US to Allow Cars without Steering Wheels

Only way I see this as viable, is with Highway and City driving. Rural driving is just not possible, I would like to see AI take a trailer through a field to pick up equipment, not on a paved road or striped road for that. They can sell it to the people that live in cities all they want but looking at the situation realistically it could never take over completely.
 
BSmith said:
Oh wait, the traffic patterns and how they are going to change. Fun and games trying to get onto those freeways/highways that are already beyond their saturation point being even worse when they are all actually allowing a safe distance to the car in front. That's okay. You can play Candy Crush during that 20 minute wait to get onto the freeway/highway during rush hour. I am sure your boss will understand, "My car refused to break the law!"
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Actually the roads should be able to carry more traffic with self driving cars, since you won't have crazy drivers cutting people off and weaving in & out of traffic.
Cars will be programmed to automatically let other cars merge efficiently. They will look ahead at merging traffic and move to the next lane before the traffic starts to slow.
You won't have people taking the off ramp, then getting back on the freeway and driving on the shoulder before finally cutting people off and forcing them to slam on their brakes.

What are people who hate self driving cars going to do when only self driving cars are allowed on the freeways?
 
AlphaQup said:
RIP RHD conversions for us Import guys, lol.

Jokes aside, I personally DO NOT WANT automated driving for myself, driving is an experience and I absolutely love it. Whether it's to the store quick for groceries or day-long highway driving, doesn't matter to me, I prefer to be in control.

For the idiots on the road however (I swear it gets worse every year), I'd love to see it forced on them/made affordable enough to trickle down to their affordability level.
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Haha yeah, I've seen some sweet mods when people bring cars from Straya up to US.
 
Meanwhile, in ~75% of the country in a couple months...
SIDE+ROADS.jpg
 
well not me, but i also have to say that it seem like humans become less and less capable of driving a motor vehicle.
So clearly traffic will not get safer before most / all humans are removed from the equation.

I know ! it is pretty sad but none the less it is a fact.

Maybe if we removed steering wheel airbags and replaced them with a tamper-proof claymore mine, but still i only think that will make some think twice.

"Meanwhile, in ~75% of the country in a couple months..."

You must be Canadian, that pic are more snow then we Danes have seen in total in the past 10 years.

And we are Canada north on the globe too.
 
BloodyIron said:
FYI cars don't run Windows.

When was the last time you heard of such failure in an elevator? An airplane? Automated train? There's ways to do it, and it's not Windows ;)
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No, the current automobile systems either use an embedded RTOS of some sort, or a flavor of Linux.

I don't know about elevators, but both avionics and train automation require heavily regulated software development processes. Requirements drive design, code development, and testing. Everything is peer reviewed and fully traceable. Random audits are not uncommon. The same is true for other safety-critical systems as well, including medical devices and air traffic control software, just to name a couple. I have spent most of my career working in these areas and I can tell you that without the regulations, none of these systems would be as safe as they are. Autonomous automobiles should not be an exception.
 
Youn said:
I don't understand the logic in thinking traffic is better when cars are bumper-to-bumper... doesn't having distance in front of you help cushion the ripples of start/stop? isn't it the folks constantly on your ass that is causing most of that? maybe with proper distance things are a tad slower but smoother overall, I just don't see how it could be much worse because of it. maybe someone can point to simulations of this, I always wanted to understand it more. I remember seeing a movie where the guy in the helicopter instructed a bad traffic jam to simply go off and back on the highway, which helped circulate the congestion by creating more space around cars. I thought it was a true-to-life scenario...
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nutzo said:
Actually the roads should be able to carry more traffic with self driving cars, since you won't have crazy drivers cutting people off and weaving in & out of traffic.
Cars will be programmed to automatically let other cars merge efficiently. They will look ahead at merging traffic and move to the next lane before the traffic starts to slow.
You won't have people taking the off ramp, then getting back on the freeway and driving on the shoulder before finally cutting people off and forcing them to slam on their brakes.

What are people who hate self driving cars going to do when only self driving cars are allowed on the freeways?
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Sure, some of the anomalies associated with bumper-to-bumper are cured. Less stop and go, but saturation point of the roads is going to be lower.

Rough example assuming 150 feet between cars, and an average car length of 20 feet: In a 1 mile, two lane stretch of freeway, you can get just about 62 cars on that stretch of road.
Today in the bumper-to-bumper traffic condition with 6 feet between each car you can get about 406 cars on that same stretch of road.

The speed they travel is irrelevant. As a car enters the freeway, the traffic behind it slows to compensate for the distance which results in the same amount of cars per mile of road. It is about the saturation point which will be reduced significantly.

As the saturation point is reduced and reached the traffic normally entering the freeway will have to be sitting someplace. You are not going to have a stream of cars entering the freeway.


As far as legislation goes, that is not going to happen for a very, very long time. They cannot force people to buy a new car. What is more likely to happen is the creation of separate drive lanes for autonomous vehicles (today's express lanes will be tomorrow's automonous lanes), which is fine by me. I would rather those people be stuck off in another segment of road apart from me.
 
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I for one would agree with strict regulation of autonomous automobiles. While driving is enjoyable at times, I'm looking forward to vehicles that I never have to drive again too.

Mind you, my _preference_ is that the software is open source, so we can all contribute and gain from the development, not just those behind closed doors.

Thanks for sharing your insight! :)

PaulP said:
No, the current automobile systems either use an embedded RTOS of some sort, or a flavor of Linux.

I don't know about elevators, but both avionics and train automation require heavily regulated software development processes. Requirements drive design, code development, and testing. Everything is peer reviewed and fully traceable. Random audits are not uncommon. The same is true for other safety-critical systems as well, including medical devices and air traffic control software, just to name a couple. I have spent most of my career working in these areas and I can tell you that without the regulations, none of these systems would be as safe as they are. Autonomous automobiles should not be an exception.
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IcePickFreak said:
Meanwhile, in ~75% of the country in a couple months...
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they are working on the snow problem, using maps data combined with tire track analysis and other cues with some impressive results, but yea it'll be a while before that happens and people feel confident in it
 
Youn said:
they are working on the snow problem, using maps data combined with tire track analysis and other cues with some impressive results, but yea it'll be a while before that happens and people feel confident in it
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At least it shouldn't be up your butt while going up a slippery hill. People are so bad at snow as is, it isn't a high hurdle for a computer to jump over. I saw once a car on its roof in the front lawn of a city lot on a 25mph road during a snowy day. I imagine situations like that could be avoided.
 
Now to figure out which company will get the auto-drive working first (err approved first) they already work now ??..time to buy some STOCK......

WOW just did a fast search into companies doing research on auto cars/trucks...

there are over 100+ and a lot of big boyz are in the mix..at least 60 of them are already testing on the road trials...From Asia to the US to Europe...The change is coming and it will be Soon
 
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I for one fully support the deployment of automated homeless bum killing machines.
 
nutzo said:
So no fail-over to manual control.

If the self driving feature fails, you will not even be able to drive the car to the shoulder of the road.
If the self parking feature doesn't work in your garage, you will be out of luck.

No thanks.
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one thing that makes me chuckle about how far ahead the cart is being placed in front of the horse is.. aircraft. They have had auto flying systems in them for some time, and work well. do you see ANY airplanes without direct flight controls??

but yeah, lets rush into having cars without a steering wheel
 
Mut1ny said:
They're not outlawing steering wheels ffs...
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No shit moron. But they're allowing this vehicle on the road with the rest of us, without a steering wheel. I suppose reading comprehension wasn't taught in your neck of the woods.
 
nutzo said:
Actually the roads should be able to carry more traffic with self driving cars, since you won't have crazy drivers cutting people off and weaving in & out of traffic.
Cars will be programmed to automatically let other cars merge efficiently. They will look ahead at merging traffic and move to the next lane before the traffic starts to slow.
You won't have people taking the off ramp, then getting back on the freeway and driving on the shoulder before finally cutting people off and forcing them to slam on their brakes.

What are people who hate self driving cars going to do when only self driving cars are allowed on the freeways?
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Ride motorcycles :)
 
katanaD said:
one thing that makes me chuckle about how far ahead the cart is being placed in front of the horse is.. aircraft. They have had auto flying systems in them for some time, and work well. do you see ANY airplanes without direct flight controls??

but yeah, lets rush into having cars without a steering wheel
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Planes fly in 3D, cars are only 2D. Plains are also much more affected by weather than cars. Planes can't just stop mid air if there is a problem. Need I go on?
 
freeloader1969 said:
No shit moron. But they're allowing this vehicle on the road with the rest of us, without a steering wheel. I suppose reading comprehension wasn't taught in your neck of the woods.
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Lol. I'm sure not being a fucking asshole wasn't taught in your neck of the woods.

I mean, really, what part of any of that was necessary? The DMV allows idiots on the road. Alcohol allows drunks on the road. You can't be this dense. Well I guess you can be..
 
freeloader1969 said:
No shit moron. But they're allowing this vehicle on the road with the rest of us, without a steering wheel. I suppose reading comprehension wasn't taught in your neck of the woods.
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A soapbox on wheels riding down the road with a dog driving it would still be better than many that they already allow on the roads lol. Good drivers don't run lights or left turn in front of moving cars, but i see it already happen enough as is. Have already called emergency services and witnessed for enough accidents in 40 years to know that the steering wheel isn't the issue, it's allowing people who are not capable of safely operating a vehicle, that is the problem.

Honestly we should just move to a 3 strikes you are out rule for driving. If you are a danger, you shouldn't be allowed to drive. Walk or take public transit or buy a self driving car without a steering wheel :D
 
The dark cyberpunk future is here and... oh what the hell, here you go! :D

 
Eh, cars these days steer-by-wire, so it's not like having a physical steering wheel will make a difference when the software or hardware fails.
 
Mut1ny said:
Lol. I'm sure not being a fucking asshole wasn't taught in your neck of the woods.

I mean, really, what part of any of that was necessary? The DMV allows idiots on the road. Alcohol allows drunks on the road. You can't be this dense. Well I guess you can be..
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I was rude because you said FFS. What part of that was needed? You talk like an asshole, I'll respond like an asshole.
 
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