New Law Clears the Way for Driverless Cars on Texas Roads

Megalith

Megalith

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Self-driving cars are now officially welcome in Texas. While autonomous vehicles were never actually banned from the Lone Star State’s roads, new legislation explicitly permits them to roam the streets as long as they meet obvious conditions: these include obeying traffic laws, carrying insurance, and being able to record video. Manufacturers such as GM and Toyota backed the bill.

There was nothing in existing law that banned autonomous vehicles from Texas roads. After all, Google has been testing them since 2015 in Austin, and Arlington is rolling them out. And several Texas sites were chosen by the U.S. Department of Transportation to test the technology in closed-course settings. Yet because state statutes didn’t address the emerging technology at all, some manufacturers have told state officials they were wary about testing vehicles alongside street and highway traffic in Texas.
 
Honestly, with how f*cked up many drivers around DFW are, the cars are already pretty much "self-driving" anyway.
They just have sh*t collision avoidance ;)
 
Great. Now autonomous vehicles can run you over, and with the proper accessories, rob you and go off and crypto currency mine so they can take over the world.
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I see paintball gun sales going up. Sounds like an easy way to flip the bird to the robot driver.
 
There were plenty of "driverless" cars anyway on those roads anyway.
 
This is a good thing, as the standards for truck drivers in my area at least is absolutely miserable. I was even hit by the trailer of an 18 wheeler that was driving on the HOV lane due to heavy traffic (highly illegal), who crossed the double-white line (highly illegal), without a blinker (totally normal for Houston but still illegal), and who was uninsured no less (also normal, but still illegal). Luckily, with the help of the cop who also pointed out he'd review the traffic camera he pointed to up ahead to validate the story (got the guy to quit his BS right away and admit he "didn't see me" when exiting the HOV, I got the name of the business the driver's truck belonged to and got repairs fully covered so I didn't have to pay my insurance's uninsured driver deductible.

Aside from safety though, these can also be great for consumers and the environment.

Its far more efficient for big rigs to travel in convoys drafting one another, and splitting off and joining new convoys as needed, which can be done with automation and internet connected AIs. They can also be driving safely 24x7, greatly reducing costs and the number of big rigs we need on the roads, and unlike human drivers can bias their driving for more night-time hours where traffic is lower.

All in all, it should mean greatly reduced fuel consumption, lower delivery times, improved safety, and lower costs for consumers, a win-win-win scenario.
DrLobotomy said:
I see paintball gun sales going up. Sounds like an easy way to flip the bird to the robot driver.
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I hope someone tries. They have cameras, and Texas cops would be happy to chase the vandals down and bring them to justice.
 
Ducman69 said:
This is a good thing, as the standards for truck drivers in my area at least is absolutely miserable. I was even hit by the trailer of an 18 wheeler that was driving on the HOV lane due to heavy traffic (highly illegal), who crossed the double-white line (highly illegal), without a blinker (totally normal for Houston but still illegal), and who was uninsured no less (also normal, but still illegal). Luckily, with the help of the cop who also pointed out he'd review the traffic camera he pointed to up ahead to validate the story (got the guy to quit his BS right away and admit he "didn't see me" when exiting the HOV, I got the name of the business the driver's truck belonged to and got repairs fully covered so I didn't have to pay my insurance's uninsured driver deductible.

Aside from safety though, these can also be great for consumers and the environment.

Its far more efficient for big rigs to travel in convoys drafting one another, and splitting off and joining new convoys as needed, which can be done with automation and internet connected AIs. They can also be driving safely 24x7, greatly reducing costs and the number of big rigs we need on the roads, and unlike human drivers can bias their driving for more night-time hours where traffic is lower.

All in all, it should mean greatly reduced fuel consumption, lower delivery times, improved safety, and lower costs for consumers, a win-win-win scenario.

I hope someone tries. They have cameras, and Texas cops would be happy to chase the vandals down and bring them to justice.
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Justice may be making the driverless cars exit the road. Just sayin'
 
Good f*cking luck Texas. As a driver who already has to suffer Google's Wayslow pods blocking traffic in rush hour, you have my condolences.
 
I feel like there's way to many variables in life for driverlese vehicles that aren't on a closed circuit.

Nevermind what it seems like everyone avoids. When all the jobs go to automation... Who's gonna pay for the goods that are produced/transported?
 
Human drivers must pass a written and practical (driving) test, so why isn't there some sort of test that the software must pass to show it can safely operate the vehicle? It seems that because it is called "deep-learning" or "AI", it is assumed that not only is better than humans, but simply can't fail (have bugs), and therefore is not a potential public hazard. I think that's a dangerous assumption.
 
Let the companies that want to invest in driverless tech to pool up their monies and build up their own highway system. I really don't want to be on the road with robot vehicles.
 
After observing crap like this, day in, day out, i want driverless cars.:





Yes, I know, there are far worse examples out there.
 
grtitan said:
Exactly why I said that there are far worse out there, just didnt need/wanted to link anything like that.
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It's ok, it reminded me I wanted to look that up to see if anyone was caught yet.....shit happened just a couple miles from my work and I commuted past there around that time that day. Nothing on the road is that fucking important.
 
westrock2000 said:
It's ok, it reminded me I wanted to look that up to see if anyone was caught yet.....shit happened just a couple miles from my work and I commuted past there around that time that day. Nothing on the road is that fucking important.
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Your life is. I know what you are saying though. However, the case of the video he posted would be getting very close to me shooting the guy. He was in the wrong, clearly batshit crazy and aggressive/violent.

The link you posted makes it sound like the one who was shot might have been the aggressor, from witnesses and video they said the "victim" had the chance to disengage, but did not, in one of the videos you can see the shooters car moving with traffic, while the other is staying right with him while his lane is clear, probably for yelling or whatever reason. Not saying he had the right to shoot, just saying if you choose to harass someone with your car and follow them and probably threatening them, be ready for any and all reactions that might come from that.
 
A driverless car ran off a super nintendo is probably a billion times more safe than the human driver.

As it is 99% of the time, the human is the sole cause of a traffic accident.
 
0neTwo said:
A driverless car ran off a super nintendo is probably a billion times more safe than the human driver.

As it is 99% of the time, the human is the sole cause of a traffic accident.
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Just getting all the cars to be in sync would be a major break through.

Think about it....when a light turns green EVERY single car in line should be able to start going the second it turns green. Not light turns green and 15 seconds later the 4th car back is just starting to pull forward.
 
westrock2000 said:
Just getting all the cars to be in sync would be a major break through.

Think about it....when a light turns green EVERY single car in line should be able to start going the second it turns green. Not light turns green and 15 seconds later the 4th car back is just starting to pull forward.
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Rubberband effect, most people don't get it, and as such end up with spaces so big I could pass the person in front of me with a semi and be able to merge back in front of them.

Car in front of them starts moving, their brake lights go off...4 seconds later they actually use the accelerator, by this time the car in front of them is already through the intersection. I have actually seen people 4 cars back from the light MISS the signal, when there was enough time for 15+ cars to get through.
 
If you drive in Arlington, the light turns green, the person on the phone finishes their text message then blows through the yellow light. Everyone honking at them the entire time. 1-2 cars gets to go through, resets and do it again.
 
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