over the years, I tend to say self driving cars are the same as nuclear fusion: for more than 30 years now announced to be available within one decade…
I am still not sure i will see one of this really working in my lifetime. On a autobahn of course, but not in dense city traffic with pedestrians, bikes , children and so on…
What do you think?
Autonomous cars are a reality in mixed traffic in Silicon Valley, mostly in the city of Mountain View near Google, but they drive around too. Experimental still but they’re doing a fine job.
I do not know how far the google has pushed the technology by know. Last year Daimler Benz (Mercedes) made a test drive on the same road the first car in Germany drove. The car did a fine job. But it needed to know the road, it had a full 3D image of the road in his memory. Still it failed to see 1/3 of traffic signs. And it just worked with fine weather. No rain, not in the dark, not to bright sunlight, no fog, and no snow on streets and road signs, no construction works, no accidents ahead ans so on…. For me, this sound like a big bunch of work still ahead…
Even half automated would be great improvment for pedestrian and cyclist safety. Computers can do emergency breaking much faster than humans and their sensors could eliminate dead angles. No more “I did not see him when I was turning” accidents. Also automatic reading of speed limits are refusing to drive faster than the limit would reduce accidents. These technologies are already becoming reality.
Actually cyclists (and pedestrians) are going to play havoc with self driving cars. As the cars are programmed to avoid collisions then don’t wait for a gap in the traffic before crossing the road, or simply cycle through a junction without looking. Just carry on knowing the car will stop for you. I can’t wait 🙂
Funny, almost all of my friends are cyclists, and almost all of them are excited for this technology. My first reaction a couple of years ago was similar to the ones here, but they disagreed.
Why? Because the cars _are_ going to be more aware than a lot of drivers. They won’t be drunk, they won’t be groggy, late to work, trying to put on mascara and eat breakfast, they won’t get mad and intentionally try to hit people, they won’t speed up trying to catch the light, etc, etc.
The Oatmeal has a great piece about riding in one of the Google cars. I especially like the way that it stops in #4 because there’s a pedestrian on it’s right. Everyone in the car is looking to the left, and they don’t see the person. It’s one of the most common situations that peds are injured, so that’s already safer than most human drivers. Seriously, I see it multiple times a day.
As far as when it will get here, well, it _is_ here. All Tesla model S and X automobiles are capable of autonomous driving as of October 2015. They’re starting to sell semi trucks that can drive themselves, too. That’s going to have serious implications as millions of drivers are phased out of their jobs. People are trying to figure out how that’s going to impact our economy.
Right now they’re kind of wanting it to be limited to freeways, but it can drive in the city.
Personally, I think that it could do great things. Paired with a car/ride sharing app, it offers the first real chance we have for personalized rapid transit. More and more people are electing to go car free in cities, and this would be a viable option for people that can’t use transit or bikes for everything. That could lower the amount of personal automobiles that need to be stored on city streets, leading to more space for bike lanes and sidewalks.
So prophetic. Woman in a self driving car killed a cyclist a couple years after this comic, because the “driver” had her head in her cell phone, and smart cars can’t detect cyclists.
over the years, I tend to say self driving cars are the same as nuclear fusion: for more than 30 years now announced to be available within one decade…
I am still not sure i will see one of this really working in my lifetime. On a autobahn of course, but not in dense city traffic with pedestrians, bikes , children and so on…
What do you think?
Autonomous cars are a reality in mixed traffic in Silicon Valley, mostly in the city of Mountain View near Google, but they drive around too. Experimental still but they’re doing a fine job.
I do not know how far the google has pushed the technology by know. Last year Daimler Benz (Mercedes) made a test drive on the same road the first car in Germany drove. The car did a fine job. But it needed to know the road, it had a full 3D image of the road in his memory. Still it failed to see 1/3 of traffic signs. And it just worked with fine weather. No rain, not in the dark, not to bright sunlight, no fog, and no snow on streets and road signs, no construction works, no accidents ahead ans so on…. For me, this sound like a big bunch of work still ahead…
Even half automated would be great improvment for pedestrian and cyclist safety. Computers can do emergency breaking much faster than humans and their sensors could eliminate dead angles. No more “I did not see him when I was turning” accidents. Also automatic reading of speed limits are refusing to drive faster than the limit would reduce accidents. These technologies are already becoming reality.
I am affraid if the automatic cars face problems with bicycles and peds, we will see new laws to keep them out of the way…
emergency breaking is just what we are worried about
Actually cyclists (and pedestrians) are going to play havoc with self driving cars. As the cars are programmed to avoid collisions then don’t wait for a gap in the traffic before crossing the road, or simply cycle through a junction without looking. Just carry on knowing the car will stop for you. I can’t wait 🙂
See above, this will lead to new traffic rules we will not like…
“As the cars are programmed to avoid collisions…”
New game: driverless car herding! One bike rules the street….
Mind you, we’ve had driverless cars since the beginning, really
Funny, almost all of my friends are cyclists, and almost all of them are excited for this technology. My first reaction a couple of years ago was similar to the ones here, but they disagreed.
Why? Because the cars _are_ going to be more aware than a lot of drivers. They won’t be drunk, they won’t be groggy, late to work, trying to put on mascara and eat breakfast, they won’t get mad and intentionally try to hit people, they won’t speed up trying to catch the light, etc, etc.
The Oatmeal has a great piece about riding in one of the Google cars. I especially like the way that it stops in #4 because there’s a pedestrian on it’s right. Everyone in the car is looking to the left, and they don’t see the person. It’s one of the most common situations that peds are injured, so that’s already safer than most human drivers. Seriously, I see it multiple times a day.
http://theoatmeal.com/blog/google_self_driving_car
As far as when it will get here, well, it _is_ here. All Tesla model S and X automobiles are capable of autonomous driving as of October 2015. They’re starting to sell semi trucks that can drive themselves, too. That’s going to have serious implications as millions of drivers are phased out of their jobs. People are trying to figure out how that’s going to impact our economy.
http://www.wired.com/2015/10/obviously-drivers-are-already-abusing-teslas-autopilot/
Right now they’re kind of wanting it to be limited to freeways, but it can drive in the city.
Personally, I think that it could do great things. Paired with a car/ride sharing app, it offers the first real chance we have for personalized rapid transit. More and more people are electing to go car free in cities, and this would be a viable option for people that can’t use transit or bikes for everything. That could lower the amount of personal automobiles that need to be stored on city streets, leading to more space for bike lanes and sidewalks.
When the first self driving vehicles get hacked, and they WILL get hacked, and someone dies, there will be an end to them.
Exactly the same happened when the first person died in a car accident. They got outlawed, banned and today nobody uses cars any more.
So prophetic. Woman in a self driving car killed a cyclist a couple years after this comic, because the “driver” had her head in her cell phone, and smart cars can’t detect cyclists.