Driverless Cars, Good Idea, Horrible Idea?

This should be fun!

Do you think Driverless cars are a good idea or not?

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-12-18/humans-are-slamming-into-driverless-cars-and-exposing-a-key-flaw



Asking for trouble I think.

This won't cause massive problems.

Hi, random programmer here.

No, we should not have driverless cars. If you feel otherwise, then you have a much rosier picture of software and the people who make it than I do.

I dont know.

The random ***i see from ppl on the raod i would prefer running along computer that know how to signal before pulling out in front of me. know how to not cross across lanes when turning in a intersection. understands the zipper principles for merging lanes. and can calculate for rain weather's affect in braking distance.

Judging the "future" of technology based on current state of technology might not be the best idea.

just going home from work today i had to take evasive maneuvers because some lady thought it was better to talk on her phone than check her blind spot before hazardous changing lanes with no blinkers on.

All i would say is sensors. How long will they last? glitches, repairs?

Its a nice idea and all but mechanical aspect is gonna give most of these a 5 year life span before being obsolete.

I think it's a great idea in theory. It would need to have a lot of safety checks and an amazing set of sensors/programming to go behind it.

It would have to be setup sort of like a modern railroad to work correctly. Not actually attached to the road but some sort of sensors or material to open communication between the car and the road.

You would then have to have a network that speaks to all the cars on the road close to each other to avoid conflicts or accidents.

If that was achieved we wouldn't even need speed limits outside of safety protocols. The cars could adjust speed for maximum efficiency based on nearby traffic or routes.

Everything I said probably sounds absolutely absurd lol. Rambling off.

In short... never going to happen properly anytime soon, but I think it could be awesome if done similar to how I just described.

A place I worked at as a seasonal many years ago had these robots that would pull shelves and bring them to people. Hundreds of them. I'll try to find a video. It was nucking futz when I saw it for the first time.

wow, chill.
just saying it'll probably be expensive. Sensor's that determine life and death situations probably are expensive.

Sure maybe it'll be all good. Fine by me. Just giving my view point.

Ok. Next question is who is at fault in an accident? Car owner I assume? How about if the computer picked wrong and killed someone.

I don't dismiss what google has done for sure. It's impressive. The videos they are showing are in 20-35 mph zones.

I actually see part of what rooks is saying. You can only program so much into sensors. You would likely want some sort of device in the road that is communicating with your car, and other cars around you. Actual communication, not just "sensing" eachother.

Hey I see you, Hey I see you. Versus the car saying, Hey I see and can read the mind of the vehicles near me. The car to my left is about to speed up and cross over into my lane so I'm going to adjust and compensate. It knows it before it even happens. The road knows it too.

This is all a theory and speculative of course. I'm not an expect in this nor will I pretend to be. I have logical theories though.

Another cool part of my theory is if a car breaks down in the far right lane, if the cars actually communicated with the road and eachother, the system could shift your car and all others into all lanes EXCEPT where the blockage is. So instead of people slowing down and trying to figure out how to let eachother merge over and cause a huge traffic jam, the network could already compensate for the congestion and orderly and efficiently as possible move people around.

In the current state of google drive, it would just sense your traffic jam and stick you there with everyone else.

The biggest problem with my own theory is that this would require EVERYONES vehicle to use such a system. Which is probably impossible.

Here is a video of what I was talking about previously for a temporary job I took years ago. It was called the KIVA system.

Specifically at the 49 second mark forward you'll see a system in my head similar to what this is.

You'll notice the bar codes on the floor. which is how they communicate and avoid each other.

Blew. My. Mind. The first time I saw this in person. The network interface that controlled it was equally impressive.

There is also the problem of cost of installing ALL viable roadways with the ability to interface with the "Network". Would be super expensive to achieve as well.

Makes sense.

Anyone have an idea on what a google car cost to make currently? Will it take 20 years to curb the expense?

You know what the worst part about that video is Schizm? It's impressive and very well controlled, but it doesn't change much due to one simple factor. The same factor we have an issue with today.

Other drivers.

Your car could be going along just fine like that in the video then WHAM someone hits you or causes the car to freak out because it can't avoid an accident.

You can already be a super safe and good driver, but it's the other people on the road that scare me.

That's my entire reason for wishing/hoping/theorizing a way for cars to speak to each other.

I don't want anyone to think I'm nay saying or unimpressed. I'm very impressed and it's fantastic where google and tesla are. It just needs much more still to make me feel safe and trust it.

I'm going to call it cautious optimism.

And on a related note, This is the gateway to the flying cars everyone fantasizes about. But you have to learn to "walk" before you can "fly".

lol.

I for one welcome our robot driver overlords. I *** hate driving and I hate other people driving even more. The sooner all cars are automated the better.