Self Driving Cars

deaston

You seem to have asked a question but are choosing to ignore the answers in order to go along with your rather blinkered view and luddite opinions

50Twuncle wrote: »

But the dockland railway is limited by rails and is never even going to meet another train coming head on towards it, (unless something has gone seriously wrong with the control systems !

Driverless cars will be limited to roads. At first, I suspect they'll be restricted to certain "autonomous suitable" roads.

And just because a train is limited to rails doesn't mean they can't crash. Did you hear about the human-operated tram that derailed in Croydon a few months ago?

50Twuncle wrote: »

I don't trust flying either - only done it twice in my life and didn't enjoy it one bit !!

I wasn't asking whether or not you enjoy flying, but more pointing out that hundreds of thousands (millions?) of miles are flown every day, fully autonomously, without incident. Modern fighter jets can only stay in the air thanks to computers - a human pilot simply couldn't make all the necessary adjustments without the significant input from a computer.

50Twuncle wrote: »

But surely - a robot (that's all they are - designed to react to "planned" changes) could never react as well /correctly /predictably) as an experienced human, to a totally / random / unplanned issue - like a car swerving out of the blue towards you - or (as I have already said) a plank of wood, falling off the back of a lorry in front with nails sticking up through it - or broken glass in the road (can a driverless car, even detect these things ?

I see no reason that a "robot" couldn't react to those better than a human. The car has 360 cameras, radar and all sorts of other sensors - a lot more than a human. And, ok, say a plank does fall from a truck and the car drives over it - it gets a flat tyre. You're suggesting a driverless car should be able to account for a poorly loaded lorry? That's a little unfair.

The other evening near me, a motorcyclist was killed by a 19-year-old driver who was arrested for being under the influence of drugs. No computer will ever take drugs, or drink alcohol, or glance at its phone, or start arguing with its children, or get distracted by an accident on the opposite carriageway.

50Twuncle wrote: »

What will happen when a driverless car - hits someone and kills them - who will be responsible ?
The driver / the programmer / the victim ?

Did you even watch the video I linked to? No human could ever have reactions like that.

50Twuncle wrote: »

Does the technology exist to "look 50 or 100 yards ahead" to check whether a lump in the road / change in road surface is safe to drive over at 70mph - or is it best to swerve across another lane to avoid it ....or perhaps break heavily - causing panic in following vehicles
No - so how can Nissan state "driverless cars will be on the road in 3 years time" ?
Conjecture I fear ......
Havoc will happen if they try.

How do you know this technology doesn't exist? We have no idea how advanced the technology is.

warehouse

50Twuncle wrote: »

so how can Nissan state "driverless cars will be on the road in 3 years time" ?
Conjecture I fear ......
Havoc will happen if they try.

They're on the roads now. Obviously with your blinkers on you won't believe me but they are.

50Twuncle

deaston wrote: »

Did you even watch the video I linked to? No human could ever have reactions like that.

Yes they can and do - I have been in a similar position on the M5 a few years ago - doing 70mph - I was in the middle lane and the car in front (a similar distance of around 100 yards) suddenly hit his brakes, locking all of his wheels (he apparently had a fit) and I managed to avoid hitting him - by swerving into the right hand lane - it was a wet pants moment for sure - but I avoided an accident !

50Twuncle

warehouse wrote: »

They're on the roads now. Obviously with your blinkers on you won't believe me but they are.

No they are not - driver assisted maybe - but not driverLESS !!

deaston

50Twuncle wrote: »

Yes they can and do - I have been in a similar position on the M5 a few years ago - doing 70mph - I was in the middle lane and the car in front (a similar distance of around 100 yards) suddenly hit his brakes, locking all of his wheels (he apparently had a fit) and I managed to avoid hitting him - by swerving into the right hand lane - it was a wet pants moment for sure - but I avoided an accident !

So - I point you to a video where a human driver doesn't react in time and crashes but the autonomous car behind it reacts before the accident. And you think humans have better reactions?

You're ignoring the evidence that is in front of your own eyes.

I'm done.

Strider590

Biggest problem facing driverless cars, is that they will have to follow the highway code to the letter.

Rule 181

When turning right at crossroads where an oncoming vehicle is also turning right, there is a choice of two methods

• turn right side to right side; keep the other vehicle on your right and turn behind it. This is generally the safer method as you have a clear view of any approaching traffic when completing your turn
• left side to left side, turning in front of each other. This can block your view of oncoming vehicles, so take extra care. Cyclists and motorcyclists in particular may be hidden from your view. Road layout, markings or how the other vehicle is positioned can determine which course should be taken.

Nobody does this at a crossroads, I did it once when I was learning and my instructor told me never to do it again.

There are MANY other things in the highway code which if you followed to the letter would cause road rage and possibly a dangerous situation.

I have been swerved at for overtaking on hatch markings (broken white line).

On top of that, other drivers regularly do things against the highway code, like cutting straight across roundabouts or reversing onto main roads.
How is a driverless car going to know to use the horn when a driver is about to revere into your path? How will it decide whether the horn will be seen as an aggressive gesture?
Without changing the way everyone else drives, it just won't work.

Jackmydad

They will come. And not that far in the future I reckon. You might still be able to "drive" if you really want to, but you''ll be monitored, and your driving modified by the car's systems.

When you look at the way a lot of people seem to drive; no lane discipline, crazy overtaking, ignorance of basic rules of the road, and road rage to name but a few faults, then I reckon self driving cars can't come soon enough.

Herzlos

The big problem with self-driving cars is the way they make decisions doesn't reflect ours, and may conflict with what the driver would do.

If there's an accident and you can kill either 1 person in your car or 3 in the other, what would most humans do? What would a robot do?

Humans already handle the unexpected pretty badly. A Robot could potentially handle it better since it can make decisions faster and has access to all sorts of information humans can't (like relative grip levels and temperatures of all tyres, how effective the ABS will be) and can potentially control things we can't (for instance, it could potentially disable the ABS if it thinks you'll stop faster).

Plus that video doesn't show the Tesla reacting the the accident that's not happened yet, it's reacted to the car in front of it slowing down. Still better than most humans.

RichardD1970

50Twuncle wrote: »

Does the technology exist to "look 50 or 100 yards ahead" to check whether a lump in the road / change in road surface is safe to drive over at 70mph

Yes, in fact even better.

Get enough cars with it and you can build up a complete picture of the whole road network, in real time, plotting the position of every pothole/road defect in the country.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqK2hCdKC1o

deaston

Strider590 wrote: »

Biggest problem facing driverless cars, is that they will have to follow the highway code to the letter.

Nobody does this at a crossroads, I did it once when I was learning and my instructor told me never to do it again.

There are MANY other things in the highway code which if you followed to the letter would cause road rage and possibly a dangerous situation.

I have been swerved at for overtaking on hatch markings (broken white line).

On top of that, other drivers regularly do things against the highway code, like cutting straight across roundabouts or reversing onto main roads.
How is a driverless car going to know to use the horn when a driver is about to revere into your path? How will it decide whether the horn will be seen as an aggressive gesture?
Without changing the way everyone else drives, it just won't work.

The highway code is designed for humans. Driverless cars could use a different system. Or the highway code could be updated to allow for driverless cars.

Will driverless cars even need horns? They would be able to communicate their intentions to surrounding cars. Surrounding cars then wouldn't need to second-guess, they'd actually know what other cars are doing.

I'm no engineer, so I don't know the answers. And there'll be a lot of issues and problems (and advantages) that no-one has even thought of yet. But I'm confident that driverless cars are coming and will be here sooner than people would imagine.

Cars today have automatic gearboxes, adaptive cruise control, satellite navigation, self parking, lane assist etc. etc. Heathrow terminal 5 has had driverless pods for several years now. The technology is creeping up on us whether we like it or not.