Google's Driverless Car

mess_it

Just wondering what people think of the Google Driverless Car prototype? Personally I don't see the attraction of the concept. It kinda takes all the enjoyment and fun out of driving!

Here's where I read about it:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18012812

Nibblesworth

Load of bollix

Where To

It's the work of the devil.

A riderless horse you say?

Doesn't need hay, water or bedding you say?

What kind of black art is this?

BLASPHEMER!!!

Anan1

I think it's amazing.

positron

Imagine in 50 or 100 years or so, you (if you are still around) would be telling your great-gran kids how you had to manually drive the car for hours to get from A to B - keep looking out on to the road, constantly adjusting the steering wheel, operating three different pedals - and every single person who wanted to travel from A to B had to do exactly these things, and every time they want to travel - over and again..!!

So if the average commute of a person in Ireland is say 1 hour a day, there were 1 x number of commuters = so many millions of hours wasted every single day, doing the same repetitive thing, and making mistakes, crashing into others etc...

They would struggle to imagine how someone could live like that..?!!

flanzer

It's all well and good until someone does an 'rm -R'

dr.fuzzenstein

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RZZHNt83p4U

MugMugs

Personally, I am going to hang on for Teleoportation.

Whats the point in driving if you can't drive. May as well get the bus !

Mugs

unkel

Anan1 wrote: »

I think it's amazing.

+1

Lots of respect also for Google for having the balls to take this on. Imagine the legal bills if the car injured somebody on the public road.

Didn't the car get licensed in Nevada last week?

Mitch Buchannon

[QUOTE=unkel;78690426Didn't the car get licensed in Nevada last week?[/QUOTE]

Correct..It passed its driving test.
http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/googles-computercontrolled-robot-cars-pass-driving-test-in-nevada-3102818.html

seamus

I imagine 150 years ago, not being knowing how to ride a horse was something that you would only admit to if you were weird or poor. And nowadays most people would say they've never even sat on a horse, let alone know how to ride one.

Such it will be with cars. For a niche group of enthusiasts, existing car models will be modified to allow human control, and they can be driven on private tracks. Racing will still exist, but it will be even more the domain of the super-rich than it is now.

The day will come within my lifetime (though probably much later on) where those in urban areas won't have exclusive use of their own cars but instead will order them to arrive at the house on demand. Like taxis, but without a driver and on a far simpler, more reliable and cheaper basis. In rural areas, people will still need to have their own cars, as well as their works vehicles, but there's no reason why this can't be mostly automated.

Afaik, automation of works vehicles is well underway such that (for example), the harvester maps out your field and its size, then calculates the most efficient pattern to cover the whole field and then goes and does it.

The liability issue on this I reckon won't be huge. They've already proven themselves umpteen times safer than a human-only driver, and they have cameras and data recording up the wazoo. So it would be fairly easy to discover if it was a software/hardware fault or if the other party drove into the side of the vehicle.

There is a problem in the US where there's potentially no limit on compensation. So Google could be fined billions of dollars for killing someone, but I'd be surprised if that happened.

Over here our biggest hurdle would be legislation. I imagine most people would like to have a "the computer is always at fault" rule in place for these vehicles.

dr.fuzzenstein

Given the standard of driving, it can only be a good thing.
Maybe one day the police can take your licence much more easily and you will have to get a robot car.

NeonCookies

While I enjoy driving a lot, I think if this became a (common) reality it would be absolutely amazing.

While I'm not in Ireland at the moment, and don't have a car here, when I did commute I often thought about the amount of wasted hours I had every week driving the car, traffic or no traffic. Imagine getting into your car in the morning and being able to review for your meeting/exam, or getting some extra work done, or just catching some extra shut eye/ have breakfast! Being able to go for a drink..and still get the car home In all honesty, I would miss driving itself but it does make sense!

I would however be very skeptical about it until I see how well it really works. Unfortunately, the changeover would be very slow, and while the theory of how it works amongst other driverless cars (communicating about lane changes etc.) is great..I just wonder how it would hold up against the unpredictability of most (bad!)human drivers.

It would also be very difficult at first to trust a computer with your life. Even though we often put our lives in the hands of other humans...

mess_it

Mitch Buchannon wrote: »

Correct..It passed its driving test.
http://www.independent.ie/business/technology/googles-computercontrolled-robot-cars-pass-driving-test-in-nevada-3102818.html

Imagine they tried it over here, I reckon the testers would find a way to fail it just to get some extra cash from the re-test

mess_it

NeonCookies wrote: »

... Being able to go for a drink..and still get the car home In all honesty, I would miss driving itself but it does make sense...

Of course, I hadn't thought of that! :rolleyes: Maybe it's inevitable in the end, but it would be a shame if it became the standard in the industry to make cars with no steering wheel and no option for control

positron

Yes, imagine the possibilities!

* Just dial, or set a reminder on your phone so that your car will warm/cool itself to your preference and drive itself to your front door.

* Auto-parking cars will allow for ever more flexible and safe housing estates where all cars will be locked away in a machine-only area where humans are not allowed, probably a multistory car parks underground somewhere - no need for light or windows or walk ramps, signs or safety access.

* Since you are free to do other things, inside of cars will evolve to do other functions than just sit facing forward. Perhaps a comfy bed? Or a desk for you to plug your laptop (or phone) and to start working straight away, or dial into "facetime" meetings with work and/or family elsewhere, movies or whatever. Or sign on to your PS3 (or PS8 by then) and play err Battlefield / Duke Nukem XXX / Space Invaders ReReReReloaded. Or connect with your children to help them their homework etc etc. Fridge + Coffee machine is given. And yes, you can put on your make up without putting yourself and others in danger!

With all this, I have to admit - there will be serious resistance / delay in making cars fully driverless. If you think about it, trains run on dedicated tracks protected by barriers and is probably much much more suitable for being fully machine controlled, or remote-controlled even, however, vast majority of trains still have a human-being as a driver. I wonder how long it would take us to give up the 'feeling of being in control'.

PS: Imagine someone hacking into your car - they could lock down all the doors and change the destination and drive you straight into their garage and ask for a ransom! Hackerjacking? (copyrighted) !!!

pa990

positron wrote: »

Yes, imagine the possibilities!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7ipFApsFec

heathersonline

Would be seriously handy for having the few pints!!

unkel

positron wrote: »

* Just dial, or set a reminder on your phone so that your car will warm/cool itself to your preference and drive itself to your front door.

I think seamus has a point there. It won't be your car it will be a car

positron

Hmm, I would disagree. If you look back in history, as standard of living and affordability increases, the concept of privacy and 'own stuff' is getting more popular and more important.

Sure, 'a car' from a pool responding to your request would definitely happen, it would be the 'taxi' service of the world of self-driving cars, but I would think privately owned self-driving cars will be more popular, and will probably integrate itself more to your house - for instance, how about a car (or a caravan perhaps) that rides itself into the driveway and docks itself to the house - and becomes part of the living area of the house?

Right, I am thinking too much!

seamus

Well the thing is, if it was a case that a car was generally available to you within ten minutes of pressing a button on an app on your phone, would you have any need for your own private vehicle?

As far as "owning stuff" goes, cars are the second-most expensive thing that most people buy, but we generally buy them not because we like to "own stuff", but because cars provide an exceptionally convenient and private service when compared to public transport. I know for a lot of people here their cars are part-necessity, part-toy, but in most other cases the car is simply a tool for getting from A to B.

If you provide an alternative form of transport with almost the same level of convenience and privacy, but miles cheaper, then people will ditch the cars en masse. Perhaps PAYG or subscription based for heavy users.

positron

Ah, I would agree with you if the car remains a car as we know it now. But once you free up the occupier(s) from driving duties, the interior, and later the over all shape of the car will evolve to entertain and relax the passenger(s). There could be lazy boys, gaming consoles and what not - beds and pillows even? Why not - if my car could drive me to work by itself in the morning, I wouldn't mind extending my morning nap till I get to work. Today a car user doesn't see much of the inside of the car. He/she notices the console, but 99% of the time they are focused on the surroundings and busy driving. Once you don't have to do that, 99% of the time and attention will demand all sorts of different configurations to their cars to match different preferences. Some might want large screens to stream TV/video in there, but some might want a zen like place where they can rest. Some might need a office space in there, or a play station? I think that will then evolve into cars being extensions to your home - imagine a car (larger versions of what they are now) that can dock itself to the house - so that it becomes part of the house's living space?

Sure, it's all ifs and buts and may bes at this stage, and who knows, may be we are still talking about flying cars in 50 years time as we are now!

PS: Another example is telephones. When they were a box on the wall, it was meh, same for everyone. When they became communication and gaming devices, they became extremely personable and quickly becomes very personal. Cars will go that way imho, they are gadgets after all!