Autonomous Cars

Would you buy an autonomous car

  • Yes

    Votes: 6 22.2%
  • No

    Votes: 21 77.8%

  • Total voters
    27
  • Poll closed .
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Low speed city centre shuttles would be ok but no chance of me trusting one for anything higher than running speed maybe! consider the stopping distance panic if the software took a brain fart at 70+, and like others have said, driving is fun for many of us.
 
I think the answer is-----not until society is forced to re-calibrate how it views the automobile. It will have to be as big a change as perhaps when we moved from horses to the horseless carriage and how many people now "drive" horses except as a hobby/ for recreation. :dk:

As an aside this caught my eye yesterday.

methode%2Ftimes%2Fprod%2Fweb%2Fbin%2Fe0b0cb6c-60e7-11e7-b102-510be645bace.jpg

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-vietnam-motorcycles-idUSKBN19P14K
 
We use Netapp disk arrays at work. There are two controllers for each Netapp array. If one controller is overloaded it can go into what is described in the error message as a "Complete Panic". During a Complete Panic it basically decides it can't function anymore, shuts down and hands over control to the other controller.

I imagine that is what an autonomous car would do faced with the above.
 
Would you buy one if one was available ?

I'd buy this one, if they were selling, and I could afford it :cool:

34944842123_22fea30b62_o.png


Mind you, this is almost 10 years old, so maybe they have some for sale ha-ha.
 
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no fun tho :(
 
Most commercial aircraft can take off, fly and land at most airports completely automatically because each aircraft has millions of pounds worth of technology onboard. Would you happily be a passenger in one without at least one pilot? How about a car that only has a few hundred pounds worth of technology?

The difference though is that a car can just stop if it detects a problem. Not an option with an airliner ...
 
We should distinguish between autonomous cars with a driver at the helm (same as auto-pilot in aircraft), and autonomous cars with no human driver (e.g. DLR or 'Jonny Cab').

I have no issue trusting the former, but it will be a while before I trust the latter...

BTW, the software algorithm for an autonomous car is very different to auto-pilot - because it needs input regarding both the terrain/obstacles and other moving objects (cars, pedestrians, animals), work out the trajectory, and avoid them, while observing the highway code.... I think this is a very different proposition to keeping an aircraft airborne and on target.
 
Its possible that the two systems might exist side by side in the same vehicle. For slow speed driving [30mph] in an urban environment the driver might switch[ be switched? ] to autonomous mode [ not many like driving in high density / traffic jam situations?] but once on the open road could given/take back a degree of manual control for higher speed driving?
 
Its possible that the two systems might exist side by side in the same vehicle. For slow speed driving [30mph] in an urban environment the driver might switch[ be switched? ] to autonomous mode [ not many like driving in high density / traffic jam situations?] but once on the open road could given/take back a degree of manual control for higher speed driving?

As I said; not so different from distronic plus with lane assistance.

Anyone seen the footage of the Tesla car spotting a collision and warning the driver before it happened? - Like it or not, the computer is better at it than a human.
 
Firm no from me.

Putting aside emotive consequences, as things stand, when a driver makes a mistake, he/she is punishable by law for their actions.

If an autonomous vehicle makes a mistake and harm is caused, the driver will still be held accountable because you can be sure the vehicle manufacturer or the software company won't accept responsibility.

This might seem an insignificant matter at first glance but whilst all the testing is going on and prototypes are being made, there will be a huge amount of human back-up which won't be present either standing in the dock beside you when the price for an error has to be paid or lending a hand when whatever software system crashes and you're stranded somewhere with no signal for some anonymous person halfway around the world tries to update the software......computer help desk helplines anyone?

These are complicated differential machines and should it find itself in a position where it is presented with the option to save the driver or save a group of people, will it choose the option with the lowest injury rate and decide to harm the driver, effectively over-riding human instinct for survival?

It is a legal and moral minefield or at least it should be considered as such before we merrily go handing governments and corporations the means to monitor our every movement when there are so many other options available.
 
It's not as simple as implementing driverless cars overnight, it will take time and laws and infrastructure will need to adapt.

It's churlish to say that it's not for me, I'll never adapt to such a thing.

Who knows what is around the corner, survivors adapt to new technology.
 
It's not as simple as implementing driverless cars overnight, it will take time and laws and infrastructure will need to adapt.

It's churlish to say that it's not for me, I'll never adapt to such a thing.

Who knows what is around the corner, survivors adapt to new technology.

There is an enormous number of issues to be boxed off before autonomous vehicles become a widespread reality. All that in addition to making them an attractive proposition for Joe Public.

The one I like is this; in the event that the autonomous driving system is unable to cope with the prevailing situation, the human (mug) sitting in the command position is expected to instantly be fully alert and able to take control (and full responsibility for whatever happens next) and save the day.

So, how does the human driver become qualified to do this? What would be the pass criteria for a human driving test in a world of autonomous cars?
 
So we'll have no more HGVs stuck down country lanes following their satnavs.:D
 
The-original-Rolls-Royce-Trials-car-1701.jpg



But then I said I'd buy a Horseless carriage, when I saw my first Silver Ghost in 1911.... when they become commercially viable and not that expensive. One day, when they're ready and all the gremlins have been sorted out.

And it took forty years for them to be affordable.

That's a very posh garage !
 
When Microsoft, Apple, Dell, Intel and co can produce affordable software and hardware that never crashes, I'll give it a thought. But even then human frailties will remain part of the equation in the design, construction, programming and maintenance of the control systems and infrastructure. All great stuff as aids and tools, but I'd struggle to rely on it implicitly. Most commercial aircraft can take off, fly and land at most airports completely automatically because each aircraft has millions of pounds worth of technology onboard. Would you happily be a passenger in one without at least one pilot? How about a car that only has a few hundred pounds worth of technology?
 
They are safer already



The ones being tested are already safer. But arguably they do that by being more cautious than human drivers.

We report that we harm 180,000 people a year in the UK in road traffic collisions, including 22,000 cases of serious harm and 1,700 deaths. As drivers we're not as perfect as we'd like to think.

Like teen drivers, they won't be let onto the road until "we" believe that they are safe - which is an emotional, rather than statistical call.

When It Comes to Safety, Autonomous Cars Are Still "Teen Drivers"
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