Ready For Driverless Cars? - Comments Page 1

Two things concern me about driverless cars and neither have anything to do with the cars themselves. One is that these highly computerized cars will be an easy target for hackers who will think nothing about causing all sorts of mischief for the sake of amusing themselves even if it puts someone else's life at risk. The other is some other drivers who will purposefully harass a driverless car for no good reason than they can. It is not going to do me much good if you have to be a licensed driver to have one....my goal would be to have a driverless car when I am no longer able to drive myself. But things will have to change a lot for me to get from here to there.

I hope I'm dead and buried before these abominations come to fruition.

Can't wait until some punk figures out that he can make a driver less car panic stop (or crash) by pulling next to or in front of it. That will be great sport!

I have absolutely no intention of every buying a driverless car. The thought of trusting a computer to drive my car scares the living daylights out of me. Yes, there is something called "human error", but what happens when all of the technology "Crashes"? Or, as one person has already commented, when your car's computer gets hacked? I'm hoping that most people will reject the driverless car and the whole thing will financially go belly-up. Give me a manual stick-shift vehicle anyday over this crap.

I would love a driverless car when I'm old and feeble.But I think they have a long way to go before they can handle a New England winter. A lot of what is involved in driving in a snowstorm is experience,intuition & prayer!

At 67 I realize that I only have 15 yrs or so of driving left. Also, living in a rural area there are no real public transportation available which would cause a problem with going to the grocery store, doctor's office, etc. If I wan't able to drive anymore I would have to consider moving to a large city where public transportation would be available. This would be a very big expense. In the meantime, I believe that all of the new cars should be equipt with all of the new safety gadgets, i.e. Stopping, even with the foot on the gas pedal; Lane changes/blind spots; etc. Who knows when the world will all be driven by autonomous cars. In the meantime we should at least have cars that are safer. With regards to lost jobs and lost revenue, regarding jobs, jobs are being lost every day. The new industry is the Baby Boomers and medical care, and not to forget, our infrastructure needs repairs. Lost revenue, the states will have to do a better job of handling our money. The taxes on gas that used to go for road repair should only be used fair. Our politicians need to become better stewards of our money. Thank you.

I was wondering, as far liability goes, who is legally responsible for the actions of the autonomous vehicle ? Is it the human in the car that would normally be called the "driver" in a non computer controlled vehicle? And would that person be liable for the cars action - insuring that it isn't speeding etc. ? Would you as the human "driver" need to constantly monitor and second guess what the car's computer is doing or about to do ? Brings new meaning to the term "backseat driver".

We already have driver-less cars-- automatic transmissions, engines that are not visible or barely serviceable , power steering & brakes, zero steering feedback, cruise controls, screens in the dash, high powered entertainment systems,cell phones, power windows and door locks.Powered doors and hatches.

Some cars used to talk to you and have automatic (or unavoidable) seat belts. Now it tells you on the dash that your door is open, really? The one not sitting in its frame or the one with light surrounding it?

A friend of a friend bought an expensive car with a 4-speed gearbox. He did not now how to use it and none of his friends knew either . He ruined the clutch and transmission in short order then thought to ask the dealer how to use it. He now enjoys driving and shifting, though a costly lesson.

Dan, I'm from Illinois so your statement 'Our politicians need to become better stewards of our money' has no chance of happening. The majority of our politicians only seem motivated to stuffing their pockets with our money.

I forget where I read it, but an article discussed one problem with driverless cars that I hadn't thought of. What if the car detects a person in its path unexpectedly and there is not time to stop? The choices the car can make are A) hit the person, or B) turn into a brick wall and kill you instead. Would you buy a car that was programmed to do (B)? I certainly wouldn't.

Now imagine may different permutations of this: what if there are 10 people in the road ahead? Kill 10 people, or you? What if the 10 people are children? What if YOUR children are in the car? (Assume, for argument's sake, that the car DOES know the difference between adults and children in the road, DOES know who is riding in it, and can and will make the decision about who lives and who dies in a split second.)

A lot to think about, isn't it?

You missed the biggest potential impact of this technology: The impact on jobs.
For a quick example, take autonomous trucks. It's easier to make a point-to-point truck autonomous than a car. Tomorrow's long haul truck drivers will become the train engineers of today; e.g., either obsolete or mere caretakers of the equipment used to replace them.
As CGP Grey notes in 'Humans Need Not Apply' autonomous vehicles don't have to be perfect, just better than humans. And they are that now. The US transportation industry employs about 3 million people; by census numbers, Transportation jobs are the largest category of all jobs in the US. 1/3 of the transportation business cost is for the people.
What would it take to automate a truck moving from a truck depot next to an interstate to another truck depot next to an interstate hundreds of miles away? Not much, and that can be done right now. Plus there is no need to feed, house, or rest the robot - all of which saves money for the transportation company.
Humans will lose their jobs at no fault of their own, just like horses lost their jobs at no fault of their own.

Quote: "Let’s answer the easy question first. Yes, there is a fully driverless car."
I agree with Tom W. It's been snowing off & on for three days here, with more to come. A plow just went through & I can only see little bits of road here & there.
Bring that driverless beauty here & let's see how it does!
And how about patches of ice? That should be fun for the whole family!

It'll never happen. I am 88 years on this Orb and have lived through Several of these "Future Wonders". The most little thought out pipe dream was the one that predicted an auto-airplane in every garage, with detachable wings or folded wings you name it. Some were built and actually flew and drove. The reality was that the sky would be full of the same batch of "NO brainers" that exist to this day.
The negatives then are more pronounced today than were evident at the end of my hitch after WW2. We have a better chance of landing a human on Mars than filling our roadways with "Driverless cars".
It would be Much better that we go back to before the biggest con job perpetrated upon the American people. The destruction of the electric rail (Called "street Cars") transportation that worked so well, and kept multiple air polluting conveyances , including automobiles, from clogging our infrastructure. I could go on.

A driverless car is going to need two things. One is human override so that the car can be rescued from punks and hackers. Two is an infrastructure of driverless car signaling so that the car will stop at stop signs and for cops.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Road sign detection, emergency vehicle detection, and human override are already there.

Nope. I don't even want to be on the same road! If they have totally separate roads, maybe. With the way computers crash, satellite TV goes out when it rains, just way to many deadly possibilities.

Will driverless cars become the norm? This is a technological imperative: If it can be done, it will be done!

1) Bob - thanks for the post, had NO idea there were so many different folks trying the concept.

2) I kind of chuckled when I was reading about states permitting (or not) these cars. It read exactly like states accepting Medical mari or not - So the spectrum goes from virtually free use with guidelines (i.e. testing, not in cities etc.), to "Over my dead body". I just caution folks to not become 'Luddite's' when thinking about the inevitable.

3) The 'who do you hit?' question is simply just another form of the "Fat Mans Dilemma" (AKA The Trolly Dilemma [or Problem]. Folks can check it out on Wiki. It IS worth the 5 minutes.

Who will buy these cars? It won't be the young guys with the need to speed.

I believe the introduction would happen in stages.
Certain routes will be opened to driverless vehicles. Over time, the routes will be expanded and more will be developed.
As far as the comment about an instant roadblock killing either 10 innocents, or it's own occupants... the article stated that google cars had 3D sensors of various types. I would (like to) think that some of those sensors would detect those 10 ten people and be cautious before they all jumped out in front.

All mechanical and electronic devices have a finite life and will eventually malfunction or fail completely. Does the car then immediately stop, tying up traffic? Or, does the drive need to be as alert and not distracted as if driving so he can take over control, if reaction times are quick enough? how do the sensors cope with fag or blizzard conditions?