Nissan to offer autonomous vehicles
 

Taking the human element (aka mistakes) out of driving seems like a good thing to me as long as I get to keep driving the Z :driving:

Next up: flying cars! :tup:

I heard an interesting analogy on this once.

They compared the possibilities to people walking through a crowded area such as a shopping mall. There are people moving in every direction all at different speeds, yet no one runs into each other because we are moving slow enough that we can react and change. Applying the same concept to artificial intelligence and cars, we can effectively increase the speed of everyday transportation to seemingly ridiculous levels while simultaneously reducing, or even eliminating, collisions.

:tup: as long as it doesn't turn into iRobot :icon17:

Computers will never be able to predict the unpredictability of humans.


And I'm against this, because I don't want to be forced to drive some eco-friendly, slow, ugly, POS. :mad:

I can see terminator coming sooner than later. I might actually be around when that happens. I mean we already have super computers thinking and learning on their own, Watson for example.

one day our grandkids will be amazed that us old folks would personally pilot 2 ton death traps at 50+mph in opposite directions within mere inches of each other. risking our lives every day just to pick up milk.

our grandkids will look back at driving cars like we look back at asbestos or doctors who didn't believe in washing their hands inbetween an autopsy and a baby delivery.

"wow grandpa, you drove your own car with an engine that exploded flammable liquid 2 ft in front of you? how are you still alive?"

"son, back in my day, men were men, and drove themselves in cars that harnessed the power of million year old dinosaurs. none of this pansy electric self driving bs!"

But they'll also never have the thrill of driving a car.

You can still ride horses can't you?

Robot horses.

Yeah, I'm not looking forward to autonomous cars at all.

Rather have humans at the wheel.

Yeah.

Robots won't react to my middle finger or curse words.

:icon17:

We are a long, long, long way from even having a majority of vehicles on the road as autonomous. While it definitely doesn't have its place with the sports car crowd, there is definitely a market for it. Just like any vehicle segment. I wouldn't even consider owning a mini van, but won't downplay that they are great at what they do.

Did anyone see the new commercial where the vehicle is constantly checking for wrecks two cars ahead? Or BMWs lights that autodim for upcoming traffic in both directions, but only dim the necessary lane?

None of this matters because none of this is real. We are still in the Matrix.

We would lose the joy of cursing at some jack wad, dingleberry crapdriver because we would be "1884d" into complete subservience. This is more of the stupid "safety" mentality that somehow thinks we can escape death.
Dear Big Brother. Suck it!

I don't agree. Anything that gets grandma and soccer mom out of the left lane is ok by me!

Besides, planes take off and land by themselves every day.

Are you sure, I thought that's when autopilot was removed; for take-off and landing?

Yeah but just think about it this way...you'll have both hands hand free for firearms! I hate road raging when I have to drive with my knees!

Quite. They've been doing it for decades. They just don't talk a lot about it for obvious reasons.

Autoland - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The US Air Force just landed an unmaned and unguided (computer control) fighter on an air craft carrier.

Edit: In fact I would bet its use will become more and more widespread, outside of bad weather primarily today, since with it you 'could' fly planes closer together.

There is a market. But I'm allowed to state my opposition to it. A lot of people assume it will all be better than human drivers. My faith in software isn't as strong, and lives are at stake.
Yes, and the mercedes that stops automatically. Safety gimmicks in luxury cars are nothing new.

But does it? Do we know how the automaton drives? Could be just as bad.

Ah, figured it was military related. :tup:

I'm assuming by your comments and general attitude that you are a late adopter of most technologies.

The software won't be released untested. Google has had fully autonomous vehicles on the road for awhile now. Nissan is the first OEM to release a statement and they are targeting 2020. That's a substantial amount of time for testing.

I'm confused as to how you consider crash avoidance systems a gimmick? To be honest, the algorithm is pretty simple and tens of thousands people die in automotive accidents every year in the United States alone.

Out of curiosity, how would YOU make vehicles safer moving forward?

Autonomous cars would be the best thing for safety and speed. However the challenge is the liability. Today we can blame the driver, tomorrow we would blame the "system". Insurance companies are going to have a fit! Less revenue!

This statement must mean something different to both of us. This does not mean Google has cars driving around to random places intermingled with varying levels of human traffic and other autonomous cars in a practical manner. As such, controls tests aren't enough for me.

Seven cars logged over a quarter million miles in San Francisco in 2010 and the only accident was when one of them was rear ended at a stoplight by a human driver.

There are problems with autonomous vehicles. I envision it a bit like a rail system, except our seats can break off to turn while the majority of the group continues on. Then my seat goes where I want.

In the US, we have a ridiculously litigious culture. We like yearn to blame someone/something else for any slight problem. This system won't be perfect, and as such makers of such vehicles are going to feed many a lawyer for life... Heaven forbid someone dies due to an accident or is late getting to a hospital. Or we have arguments about manual mode being engaged or not...

Road work/maintenance is going to have an additional challenge of needing to update car software/mapping. We start relying on software/connectivity/satellites for movement rather than our eyes, hands, and a mechanical vehicle under our control, and we're going to have annoying problems.

I suppose car headlights will sense green/red lights. I see money in selling green flashlights in the future. Or red ones, for that matter.

There are more, but I just think it's not a great idea without actual in place systems.


But no, really, I look forward to Google-powered cars that move on their own and deliver to me ads in my car based on where I am and the things in my vicinity. Kinda like a tour guide "driven" by ad sales.

Source? I'd be fine reading up on it.

I have a white paper with the final results of the study, but I don't know if you will be able to get to it without the proper resources.

Here is a public article that has some outdated information from about halfway through the study. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/10/sc...pagewanted=all

I'll see if I can find something on the rest...

While there are definitely hurdles, it's not all that different than any other automotive technology. Drive by wire seemed ridiculous at one point too.

There was an entire discussion devoted to autonomous vehicles and hacking the vehicle networks at Black Hat this year.

Uber is looking to buy a few and it's an application where it makes perfect sense.
Dispatch From The Future: Uber To Purchase 2,500 Driverless Cars From Google | TechCrunch

Oh, yeah, I wasn't even going to get into the security aspects of it, which will be both interesting but also overhyped as well ( I need some CPEs anyway, so need to look these talks up). Kinda like in recent years with aviation systems and lack of firewall separation between in-plane guests and control systems. A facepalm moment, sure, but who the hell would attack that?

At least cars are more accessible and eventually more widespread.

Thanks for the info, though! :)

How do I consider safety systems a gimmick?

Lux vehicles have had a ton of them. Rotating headlamps, automatic parking, rearview cams, lane departure warning, the alarms detecting your head dipping for sleep, hell even the seatbelt off chimes. It all starts in mercs and lexii, because it costs more, and not all of those techs pass through to the common man, only ones that wind up making a difference for low cost. And some concepts are neat in theory but ineffective in practice.

Your personal assumptions and challenge aside, I know the software will be tested. All software is tested. But most of it has unpredicted bugs and flaws that manifest in unforeseen use cases.

I am not interested in making cars better. I think we should make drivers better. The American driving tests and penalties for dui aren't strong enough. And most drivers are lazily relying on safety mechanisms and aren't involved enough in the act of driving. These are my opinions, you are entitled to yours.

Has anyone seen an insurance company ready to insure anautonomous vehicles?