Self driving buses, trains, trucks etc

I can just imagine what would happen to a self driving 27 bus in Jobstown.

otoh, driverless taxis could be a consumer's dream. Some people enjoy the chat of course. So, maybe there will be some automation there too

"Hey Alexa, what did you think of the game last night ....?"

I'm not sure if it is wishful thinking. Improvements in combustion-driven vehicles have been incremental for practically all of the time they've been around. The current version of a given vehicle offering a tiny, if even noticeable change over the last. It's only over longer timescales of 20-30 years that the sum of these changes becomes obvious.

So traditionally we assume that change comes slowly where vehicles are concerned. New safety features take decades to become ubiquitous, upgrades like tape to cd to mp3 to bluetooth are long, drawn-out affairs. The majority of vehicles on the road at present probably still have CD players. Because there's no major value in changing vehicle just to get a new stereo or spending €200 on a new stereo for an old car.

But that doesn't mean change is always going to be slow. Mobile phones offer the perfect example where the entire model can shift drastically inside of a decade. Indeed, the birth of the automobile industry was a similar seismic shift. In the US, vehicle ownership rates went from ~5% to 50% in about 2 decades. That's in a world with no satellites, internet or even any real commercial air traffic.

Likewise, autonomous vehicles and the prioritisation of public transport in cities, has the potential to completely rewrite the landscape of transportation. Could you imagine if the number of households with no permanent vehicle went from 15.2% to 50% by 2030? 2030 sounds like a long time away, but it's not really. If autonomous vehicles land with the same bang we saw the smartphone hit, and/or cities started completely locking out private vehicles in favour of public transport, we could easily see a shift that large in a small timeframe.

Seems like the lady crossed the street away from the pedestrian crossing. A tragic accident that can happen with any type of vehicle.

While there are still a lot of flaws that need to be ironed out before mainstreaming autonomous vehicles, I am still 100% in favor of it given the benefits it will bring.

It is clear from all of those against this idea that there is a vested interest in blocking the introduction of autonomous vehicles.

Some Safety Benefits (assuming it isn't completely sentient):

• No breaking red lights
• Driving the correct direction assigned to the road
• No road rage

Some Social Benefits:

• Being able to go for a night out with some friends in a previously inaccessible region and having a driver-less vehicle bring you home at next to no cost.
• As an unlicensed driver, you could still have a driver-less car bring you to work without the worry of v-shaped commutes from the public transport alternative.
• Elderly people with compromised mobility or vision would get back their independence as a result of driver-less vehicle.

yabadabado wrote: »

Seems like the lady crossed the street away from the pedestrian crossing. A tragic accident that can happen with any type of vehicle.

she apparently walked out of the shadows straight in front of the car which didnt leave enough time to brake "even" if the car was driven by a human (with a slower reaction time)

I still am very sceptical how good a self driving car will work in European cities with more pedestrians and cyclists , but this accident doesnt seem to be the cars fault.

Stephen15 wrote: »

Knowing the compo culture if self driving cars ever make an appearance here people will be trying to walk into them in order to claim and get compo.

They're riddled with cameras and recording equipment.

And the ones not built by Uber are a lot better at detecting errant pedestrians.

I'm sure a few people will try for compo claims, but after some video footage from five different cameras and data showing that the vehicle started slowing 5ms after the pedestrian dived out in front of it, it'll become clear that there's no cash cow in it.

It will surprise people how quickly these vehicles appear and how far ahead the technology is than they think it is.

Most people think it's where Uber apparently have it; where it can't see a pedestrian in a shadow. Realistically it's way ahead of that.

But this is a good case because it might wake up legislators to the need for regulation in this area to ensure that not just any cowboys can deploy autonomous vehicles onto the road.