Self driving cars

[vertical_doug]

Self-Driving Car Demand Seen Boosted by Japan’s Aging Population - Bloomberg

I hope these cars come sooner rather than later. Even if the car isn't fully self drive, just getting better sensor technology to warn drivers about doing the hook turn or drifting in while cornering will make roads safer for cyclists.

[arcadian]

Not sure why we don't hear more about this. I work around the ITS industry and this is the solution to so many problems (congestion, safety, energy consumption, infrastructure).

This needs to be pushed much harder and faster than the current pace.

[dgaddis]

So....how does it actually work?

I don't want my car changing gears by itself, much less driving itself. Every time I start it up and then get above 9mph it locks all the doors...that pisses me off too. If I'm going more than 9mph I'm not worried about someone trying to jump in the car with me, and now some of the locks don't always work without manually flipping them, cause they've been worn out faster. I want my car to do less, not more. I'm sure I'm in the minority though.

[arcadian]

Good article

Inside Google's Quest To Popularize Self-Driving Cars | Popular Science

A car is a form of transportation not anything else. We have turned into something else, but this needs to change. If this could provide a safe way to get from a to b with consistent and reliable drive times while using very little fuel (no reason to have 400 hp if the car is diving itself and cars would be lighter because impacts would be fewer).

[zachateseverything]

So....how does it actually work?

I don't want my car changing gears by itself, much less driving itself. Every time I start it up and then get above 9mph it locks all the doors...that pisses me off too. If I'm going more than 9mph I'm not worried about someone trying to jump in the car with me, and now some of the locks don't always work without manually flipping them, cause they've been worn out faster. I want my car to do less, not more. I'm sure I'm in the minority though.

The car will have a multi-view camera system (and GPS) that scans the road, figures out a path (including avoiding obstacles), and follows that path safely. The technology is in it's infancy for consumer vehicles, but has the full weight of Google and DARPA behind it. This will happen at some point in the not so distant future.

As for your auto-door locks, it has nothing to do with theft or someone jumping in your car while it's moving. A locked door is far less likely to pop open during an accident. A door that has popped open during an accident puts the occupants at risk. I'm sorry your latching mechanism is wearing out however you might want to considering servicing them instead of resorting to retrogrouchery.

[zetroc]

As a bike commuter who sees drivers texting right next to me every single day, I can't wait for driverless cars to become commonplace.

[jitahs]

Last year a Google self-driver passed a friend on the freeway in a test trial. This same friend was once pulled over for driving too slowly, a regular habit.

Conclusion: bots
PS would've come in handy during the BART strike - "OK Google Now take me to work and don't wake me."

[Matthew Strongin]

As a bike commuter who sees drivers texting right next to me every single day, I can't wait for driverless cars to become commonplace.

I'm starting to share this point of view. I was passed the other day by someone holding a cell phone in one hand and a small dog in the other. I'm not sure how they were steering. When you can't even spare one hand to the act of driving a car, it's time to let the robots take over.

[lukasz]

A practical solution in the Robert Mosesified present but I'm with Bike Snob on this one:

"Hmmm, this is intriguing. Let's see, a car in which you can eat, sleep, work, or read. A car you don't have to drive yourself. A big car, one that can also carry lots of stuff. Well, here's an idea. What if we built a dedicated series of interconnecting roadways on which these big, self-driving cars could travel? They could connect cities to their suburbs. They could also connect cities to other cities. They'd even be efficient, because they could run on diesel fuel--or, if we electrified the roadways, they wouldn't have to use gasoline at all. Some of them could even carry freight exclusively. Now imagine dozens of these big, energy efficient cars running in tandem, their passengers happily working and eating and napping away. We could call it...the fucking train!"

Having read about the crap GM and other big car companies pulled to hamper public transportation all over the world, it makes my blood boil... just a little.

[jitahs]

This is why people drive: Man acquitted of sex with BART seat - Crime Scene

[vertical_doug]

A practical solution in the Robert Mosesified present but I'm with Bike Snob on this one:

"Hmmm, this is intriguing. Let's see, a car in which you can eat, sleep, work, or read. A car you don't have to drive yourself. A big car, one that can also carry lots of stuff. Well, here's an idea. What if we built a dedicated series of interconnecting roadways on which these big, self-driving cars could travel? They could connect cities to their suburbs. They could also connect cities to other cities. They'd even be efficient, because they could run on diesel fuel--or, if we electrified the roadways, they wouldn't have to use gasoline at all. Some of them could even carry freight exclusively. Now imagine dozens of these big, energy efficient cars running in tandem, their passengers happily working and eating and napping away. We could call it...the fucking train!"

Having read about the crap GM and other big car companies pulled to hamper public transportation all over the world, it makes my blood boil... just a little.

BikeSnob has a point and the historically the automobile companies were awful in hampering public transport. However, my blood boils even more when I look at the massive waste and fraud inside public transport in NY region. One Freedom Tower is supposedly the most expensive building ever built except if you look underground. The new path station is at 4billion and counting. (and that is not digging train tunnels)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/25/ar...l-as-fans.html
The amount of systemic corruption amount the workers can be mind boggling if no one polices the situation:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/ny...pagewanted=all
(really 97% of retirees filed for disability?)
So what you end up with for your self driven train car is a massively over priced service:
Last trip of Amtrak Acela from DC to NYC was $180 each way. I can drive with tolls (which at GWB subsidize the PATH station) for less than $100. I can bus it for $30. In fact, it was cheaper this last weekend for my daughter to fly round trip DC to LA for $330 than take the train round trip (360) to visit her parents in NY.

[sine]

The car will have a multi-view camera system (and GPS) that scans the road, figures out a path (including avoiding obstacles), and follows that path safely. The technology is in it's infancy for consumer vehicles, but has the full weight of Google and DARPA behind it. This will happen at some point in the not so distant future.

Only if there are dedicated "bot" lanes. I think road sensors is part of the system as well.

The other concern is system longevity. This would be a pretty complex system. Seeing the difficulties local governments have handling "simple" subway systems, I just don't see how governments are able to run a more complex system with more moving parts on many more miles.

Time will tell.

[zachateseverything]

Only if there are dedicated "bot" lanes. I think road sensors is part of the system as well.

The other concern is system longevity. This would be a pretty complex system. Seeing the difficulties local governments have handling "simple" subway systems, I just don't see how governments are able to run a more complex system with more moving parts on many more miles.

Time will tell.

Road sensors aren't part of the system. Everything happens autonomously within the vehicle. the aim of the original DARPA project was to develop an autonomous off-road vehicle. Google basically hired the entire Carnegie Mellon University team that won the design competition 5+ years ago.

[lukasz]

BikeSnob has a point and the historically the automobile companies were awful in hampering public transport. However, my blood boils even more when I look at the massive waste and fraud inside public transport in NY region. One Freedom Tower is supposedly the most expensive building ever built except if you look underground. The new path station is at 4billion and counting. (and that is not digging train tunnels)
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/09/25/ar...l-as-fans.html
The amount of systemic corruption amount the workers can be mind boggling if no one polices the situation:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/21/ny...pagewanted=all
(really 97% of retirees filed for disability?)
So what you end up with for your self driven train car is a massively over priced service:
Last trip of Amtrak Acela from DC to NYC was $180 each way. I can drive with tolls (which at GWB subsidize the PATH station) for less than $100. I can bus it for $30. In fact, it was cheaper this last weekend for my daughter to fly round trip DC to LA for $330 than take the train round trip (360) to visit her parents in NY.

If not for systematic hampering of rail service in this country at every turn by various lobbies, we could have reasonable train prices. It is about government subsidies. Hell of a lot of those going in to maintaining highways. There are more and more going to the railways but after 100+ years of poor planning and mismanagement it is going to take a while.

Maybe they can work on the pension issues at the same time as we get some oversight on executive compensation packages in this country ;) I wouldn't look at it in class terms. Pensions seem to very much be a generational issue, with the boomers getting paid to retire and rolling up the welfare state carpet behind them while people in my age group can't find work or health insurance. Guess we can't have kitchen debates with the Al Qaeda though.

[aaronv]

This technology is still in prototype. It will take several decades for the majority of the cars to be self driving if at all. There also seems to be some risk that this is a technology that will be focused on the luxury market for some time before it trickles down to the mainstream. Then you will have the issue of upgrades, so some consideration would have to be given to mixing different generations of technology. With accidents, they will happen, is the operator or the manufacturer responsible?

There are a number of technological solutions that I can think of that would increase general safety, however they would meet significant public opposition compare to the futurist promise of self-driving cares.

1. No data except for mapping on mobile devices when the vehicle is in motion. This would be easy enough to enforce at the operating system level.
2. Using internal GPS on vehicles to restrict speed to what is posted. Yes, the pitchforks would come out on this one, I mean it's human right to do 55 in a 25.
3. Start building the infrastructure on the ground that allows for better mixed mode transport, which would include bicycles, trains and automobiles. This would be a much better return on investment than relying on the five to ten year replacement cycles for cars hoping that the robots and software will solve the congestion and safety issues.

But all of the above run counter to the deeply held cultural beliefs around automobiles and personal liberty. Restricting data toys in cars means less advertising revenue. Keeping the personal car culture going has a lot of vested financial interests.

[arcadian]

A practical solution in the Robert Mosesified present but I'm with Bike Snob on this one:

"Hmmm, this is intriguing. Let's see, a car in which you can eat, sleep, work, or read. A car you don't have to drive yourself. A big car, one that can also carry lots of stuff. Well, here's an idea. What if we built a dedicated series of interconnecting roadways on which these big, self-driving cars could travel? They could connect cities to their suburbs. They could also connect cities to other cities. They'd even be efficient, because they could run on diesel fuel--or, if we electrified the roadways, they wouldn't have to use gasoline at all. Some of them could even carry freight exclusively. Now imagine dozens of these big, energy efficient cars running in tandem, their passengers happily working and eating and napping away. We could call it...the fucking train!"

Having read about the crap GM and other big car companies pulled to hamper public transportation all over the world, it makes my blood boil... just a little.

This ship(rail) has sailed. ROW alone is too great a cost. I like rail as well, but I don't think that it is more special because it is on rails. For better of for worse, roads are our chosen infrastructure, if we can use them to do effectively the same thing (caravaning), why not.