT, and then drive the rest of the way to the mountain. All it would need is an alarm like 2 or 3 miles before to make sure I'm ready to take over.

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Will cars even exist in 200 years?

Even the Enterprise could be flown manually in Star Trek..

 

[mlctvt]

I have mixed feelings - As a car guy who loves to drive even very long distances this doesn't interest me much but as a road cyclist who rides 4500-5000 mils per year I see that the roads would be MUCH safer with this technology. Especially over the last few years as distracted driving continues to increase. It seems like every third car on the rod the river is looking down at their lap instead of the road.

 

[Geoff]

I sure hope self-driving cars exist by the time I'm old & feeble and lose my driver's license. Basically, your independent world ends once you can't drive.

Until that time, it would be awfully nice to be able to drink as much as I want at the bar. I'm so paranoid about DUI that I never risk it.