Autonomous driving legal next year 14 April at 10:40AM in Motoring 81 replies 1.7K views

MouldyOldDough

According to BBC - Ford Mustang Mach-E SUV will be the first car allowed on certain motorways "hands free" - which to me looks like they mean "Autonomous" driving will be allowed...it willl only be available on subscription....

Thatcham Research, an automotive research firm, said it was important to note that this is not a self-driving car but is "the next development in assisted driving technology".

It does control steering, brakes and accelerator - which again looks like "autonomous" to me ?

So there will effectively be an extremely low number of cars around with drivers who are drunk, on their mobile phones, reading newspapers and/or watching TV

Scary times ahead

DullGreyGuy

MouldyOldDough said:

So there will effectively be an extremely low number of cars around with drivers who are drunk, on their mobile phones, reading newspapers and/or watching TV

There are already low number of drivers who are drunk, it will still be an offence for them to be drunk.

They cannot be on their phones, reading newspapers or watching TV, they are required to keep their eyes on the road as they remain the responsible driver and the system has a camera to ensure this happens 

MattMattMattUK

MouldyOldDough said:

Scary times ahead

I trust the self-driving cars far more than I trust human drivers. In all the testing in the US self driving cars have an accident rate less than 10% of humans. Human error accounts for 96% of all accidents, predictable failure, for which a self driving car would refuse to drive accounts for another 3%, so 99% of all accidents are caused by the meat behind the wheel. The average human driver crashes every 552,982 miles in the USA, the UK and European figures are lower because of our different road networks, the average for the current generation of full self driving cars on test in California is just under 6 million miles per accident (aggregate across the whole fleet) and in testing the rate of significant accidents (death or serious injury) is far lower than for human driven cars. 

Note that this is for full self driving cars licensed for autonomous driving test programs (L5), it does not include currently deployed systems used in production cars which are Level 1-3 in most cases and are occasionally capable of L4, although not licensed for such use. 

Brie

I'm amazed how much cars already do without any/little input from a driver.  OH's Volvo has cruise control that adjusts to the speed of the traffic, speeds up/slows down based on what the car ahead is doing, brakes automatically should someone veer into the lane, warns of people/cars/errant cattle being either side of the car.  It also notices if one changes lanes without signally and beeps at you suggesting you need a break from driving.  

Now on UK roads there are normally too many twists and turns and speed changes for one to actually not participate in driving safely.  But in other countries - US/Canada/Australia to name just a few - it has been possible for decades to sleep at the wheel as long as your vehicle is aimed in the right direction and your wheels are aligned well enough that you don't drift to the side.  Not recommending this of course.

oldagetraveller1

I might well be in the minority here, and still in the dark ages, but I personally think all this is a disaster waiting to happen.

MikeJXE

oldagetraveller1 said:

I might well be in the minority here, and still in the dark ages, but I personally think all this is a disaster waiting to happen.

Me too for what it's worth 

DullGreyGuy

oldagetraveller1 said:

I might well be in the minority here, and still in the dark ages, but I personally think all this is a disaster waiting to happen.

You still thinking we should return with the red flag rules? The chap having to walk in front of any car with a red flag to warn others 

Ganga

DullGreyGuy said:

oldagetraveller1 said:

I might well be in the minority here, and still in the dark ages, but I personally think all this is a disaster waiting to happen.

You still thinking we should return with the red flag rules? The chap having to walk in front of any car with a red flag to warn others 

No but something in the middle ! 

facade

oldagetraveller1 said:

I might well be in the minority here, and still in the dark ages, but I personally think all this is a disaster waiting to happen.

No more so than driven vehicles.

It only works on a motorway. Your car follows the one in front at a safe distance (given that it can instantly react to the car in front slowing, so zero thinking distance, and the car in front has the same stopping distance as you so the separation can be very small, just enough to take account of maximum load in your car) and keeps in its lane.

Should the car in front slow, it will. Should it brake to a safe stop, so will yours, and the ones behind.

If an aeroplane crashes onto the motorway or a massive sinkhole opens up, there will be an enormous pile-up as none of the cars can stop in time, but that would happen now.

On the other hand, if you fall asleep, you won't crash.

user1977

MouldyOldDough said:

So there will effectively be an extremely low number of cars around with drivers who are drunk, on their mobile phones, reading newspapers and/or watching TV

Unlike now?

For all the potential failings of autonymous driving systems, I think it's worthwhile bearing in mind the benefits i.e. the almost instant reaction time when they detect obstacles, slowing traffic ahead etc - rather than relying on the tired / distracted / drunk driver to do something about it.

EssexExile

Human error is a contributory factor in 88% of road accidents, the computer doesn't have a very high bar to get over to make things better.