Self Driving Cars - Who Wants One?

storp

Member
Don't know about never touching the wheel.

But I have about a 1000 questions before I'd get in one.
 

voyagerfan99

Master of Turning Things Off and Back On Again
Staff member
The only reason I'd want one is so it can drive me home when I'm tired (or drunk).
 

tremmor

Well-Known Member
That logic won't work Voyager. would just mean trouble anyway in court.
Mine is I don't and wouldn't trust it. to many variable obstacles it would have to over come. Then again. it wouldn't be in my price range. waste of time doing it. Im guessing it could easily cost $70 or $80,000 and that would be a minimum. wont do nothing for the economy anywhere.
 

Geoff

VIP Member
I think it would be a lot safer than a human driving a car, unless they are 100% focused which we know is never the case. People are always talking with other people in the car, singing along to music, checking their phone, spacing out thinking about stress at work or family, etc.

The issue I see is if an accident happens when the car was driving itself, due to say a computer glitch, you can see the entire automotive company getting sued, so I don't see it happening anytime soon. People are already sue-happy.
 

storp

Member
... would just mean trouble anyway in court.


...
The issue I see is if an accident happens when the car was driving itself, due to say a computer glitch, you can see the entire automotive company getting sued, so I don't see it happening anytime soon. People are already sue-happy.

Maybe attorney's would be grateful for opening up a whole new area of the law as it matures. Where if the source of liability was in question, both the Plaintiff and Defense would meet in court along with a specially appointed AI Attorney, representing the car co.
 

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
To be honest when I started to learn how to drive I really didn't enjoy it very much. I gave up and will probably learn again in a year or two when I am a bit older, but for the time being self-driving cars are very appealing indeed. :)
 

storp

Member
In order for a programmed vehicle to get from point A to point B, passengers will have to input the 'destination' somewhere along the process.

If ever such as device where to ask 'reason'? That would be the death of the thing. I would permanently abandon it.

Not wanting to sound too conspiracy nut - could the system next be shut on and off automatically remotely? Sorry, but I just don't trust our gov't.

And what about joy riding, one of our country's favorite pastimes?
 

spirit

Moderator
Staff member
Can't wait for the stories about kids getting in their parents' cars and programming them to go to the North Pole to see Santa though, lol! :p :D
 

tylerjrb

Member
UK traffic isn't that bad :p. Probably not as strict as it is in the US, not where I live anyway lol.

I felt the same when I did my bike test spirit. I had not ridden one for years and i felt hopeless but i got the hang of it and stuck with it and in the end found it enjoyable and now i love it :D.

I think self driving cars would be pretty good, much safer but only if you had an off button so you could have some fun every once in a while.
 
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spirit

Moderator
Staff member
UK traffic isn't that bad :p. Probably not as strict as it is in the US, not where I live anyway lol.

I felt the same when I did my bike test spirit. I had not ridden one for years and i felt hopeless but i got the hang of it and stuck with it and in the end found it enjoyable and now i love it :D.
I guess I didn't drive for very long but I was not enjoying it and found it stressful. I feel that I was too young. I felt tiny behind the wheel! ;)

Self-driving cars FTW I say! The sooner the better! ;) :good:
 

tremmor

Well-Known Member
I doubt it would ever detect or notice say a pot hole. Or a tree limb falling like happening last year. Im talking in real time from a storm. Never the less, im old school now. it won't happen with me. Maybe the grand kids will see it.
 

Shane

Super Moderator
Staff member
This technology looks very promising,i don't drive myself (not got the patience for learning or all the tests) so i pretty much push bike it everywhere (in any weather) or bus if its quite far.

I cant see it taking off anytime soon though,Not sure how they would do insurance either..who is to blame?

i do think it would be much safer though,Especially when it comes to older people which some,cant see 10ft in front of them properly..and the very young drivers that drive like maniacs.

All i can say is,When/If this technology takes off...goodbye taxis. :p
 
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storp

Member
And what would happen when the car goes to pass, say, a giant angled mirror reflecting an image of something else?
 

Geoff

VIP Member
And what would happen when the car goes to pass, say, a giant angled mirror reflecting an image of something else?
I highly doubt self driving cars would rely solely on what it sees. They'd use laser/radar like cars do already, sensors in the road, cars communicating with each other, etc.
 

z3r0

New Member
Who wants one? I'm thinking that further down the timeline nobody is going to have a choice in the matter. It may happen in our lifetime or it may not, but change is inevitable. Elon Musk already predicted the outlawing of the manual tranny, and his Tesla Motors electric line is gaining credibility really fast.

On the other side of things, Google. Well...what CAN'T Google do?
 

storp

Member
...I'm thinking that further down the timeline nobody is going to have a choice in the matter...
That's a lot of what concerns me.

Even after proof of concept, many won't want them unless they are greatly simplified. Elderly people, for one. Many of whom don't or won't even use car 'navigators'. Its too confusing for them.

Can't imagine too many fleeing the police - they'll just order the car off to the turn lane on their sitting mic. But of course, this won't happen in such a perfect world.

One other thing, though I've not heard it mentioned anywhere, what if car ownership becomes a thing of the past? Where drives lease, or rather, purchase the right to have a vehicle that transports them? Which might make greater sense with rechargeable autos and their batteries anyway.

On the flipside, safety could be the best benefit, if SDC's do prove themselves.
 

Punk

Moderator
Staff member
Everything that has electronics is hackable therefore, if the police wanted they could arrest about 80% of the cars today by shutting down electronics. They won't because people woouldn't agree with that.
Technology is moving towards automated cars trains and airplanes, that's a fact I can guarentee. Is it bad? Is it good? It has both bad and good sides but the safety is definitely improved.

Tesla Motors is definitley gaining credibility but that's just because people aren't polluting directly the air, they don't feel bad about it because they don't "see" it. What we need to improve right now is our production of "clean" energies or at least use cleaner fuels until we find a clean way to feed our motors. That's not going to happen until our govs rely on that fossil fuel money.
 

beers

Moderator
Staff member
Once someone discovers over-unity power generation and we have airborne cars then this would be a good idea. For road travel there are too many variables really. What would you use to reference the road? What happens when the road conditions change such as from asphalt with legible lines and similar to a windy dirt road that looks completely different, from a computer tracking perspective?

Also for poor weather driving and similar for ice or different variables in traction in the road surface I don't imagine it being that viable in the near future.
 
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