Welcome to the 21st Century - SF police pull up driverless car with no-one inside ...

[onetrack]

This is nothing less than a real chuckle - but the question remains - how have driverless cars got to the stage where they are beating the legislation to control them?

 

And I'd also like to know, how the police managed to stop it in the first place?  

 

https://www.abc.net.au/news/2022-04-12/self-driving-car-police-pull-over-san-francisco/100985792

[spacesailor]

BIG TACKS

Road spikes l believe.  LoL

spacesailor

[spacesailor]

Don,t forget, they start themselves if left to their own devices.  ( not switched off )

SO

If they start, then the preselected GPS route, possibly could kick in and away you go. 

Off to work without the driver,  who's soundly sleeping, oblivious to the tickets he,s getting.

my / my wifes car needs HER to drive. ( no licence ) or it,s Not going anywhere  on it,s own.  LoL

spacesailor

 

[Marty_d]

1 minute ago, spacesailor said:

oblivious to the tickets he,s getting.

 

 

If it's on autopilot it should be on the speed limit and following road rules.  Probably less likely to get a ticket than a human.

[Yenn]

If cars are anything like mobile phones, which are touted as being state of the art, I would not like to meet one of them on the road. Anything with a computer in it is going to go mad at  some stage. That is too much of a danger to let autonomous cars onto the road.

[Jerry_Atrick]

Have you seen some drivers?

[onetrack]

The latest on the driverless car story that I got, was that it tried to flee from the Police. They've obviously perfected the driverless car!! "COPS!! Floor it!!".... 

 

Edited April 14, 2022 by onetrack

[old man emu]

Are our lives so busy (especially in the cities) that we need to be able to attend to other things while travelling places? Has the joy of handling a motor vehicle been lost to younger generations? 

 

There's one thing that driverless vehicles would put an end to: hooning. Imagine, no more unnecessary high revving; no more burn-outs in the middle of the night; no more lane chopping. 

[nomadpete]

Welcome to the age of instant gratification and virtual experience.

Travel is no longer about experiencing the journey.

[Marty_d]

9 hours ago, nomadpete said:

Welcome to the age of instant gratification and virtual experience.

Travel is no longer about experiencing the journey.

Sorry Peter, but if the journey is the same 25km from home to work or vice versa, it loses most of its shine after about the 300th time.  Just as I use the bus trip to do French lessons or read a book instead of looking out the window, I'd happily do the same in an auto driving electric car - WHEN they're far more reliable!

[spacesailor]

WHY WORRY !!!!.

OUR great grandparents didn't have to be the driver. 

The Horse knew the way home !

Whether they were drunk or otherwise engaged.  LoL

spacesailor

[octave]

Whilst I get some enjoyment form driving in some situations I will be delighted when self driving cars are an option.   A couple of days ago I had to drive from to to the airport in the afternoon rush hour.   Heavy traffic, dusk and aging eyes. There is nothing admirable or enjoyable about this in my opinion.   It may seem like an unlikely scenario that the roads will be full of self driving cars but this is always the case with new technology.  People had trouble believing that the technology to travel long distances without a horse was possible.

 

My now deceased father was devastated when his doctor deemed he was no longer able to drive and to be honest he probably should have had his license pulled earlier. Doctors are reluctant to take away  an elderly persons right to drive and often do turn a blind eye.  

 

It is of course early days for this technology and it is probably not ready for wide spread use.  I am confident that in the near future self drive vehicles will be much safer than human drivers.    The adoption of self drive vehicles will most likely be driven by insurance premiums. In order to be adopted, self driving cars don't need to be perfect but they need to be safer and more efficient than human driven cars. 

[Jerry_Atrick]

The docs never pulled my father's drivers license. He drove to the rehab centre the day he died.

 

Hew always maintained he was a good driver as he never had an accident. Clearly, he never looked in his rear view mirror and witnessed the trail of destruction he left.

 

Although, it did come in handy once.. I was dating a girl who had an absolute fear of flying - the sweat from the palms of her hands saturated a cloth armrest on, I think it was an Ansett flight from Melbourne to Brissie (I am sure after that, the airlines brought in vinyl armrest covers). I booked a sneaky weekend away to Tassie and decided, to ease her flying pain, I got my father to drive us to the airport. She was eagerly wanting to board the plane after that episode.

Edited April 15, 2022 by Jerry_Atrick

[nomadpete]

1 hour ago, spacesailor said:

The Horse knew the way home !

Whether they were drunk or otherwise engaged. 

My grandad used to say he didn't like driving a car. If you didn't watch out your foot relaxed on the pedal and the damn thing went too fast. He said at least the horse knew the way home from the pub and never went too fast.

[nomadpete]

For me, autonomous cars would be great. In the city. Great convenience .

 

But I love travel. Whether by plane, car or bike. I love the journey. Sometimes, for me, slow is lovely because it gives me time to savor the journey.

 

I suspect, however, that the 'younger generation' no longer enjoy the time spent on a journey. (Or waiting for anything of value). I think they are missing out on a simple pleasure.

[nomadpete]

2 hours ago, Marty_d said:

Sorry Peter, but if the journey is the same 25km from home to work or vice versa, it loses most of its shine after about the 300th time.  Just as I use the bus trip to do French lessons or read a book instead of looking out the window, I'd happily do the same in an auto driving electric car - WHEN they're far more reliable!

Sorry Marty. You seem trapped in an inevitable worker's paradigm. You need to spend more time gazing out the commuter window and pondering the meaning of life.

[onetrack]

Driving a machine like a tractor or grader that's limited to about 30 or 40kmh makes for an interesting road journey. It's amazing what you see by the roadside when you travel slow. Parts that have fallen off cars and trucks, lost items that blew off roof racks, and out of the backs of utes - and even panties and bras!

The most amazing sight I ever saw when travelling slow, was initially sighting a little bird that seemed to be transfixed, on the LH shoulder of the road - it didn't fly off when I started getting close.

But then, when I got much closer, and the engine and tyre noise obviously got much louder, the little bird seem to snap out of its transfixed state, and flew straight up off the shoulder.

As it did so, I was amazed to see a big Dugite snake launch himself from the opposite (RH) side of the road, throwing himself at the flying bird, as the bird got airborne.

The snake leapt up from the RHS of the road, and travelled across the full width of the bitumen, standing up on about the last 30-40cm of its tail - and it was staggering to see the pace it travelled across the road at, just propelling itself on that last section of its tail. It travelled across the 8M wide bitumen strip in about 1-1/2 seconds.

But the leap was in vain - the little bird was too fast and got away, and the snake went hungry! It was only then that I realised the snake had been staring at the little bird with raised head, as I first approached, and the little bird was transfixed in terror by the snakes gaze. But the increasing noise as I drove along, snapped it out of its transfixed state, and it escaped the snakes grab for it.

[spacesailor]

Automomus vehical.

Lots around here !!!.

They are called ,

Public transport,  bus, train, ferry , All cheap as chips, and you can look out at the scenery,  or at your phone/tablet.  Or the oldies ' newspaper ' .

Like the rest of those young people.

spacesailor

[spacesailor]

Just took my grand-daughters to Sydney,  along with their kids.

WEIRD.  

Doing the sites with Another generation , & not with the DAUGHTERS.

AND

All free transport.

spacesailor

[ClintonB]

Wheels magazine has had a lot of interesting info on automonus vehicles lately, a big hurdle according to the articles is the legislation to go with it, who is at fault when a program saves the occupants of its own vehicle when avoiding an accident and for example takes out a motorcycle that is the least path of resistance. They question is it the manufacturer, the programmer or the owner that has to take responsibility. If a human makes a decision in the heat of the moment in this example it would be an accident, but if it programmed does that make it premeditated.

wont it be fun to give bureaucrats and politicians something else to stuff up before it comes to fruition.

 

 

[old man emu]

On 16/04/2022 at 8:17 PM, ClintonB said:

They question is it the manufacturer, the programmer or the owner that has to take responsibility.

I would put the responsibility on the owner for the simple reason that the owner is the one who makes the final decision to use a computer controlled device. Take cruise control for example. I can either engage it, or not. If I'm driving the 10 kms into town, I won't use it, but if I'm doing the 60 kms into Dubbo, I'll engage it when I enter the 110 kph speed zone. Another example is the use of a gun. I can either use it with due care, or not. If I do damage by not using it with due care, then I must bear the responsibility for the damage.

 

If autonomous vehicles become the norm, will they be so good that collisions will never occur? Never say "Never".

[octave]

17 minutes ago, old man emu said:

If autonomous vehicles become the norm, will they be so good that collisions will never occur? Never say "Never".

 

To begin to be adopted, autonomous vehicles don't need to be perfect, they just need to be better, even just slightly better than human drivers.   No one safety feature on motor vehicles has reduced the accident rate to zero.    I am guessing that in the future there will be a mix of vehicles but perhaps insurance companies will charge premiums that take into account the safest driving method. 

[Yenn]

So will the owner, occupant of an autonomous car be responsible for an accident caused by his car? If that is the case would any sane person buy an autonomous car? I wouldn't.

[octave]

1 hour ago, Yenn said:

So will the owner, occupant of an autonomous car be responsible for an accident caused by his car? 

I would think that it would come down to whether or not the vehicle was being operated within the instructions. As it is with all cars, a crash could be caused by driver error or by mechanical failure or by design faults 

There have already been accidents where the driver has clearly been at fault such as the Tesla driver who was sitting in the back seat. This would be a clear cut case of driver negligence given the operating instructions. There really can be no blame on the manufacturer unless they have not made the limitations obvious. On the other hand if the vehicle drives through a red light then it would come down to whether or not the vehicle was operated within its stated capabilities.  Of course there will be grey areas at first as with any new technology.

The question may become, will someone who is driving a car that is equipped to be driven autonomously but they choose to drive manually be more responsibility for an accident, if that accident would have been avoided by automated technology.    Airliners already operate much of the time without constant human intervention.

When it comes to cars I will drive the vehicle that in real world use has the better safety statistic. We are not yet at the stage where mass automated vehicles can suddenly be adopted. What is actually happening is that these vehicles are gradually increasing their capabilities and are slowly being adopted. As long as the stats suggest that they are improving safety rather than degrading it, they will continue to be adopted.

[old man emu]

A proper investigation of a motor vehicle collision takes into account the driver, the vehicle and the environment* at the time of the collision. So, if the investigation reveals a mechanical/electrical (design) fault or environment was the major causative factor, then the driver should not be held responsible. There is also the rare "unavoidable accident" best exemplified by a vehicle colliding with a tree that falls unexpectedly.

 

So, considering the fear the automobile industry has of litigation, you can expect that their products will be virtually free of design errors and we now have a lot of experience of vehicles being free of faults arising from poor component manufacture.

 

* By "environment" I mean things like road surface condition, road design, weather, lighting (natural and artificial).