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Self Driving Cars

boone7247

boone7247

Well-Known Member
Aug 15, 2011
2,970
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Near the City
Okay so a couple google engineers have made a game to prove that self-driving cars are the future.

http://madewithmonsterlove.itch.io/error-prone

While I don't doubt that self driving cars would be better in most situations provided all the cars on the road are self driving. I believe the game really doesn't reflect real life, as the acceleration is all or nothing, and that is not true in real life. That said living in Chicago area, self driving cars on the expressways would be nice to help smooth traffic.
 
I'm excited about the technology but I'll just warn people now that these cars are going to drive other motorists crazy. You know how it feels when you're stuck behind an old lady, that is what life will be like with these self driving cars. In time I think they'll make them more aggressive and the more of them that are on the road the better but there is going to be a period where it's extremely painful. I can't wait for the day when I'm coming home from the bar and I can just push a button and it safely takes me home.
 
As a father with young kids, I can't wait for self driving cars so we can set off at night and all sleep on our way to the destination.
 
dmclone said:
I'm excited about the technology but I'll just warn people now that these cars are going to drive other motorists crazy. You know how it feels when you're stuck behind an old lady, that is what life will be like with these self driving cars. In time I think they'll make them more aggressive and the more of them that are on the road the better but there is going to be a period where it's extremely painful. I can't wait for the day when I'm coming home from the bar and I can just push a button and it safely takes me home.
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At least these cars can be programmed to get out of the left lane.
 
dmclone said:
I'm excited about the technology but I'll just warn people now that these cars are going to drive other motorists crazy. You know how it feels when you're stuck behind an old lady, that is what life will be like with these self driving cars. In time I think they'll make them more aggressive and the more of them that are on the road the better but there is going to be a period where it's extremely painful. I can't wait for the day when I'm coming home from the bar and I can just push a button and it safely takes me home.
Click to expand...

If you follow the rules of the road (which is all these cars are doing) then it shouldn't really be painful. The "pain" is caused by bad drivers. Do you think an army of driverless cars will be flying down the interstate at 80MPH? No, they'll all be doing 70 or whatever the speed limit is. But if you're just a passenger and can read, watch movies, play games, call/text people, do some work, etc., then there's no "pain" in being limited by the speed limit.
 
If a car is going to do things for humans it might as well be full-on instead of just a few things, although I hardly believe somewhere along the lines you're not going to have some sort of malfunction.

The lane-deviation warning systems, blind-spot indicators, self-braking, etc. are just plain wrong (as are the advertising for them), unless our goal is really to garner up as little self-awareness as possible.

I like the USB/radio connections though. Makes changing music safer and somewhat legal. One of my favorite technological advancement in automobiles.
 
dmclone said:
I'm excited about the technology but I'll just warn people now that these cars are going to drive other motorists crazy. You know how it feels when you're stuck behind an old lady, that is what life will be like with these self driving cars. In time I think they'll make them more aggressive and the more of them that are on the road the better but there is going to be a period where it's extremely painful. I can't wait for the day when I'm coming home from the bar and I can just push a button and it safely takes me home.
Click to expand...

We'd all move faster if we drove like old ladies in major city traffic. The driver who slams on the gas in heavy traffic only to slam on the break 3 seconds later as he rides someone's bumper is not helping traffic jams, typically they are the cause of the worst traffic because they add more accidents to it. In a small or mid sized town an old lady is just frustrating though.

When things would really get moving is if the cars could synch up in traffic. I think GPS in cars and phones could do a better job of giving people traffic sensitive directions, I have noticed an improvement with googlemaps doing that the past 3-4 years compared to 5-6 years ago.
 
besserheimerphat said:
If you follow the rules of the road (which is all these cars are doing) then it shouldn't really be painful. The "pain" is caused by bad drivers. Do you think an army of driverless cars will be flying down the interstate at 80MPH? No, they'll all be doing 70 or whatever the speed limit is. But if you're just a passenger and can read, watch movies, play games, call/text people, do some work, etc., then there's no "pain" in being limited by the speed limit.
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I'm not talking so much about the people in the driverless car, I'm talking about the other people who drive on the road.

Lets say that you're at a stop light behind a self drive car. Now lets say that it takes an average driver 15 seconds to get up to the speed limit. What is going to happen when it takes the self drive car 30 seconds because that's the safest acceleration?

Another example. Lets say that the self drive car is driving in the right lane and it sees a semi in front of it going 63mph so it decides to pass. Since it follows the rules of the road it won't go over 65 in the left lane. Now lets say that there are 10 cars in a row over in the right lane and it has to pass all of them or maybe the cars in the right lane have now sped up to 67 mph. Since it's so cautious it won't speed up to get around, it won't move over because it needs ** car lengths to move over. Now there is a one mile line of cars in the left lane behind the self drive car asking WTF.

Another scenario, this self driving car is driving down the interstate when it sees an empty box in it's lane. Now if I was driving I would slow down and switch lanes. What if the self driving car determines that the safest thing to do is come to a complete stop on the highway. It may be the safest for the self driving car but it may be more likely to actually cause an accident.

Once again, I think the technology is cool but there are times when breaking a law makes sense. I do think the syncing up of cars would help traffic if a large percentage were talking to each other.
 
I guess I'm a little reluctant, especially given the recent article that came out about guys hacking into a jeep and manipulating the radio, breaks, steering, etc. I'd have to feel really confident in the firewall/security on driver-less cars before I'd be willing to let go of the controls.

Hackers do things just because they can. I don't see any scenario where driver-less cars would be excluded in a hacker's conquest.
 
besserheimerphat said:
If you follow the rules of the road (which is all these cars are doing) then it shouldn't really be painful. The "pain" is caused by bad drivers. Do you think an army of driverless cars will be flying down the interstate at 80MPH? No, they'll all be doing 70 or whatever the speed limit is. But if you're just a passenger and can read, watch movies, play games, call/text people, do some work, etc., then there's no "pain" in being limited by the speed limit.
Click to expand...

For interstate travel ultimately we'll be able to push that limit upward, especially when a cross-communication standard develops. Cars could line up in a 'train' and go much faster when all could hit the brakes at the same instant.
 
What about deer in the ditch waiting to cross? What about a small child chasing a ball into the street - would it pick up on something that little?

I am also concerned about the hacking part of it. I am afraid it would be a common event for a hacker/terrorist/mass murder type person to hack into the system and cause large wrecks.

Cool tech though.
 
coolerifyoudid said:
I guess I'm a little reluctant, especially given the recent article that came out about guys hacking into a jeep and manipulating the radio, breaks, steering, etc. I'd have to feel really confident in the firewall/security on driver-less cars before I'd be willing to let go of the controls.

Hackers do things just because they can. I don't see any scenario where driver-less cars would be excluded in a hacker's conquest.
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This.

It may eventually become something similar to aviation where you habe transponders for position reporting and they have to be tested/certified every so often. The pre-buy inspection will become more important and costly as well.
 
farminclone said:
What about deer in the ditch waiting to cross? What about a small child chasing a ball into the street - would it pick up on something that little?
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Yes, and yes from what ive seen. And additionally because its a computer, its reaction time will be much better than a human. That time may be enough to avoid or reduce the intensity of an accident that would be completely unavoidable with human reaction time delays.
 
farminclone said:
What about deer in the ditch waiting to cross? What about a small child chasing a ball into the street - would it pick up on something that little?

I am also concerned about the hacking part of it. I am afraid it would be a common event for a hacker/terrorist/mass murder type person to hack into the system and cause large wrecks.

Cool tech though.
Click to expand...

I don't think the sensors would have any problem picking a deer or a child up.

And as far as being a hacker/terrorist target, there is absolutely no way there would be enough of those attacks to make it worse than the accidents caused by human error.

Humans are absolutely terrible at driving.
 
VeloClone said:
QFT

I still like to drive rather than ride any day of the week and twice on Sundays.
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I think we'll see a whole revolution in car design once it becomes popular where there are more things to do in your car like a desk or entertainment inside it for long trips or whatever.

Although that would mean bigger cars and worse MPG, which is the opposite direction it's going right now.

Although by then they probably won't run on gas anyway.
 
Rhoadhoused said:
I don't think the sensors would have any problem picking a deer or a child up.

And as far as being a hacker/terrorist target, there is absolutely no way there would be enough of those attacks to make it worse than the accidents caused by human error.

Humans are absolutely terrible at driving.
Click to expand...

I've got Emilio on speed dial just in case you're wrong

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dmclone said:
I'm excited about the technology but I'll just warn people now that these cars are going to drive other motorists crazy. You know how it feels when you're stuck behind an old lady, that is what life will be like with these self driving cars. In time I think they'll make them more aggressive and the more of them that are on the road the better but there is going to be a period where it's extremely painful. I can't wait for the day when I'm coming home from the bar and I can just push a button and it safely takes me home.
Click to expand...


Isn't that called Uber?
 
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