Waymo, whose fully automated, self-driving cars are a common sight in Los Angeles, has recently released it’s raw data on several years of practical, on-the-road traffic accidents. It turns out that even first-generation self-driving cars are at least TEN TIMES SAFER than those driven by humans (and the true number might be much more than that). From a safety point of view, the future clearly seems to favor automation. But is there more to driving a car than just safety?
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I’m going to guess that autonomous vehicles have lightning fast responses, but cannot anticipate anything. My experience tells me that car up ahead is behaving strangely, or that overpass is going to be icy. Let my Judgement pair with the reflexes of a robot and I think we’d make a pretty good team.
I have nothing against self drive cars as such. However what worries me is the creation of yet more dependancy in the population. While you may choose not to drive, you should have the skill to do it and do it well if need be. And I wish people would learn to drive manual. More and more often valets, friends, etc stand dumbfounded when confronted with the keys to my car. You may not want to drive it, but if there’s an emergency you better be able to. From the safety standpoint, my take is that we keep introducing things… Read more »
4I will never fully trust self driving cars. Computers are not capable of anticipating, or imagining what another driver will do, based on observed behavior. Besides, I’m an excellent driver. Yeah, yeah, I’m an excellent driver. Gotta get home in time for Wopner, yeah… Actually, I have extensive training in high-speed and evasive driving. I really am in the top 1% of drivers. And I too, enjoy the precision of operating a vehicle in an efficient and effective manner. And racing. I love racing! (on a track; I’m not stupid) Racing isn’t a hobby, it’s a CURSE. TBS, The only… Read more »
Safety. The Last Chase, a stupid movie made in 1981. Lee Majors and Burgess Merideth. Everyone is driving around in either golf carts at 1 mph or public mass transit. Storyline from IMDB….. In a future United States, the only transport available to an individual is public transportation. Predicated on an assertion that “the oil has run out”, an increasingly totalitarian central government has ordered all personal vehicles be impounded by law. One man, a former race car driver, yearns again for his ability to choose his own roads and destiny. He reassembles his race car hidden from confiscation, and… Read more »
Arrrrrgh this topic! Excruciating. Stupid as Y2K, or “AI is gonna kill us all”, or “Smartmeters are going to give us cancer” or “Chemtrails”… I commute to and from work on CA 1. 8 miles there, 8 miles back . Should take about 10 to 15 minutes. Nope. 45-60 minutes. Freeway filled with Telsa’s model X, 3, S. Of all years. I can drive and at any given time and see 5 Teslas surrounding me. Not hyperbole. More Teslas in sight than Starbucks in Hong Kong. Many self driving. Know what happens? Their FSD slows down when the car ahead… Read more »
“Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety”
Teens going through windshields? Maybe teach them to use the doors? Couldn’t resist. Prior to her passing, my wife totalled 3 cars (rolled one of them). While at Boeing I was all-in on fully autonomous transport system studies (20 years ago). My hope was to keep my wife & teens from driving cars that could kill/hurt themselves – or others. Studies echo’d untold benefits from lives to serious money saved. THE KEY to sucess was simple – EVERY vehicle needs to have transponders and EVERY vehicle needs to be autonomous. To work, people must be removed from the pedals and… Read more »
That is true, but the real question is why would we allow the the “gubMINT” to gain so much power through a series of small(-ish) mandates? It’s got to be stopped sooner rather than later, because later allows for limited options for any opposition. If you want an auto-driving EV, then get one. As for me, no thanks (with prejudice).
As long as there are lawyers and the flawed US legal system (winner pays) I doubt there will ever be self-driving cars. That said, I can empathize with the neurosurgeon. In my surgical training, our specialty shared an intensive care unit with neurosurgery. It was nearly entirely filled with young men who crashed motorcycles. Most looked like the kind of guys who had no trouble attracting the opposite sex. Towards the middle of my training, seatbelt laws were mandated for automobiles. That cut down on Neuro-ICU visits, but not for the motorcycle population. Another “That said” is that I lived… Read more »
Hold the phone! Everyone is fawning of the “safety” statististics of these self-driving cars, but nobody is considering the long-term consequences of putting fallible machines and software in the pilot seat. Yes, humans are fallible, but when was the last time a human brain was hacked remotely to cause its owner to intentionally crash a car into a crowd. I suppose one could make an argument that some ideologies are a form of remote hacking of the human brain, but I am talking about real time hacking that can be switched on and off at will. When this sort of… Read more »
I also like to point out, what if an equivalent of “The blue screen of death” occurs? And the passenger doesn’t know how to drive?
You should have an override.
And remote hacking can be prevented by (somewhat) by not allowing remote access. But if you can summon it, it can hacked. Also if external info can be fed, the car may be acting contrary to the actual conditions.
Gentlemen, Automatically driven cars are coming. It’s not if, it’s when. We cannot stop people’s desire for life to be easier, and more automatic. Like it or not…and that said, I am so glad that I lived in the era of the manually driven cars….Taking responsibility for my own transportation, and the maintenance of the machine that gave it to me. Ask any PILOT. Automatically flown Aircraft are next. Pilots will rue the day that happens. But it will be safer. My question is, when will we accept the fact that there are LIMITS. That taking responsibility for our own… Read more »
Generally like what you have said. Would an autopilot have put that plane belly down in the Hudson or try it’s best to make it to Teterboro?