73% of Brits would not feel safe with driverless cars on the road

AdrianC

zagfles wrote: »

Yet when a few tens are killed in a terrorist attack, or Grenfell, or a stadium disaster etc, there is a national meltdown. Yet thousands getting killed on the roads, or tens of thousands by pollution, well that's just OK because the risk is "low" of it happening to you.

Lemme guess, the only thing that gets you out of bed in the morning is the knowledge that more people die in bed than anywhere else?


I take it you've taken measures to reduce your risk of mattress- and pillow-related injury?

Err, the passenger "tells" it? Just like the passenger would tell a driver where to go, where to park etc if they know the area better. The mechanism of "telling" may be different, but same principle.

The occupant got out at the gates to the event, leaving the empty car to park itself, remember?

zagfles

AdrianC wrote: »

Lemme guess, the only thing that gets you out of bed in the morning is the knowledge that more people die in bed than anywhere else?

Lemme guess, you've been comprehensively whooshed.

The occupant got out at the gates to the event, leaving the empty car to park itself, remember?

What, remember something you didn't write?

You mentioned a number of scenarios where the car might not know where to park etc. Well, like with a driver who doesn't know the area well, the passenger tells them. Or is directed by parking marshalls, like you usually have a big events.

Johno100

marlot wrote: »

One thing I'm looking forward to is many fewer parked cars.

Lots of our city streets were designed before cars became so universal.

If you can just summons a car when you want to, then people will (hopefully) move away from owning cars and the streets will become much clearer again.

And where do you think all those driverless cars only needed during the morning and evening rush hours to meet demand are going to be parked the rest of the time?

PasturesNew

I'd feel safer with driverless cars than sharing roadspace with crack heads, people in stolen cars, people driving without licenses, drunk drivers and people chatting on their mobiles/taking selfies!

AdrianC

Johno100 wrote: »

And where do you think all those driverless cars only needed during the morning and evening rush hours to meet demand are going to be parked the rest of the time?

Apparently, exactly where the occupant left them, since they won't ever be going anywhere unoccupied according to zagfles.

Johno100

zagfles wrote: »

Yet when a few tens are killed in a terrorist attack, or Grenfell, or a stadium disaster etc, there is a national meltdown.

Yes, because they are such unusual events.

zagfles wrote: »

Yet thousands getting killed on the roads, or tens of thousands by pollution, well that's just OK because the risk is "low" of it happening to you.

There are not tens of thousands killed by pollution in this country. There may be a statistical reduction in some peoples life span because of pollution (of all kinds). But that may be a weeks reduction in a 90 year old. And on any measure pollution levels are considerably lower than they were just a generation ago and probably the lowest they have been since before the industrial revolution.

marlot

Johno100 wrote: »

And where do you think all those driverless cars only needed during the morning and evening rush hours to meet demand are going to be parked the rest of the time?

On the streets around here, I'd guess only about 25% are used in the morning/evening peak.


Hopefully the daytime charges will be lower than peak, so there will be lots of other demand.


And when there is little demand, I'd expect the cars to plug themselves in the charge - but probably not on the congested city streets. More likely in big car parks.

Cornucopia

As someone with a long career in technology, I am very sceptical about driverless vehicles. I can see that in the relatively organised context of Motorway driving, it might be possible to create a driverless algorithm that can deal acceptably well with a wide variety of driving conditions and scenarios.

But what about other types of road? Town and city roads? Country lanes? Fast single carriageway roads?

We are being constantly told that driverless vehicles are just around the corner (metaphorically, not literally). But for that to be true, I'd expect there to already be fleets of less safety critical vehicles already out there amassing technical, practical and regulatory experience for the car and lorry challenges yet to come. Where are the driverless road sweeping machines? The driverless mail vans? The driverless mobility buggies? "Johnny-cabs"? Different kinds of lower speed, possibly unoccupied vehicles that can properly test the principles before they become safety-critical?

zagfles

AdrianC wrote: »

Apparently, exactly where the occupant left them, since they won't ever be going anywhere unoccupied according to zagfles.

I didn't write that. Nor did you write anything about dropping of at the gates. You're just making the argument up as you go along, aren't you? You pretend to have said something you didn't and pretend I said something I didn't. I CBA with you and your sad little games. Ta ta.

zagfles

Johno100 wrote: »

And where do you think all those driverless cars only needed during the morning and evening rush hours to meet demand are going to be parked the rest of the time?

Somewhere out of the way, not in city centre car parks/streets etc.