Listening to more coverage on the radio this morning about Driverless Cars.
It sounds worrying to me.
Also, I can’t think of a reason why I would want my car to go somewhere without me. Lol.
I want mine to drive me home from the pub when i get pissed!
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I am afraid its not what YOU want or wish, its another agenda altogether. IMO
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If you do not want to drive sell your car and use taxis. Smart motorways are now proved dangerous so smart cars will be no different.
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i wouldnt worry about it, no one will be able to afford them once the new AI’s take all our jobs…
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I see a good reason if driverless car will go to my job place which will not require my presence any more and bring back my salary.
The cars aren’t the issue, the road infrastructure is. I can’t see how anything other than a motorway in the UK can really support safe driverless vehicles for a very, very long time. Maybe I am a luddite!
If you want to go driverless then try a taxi, bus, train…
Bruce
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A friend of mine is counting on driverless cars to take him everywhere when he can no longer have a driving licence. Eight years ago he told me he hoped they would be here in 10 years, so it’s getting a bit tight for his personal deadline!
And another guy I know who lives in a city centre in France with limited parking wants to be able to tell his Tesla to go away and charge itself, and come back at an arranged time tomorrow.
All this time people have been fretting over governments getting involved in people’s lives.
It’s the private companies I worry about. I didn’t (and certainly wouldn’t) vote for Musk or Zuckerberg or Bezos for example and I sure as hell don’t want them running my life.
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A new transport system in Scotland is driverless. However, it requires someone to sit behind the wheel at all times…just in case, plus, another individual to explain to passenegers what is going on and to reassure them.
It reminds me of a time when a bus had a driver and a conductor…and progress said you didn’t need a conductor and so they were reimagined!!!
The car in question monitors whether the owner is paying attention, just in case, and slows the car down if they are not…that’ll be fun.
Smart cars that can parallel park and forcibly prevent tailgating are great. But full autonomous driverless simply doesn’t work in many countries with infrastructure issues.
Where I am, the roads are under 30cm of ice for months on end. Zero road markings, Some roads non passable until ploughed or with very creative driving. The number and location of lanes becomes a variable depending on where the snow drifts accumulated that year. So when maps mean nothing, there are no road markings and everything is just white both on and off the road, they frankly stand no chance.
Which is a shame. I’m not a bah humbugger. If they worked, I’d be all for it. I expect if I still lived down south I’d be awaiting the day they were licensed for total automation (all passengers having a nap). Right now, in the city I settled in, they don’t even seem 20 years away. They seem never away.
There is no such thing as autonomous. Something has to be in control or a controller, and that is designed and built by a human or two. Plus the operational environment is constantly changing. And that means there will allows be a point of failure.
Beware the sun storms!
I read in the paper at the weekend that the “driverless” car needs someone paying attention so they can take over if things get too difficult e.g heavy rain. So gif the car warns you to pay attention and you don’t respond properly eventually it will flash the hazards, slow down and then stop. In the middle lane of a motorway?? In heavy traffic that could be pretty hairy I guess (for everyone).
If the car AI is doing all the checking on what’s going on around them, then how on earth do they expect the driver to be alert enough to take over in an emergency. They could have been on the motorway for a couple of hours and so is presumably fairly laid back munching a sandwich, looking out at the view.
To be told you mustn’t touch anything, but must be alert ready to drive, just sounds so much worse than driving manually- what’s the point
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I think that would depend on the speed it decelerates. Currently if you are following a car and it starts to flash it’s hazard lights dont you slow down anyway?
Also if the driver of the automated vehicle doesn’t respond to the hints the vehicle is giving, are they in a fit state to drive.
I am in two minds concerning automation… a bad driver will trust the car too much but if they are bad drivers anyway, is it better if they are not in control.
Not necessarily. It depends on the situation - an overtake may be a better choice.
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That’s the ideal isn’t it.
Vehicle drops you off close to your destination so you don’t have the hassle of parking, then it pooters off to some park and ride like holding area and replenishes the battery as efficiently as possible within the allotted time and picks you up again though timing of that bit may be harder.
Without slowing down? Am not suggesting i would come to a stop behind them, i may well overtake depending on the situation but I would slow down in order to give time to assess.
It’s a quick mirror, signal, lifesaver, manoeuvre. People tend to over use the brake pedal - ‘comfort braking’ - when a hazard approaches instead of reading the road and finding the most appropriate action.
Same on a country road where the car in front brakes for every bend despite not going fast enough to need to slow down at all. “Get off the bloody brakes!”
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On the ‘paying attention’, my understanding (such as it is from Radio4) is that the person in the driver’s seat must keep their eyes on the road (as if they have the wheel) at all times. Good luck with that.