Schmidt Sees Computers Running Your Life for You

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With as many times as this guy has been quoted in the media saying weird stuff like this, I’m starting to think he just makes this stuff up for publicity. Seriously...other than your stoner roommate in college, when was the last time someone said something like this to you?

"It's amazing to me that we let humans drive cars," he told the conference. He said it's "a bug that cars were invented before computers," and computers should do the driving so humans can sit back and do whatever they need to do while getting from one destination to another. Computers should "help us do the things we are not very good at."
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Actually, automatic computer controlled vehicles isn't really that crazy and my non-professional opinion is that we'll have the first truly autonomous vehicle within 10 years. Certainly, highway driving computer controlled cars might be the first step since we're pretty close to that now.

Besides, a computer controlled car can't be any worse than some twenty-something texting while driving.
 
That's TWO hours a day of more free time (stuck in a car) I would have every day. It is also TWO hours a day where my blood pressure would not be up 30 points while I scream at every dumb a-hole on the Arizona highway system.

Sign me up.
 
If Google or some other computer system was driving your car, I highly suspect you would not just sit back and do whatever you wanted. People would very likely be doing more work. Think about it, that commute is just more time you could be running through reports, how exciting! Computers enable people to do more work for less benefit. You almost never hear someone say "Awesome I have all this free time now thanks to the magic of technology!"
 
ocellaris said:
You almost never hear someone say "Awesome I have all this free time now thanks to the magic of technology!"
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A lot of that all depends on who you are and how you live. If tech could do nearly everything for me, I'd actually have a lot more "free" time. I have it now. I want it more.

If a car drove me to work, damn yea, it's game time until it gets me there. And it would drive better than me, it is less likely to get a ticket, and could not be distracted. Sign me up!
 
Computers should "help us do the things we are not very good at."

Now, making money....
 
Computers drive? What about construction? New roads? New local street laws? Computers will never drive in my lifetime.
 
GregWatts said:
Actually, automatic computer controlled vehicles isn't really that crazy and my non-professional opinion is that we'll have the first truly autonomous vehicle within 10 years. Certainly, highway driving computer controlled cars might be the first step since we're pretty close to that now.

Besides, a computer controlled car can't be any worse than some twenty-something texting while driving.
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In my somewhat-professional opinion (I am in the computer science field, but not in this type of stuff) 10 years is way too optimistic.

Yes, we could have a truly autonomous car in 10 years, but you won't see people cruising along in one any time soon
 
Personally, I would love it if my car could drive me to work. I'd just read my book instead. However the future I really hope for is to not have to drive a car at all. Maybe ride a bike or use public transportation.
 
I was going to write up a long winded paragraph about how improvements in technology don't always lead to more "free time" but I scrapped it because it was stupid.

I want me fucking car to drive me to work and back. Yes, it only takes me 10 minutes to get to work (at the most) but damn it, it would be super rad to have the car go automatically and maybe I can snooze for 10 minutes.
 
niconx said:
Computers drive? What about construction? New roads? New local street laws? Computers will never drive in my lifetime.
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OCR.....OCR....I think that's the term. Scanners/visual indentification information has progressed to the point, that simple cellphones(Microsoft's SmartPhone shown at places like e3) from four years ago could be pointed at a restaurant or movie theatre and the showtimes of that movie theatre brought up on the phone and tickets bought before even walking into the movie theatre and emailing invites to buy tickets to the same move to your friends via facebook/messenger/etc.

Scanners at a distance can already analyze video/images for road-sizes, speed limits, etc and make appropriate adjustments. There's an old joke about the death of train conductor job/position because trains have become so automated these days. You hardly need a person behind the wheel. Unless your 98 years old with a strong history of acholism and smoking, you'll probably see cars driving within your lifetime with your under 50.

Cars already are capable of parallel parking by themselves which for a lot of new-drivers is considered one of the most-difficult tasks.
 
GregWatts said:
Actually, automatic computer controlled vehicles isn't really that crazy and my non-professional opinion is that we'll have the first truly autonomous vehicle within 10 years. Certainly, highway driving computer controlled cars might be the first step since we're pretty close to that now.

Besides, a computer controlled car can't be any worse than some twenty-something texting while driving.
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Definitely agree on highway/freeway driving. Anyone who lives in a major metropolitan area and has taken an hour to go 10-15 miles would love to have computer driven cars.
 
to Eric Schmidt, I could literally drive circles around your brain. Kindly place it on the floor.
 
I've seen what the leading fully autonomous cars are like. personally i don't like the idea of driving 10kmph with a big risk of the car rolling off the road and catching on fire. also has this guy never had his computer crash doing a mundane everyday task? i really would not like to have a bsod or a frozen program lock the accelerator and steering when travelling at high speed about to arrive at a sharp turn. now computer-assisted driving is a good idea. i've seen concept cars that have had all sorts of features like a lcd screen instead of a windscreen that shows an enhanced image of the road that can see through bad weather, highlights the road curve & street signs and gives shows relevant details behind visual obstructions. i've also seen face scanners that detect mood and drowsiness and gives advice or plays soothing music, collision detection, road integrity mapping with realtime suspension dampering, abs, gps, steering correction and assisted steering that follows the road curves. but a situation where computers are in complete control with the driver not paying attention to the road... no way!
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He's right about humans sucking at driving. And I talk about this kind of stuff all the time... no drugs required. :p

I LOVE driving my Crossfire (tsk tsk, I must be the only one in the world who likes this car), but manual control should be reserved for courses. I've managed to dodge death three times! Twice by coming to a complete stop at a green light by noticing a car was barreling through the intersection and once for having kevlar brakes and fantastic rotors that allowed me stop on a dime on the highway when someone went from 75 to 0, unexpectedly and unnecessarily locking their brakes with NO traffic ahead of them. That sonuvabitch was directly in front of me. Eight cars piled up behind me. The sound of CRUNCH, CRUNCH... CRUNCH... CRUNCH... ugh, it was nasty.

Never had an accident, but that's because I rarely travel with passengers and my attention is *always* on the road. Humans aren't capable of working together well enough to make individually controlled cars logical.
 
ocellaris said:
If Google or some other computer system was driving your car, I highly suspect you would not just sit back and do whatever you wanted. People would very likely be doing more work. Think about it, that commute is just more time you could be running through reports, how exciting! Computers enable people to do more work for less benefit. You almost never hear someone say "Awesome I have all this free time now thanks to the magic of technology!"
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I don't see the problem with that. I *LIKE* my life being work. Not just 'day-job' work, but my side jobs, digital art I do for other companies, studying music, etc.

I LIVE for work - the idea of more time for work...YES, PLEASE! There are not enough LIFETIMES to do everything I want to do!

Next task - let's see what we can do about this annoying hallucination/comatose state we waste away 1/3 of our lives in...
 
Computers should "help us do the things we are not very good at
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I guess - ultimately - I can't see any sane person arguing with this quote.

If not for our ability to design tools that "do the things we are not very good at", we'd be monkeys. That ability to DESIGN tools that can replace tasks 'we aren't very good at' is what makes us human. That's what we DO - that's our very raison d'etre. We are tool builders.
 
I'm down. I can already see me enjoying a nice nap on the way to work. It suddenly wouldn't really be as big a deal for long commutes either. With computers driving, things will move along much faster. I'm all for it.
 
...so humans can sit back and do whatever they need to do while getting from one destination to another.
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I already do that. It's called a commuter train. It's still driven by a human, but automated systems do exist.

I don't think cars will ever be controlled by computers. Too many unexpected things can happen. Computers can only do exactly what you tell them to do, they are not good at making decisions on their own. So it needs to be a very controlled environment, with no surprises. Trains or some form of PRT/podcar system on their own tracks would work.
 
JimmiG said:
I already do that. It's called a commuter train. It's still driven by a human, but automated systems do exist.

I don't think cars will ever be controlled by computers. Too many unexpected things can happen. Computers can only do exactly what you tell them to do, they are not good at making decisions on their own. So it needs to be a very controlled environment, with no surprises. Trains or some form of PRT/podcar system on their own tracks would work.
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There's truth to this. I read an article about convoys of cars that would be controlled by a lead car driven either automatically or by a professional. The thought was to improve both traffic and fuel economy by allowing cars to be driven closer together. It's hard not to think of this as just another form of mass transit where everyone gets their own train car.
 
BallerX said:
I'm down. I can already see me enjoying a nice nap on the way to work. It suddenly wouldn't really be as big a deal for long commutes either. With computers driving, things will move along much faster. I'm all for it.
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I'm sure the environmentallist will love his. I can see the average commute doubling once these types of cars become common. Maybe I can get a motor home with a shower, stove etc., so I can get ready & cook a nice breakfast of the way to work :)
 
niconx said:
Computers drive? What about construction? New roads? New local street laws? Computers will never drive in my lifetime.
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The first computer navigation & steering in cars will be a lot like cruise control. It will be something that is engaged or disengaged by the driver. And it will probably only work on roads that have been "markered" to help the computer navigate.
 
IRSmurf said:
Humans aren't capable of working together well enough to make individually controlled cars logical.
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Exactly. It'd have to be ALL cars are computer controlled or none at all. There's no halfway house.

I can maybe see on motorways (or freeways as you called them) having a system where once you're on the computer takes over. But there are so many many inherent risks involved I just can't see it happening anytime soon. Not to mention the human factor that the average joe wants/likes to feel in control and wouldn't let a 'damn computer' do it for him.
 
IRSmurf said:
I LOVE driving my Crossfire (tsk tsk, I must be the only one in the world who likes this car),
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Sweet looking car, I like it ;)

I'd rather be in control of my driving than some computer. People are gonna be so brain dumb when all this technology piles up and people have to nothing for everything -.-
 
WBurchnall said:
Cars already are capable of parallel parking by themselves which for a lot of new-drivers is considered one of the most-difficult tasks.
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I think i've seen a demo of one of those. The car has a camera that that scans the area, and based on the image, extrapolate the distances and work out how to park it self without crashing into the cars on either side.

No color or magnetic markers, the computer did it with just analyzing the camera image.

JimmiG said:
I already do that. It's called a commuter train. It's still driven by a human, but automated systems do exist.

I don't think cars will ever be controlled by computers. Too many unexpected things can happen. Computers can only do exactly what you tell them to do, they are not good at making decisions on their own. So it needs to be a very controlled environment, with no surprises. Trains or some form of PRT/podcar system on their own tracks would work.
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Demolition Man, Minority Report, iRobot. Autopilots are standard and humans are taken out of the equation. No more traffic because the guy in front of you decided to slow down and lean on his horn at the guy who cut him off.

Mixing in Autopilots with Humans would actually put the machines at a disadvantage even if they had perfect driving skills, mainly because humans are jerks and no doubt you'll have people running full throttle knowing that the three laws of robotics would force a car to swerve out of the way.
 
Sly said:
Mixing in Autopilots with Humans would actually put the machines at a disadvantage even if they had perfect driving skills, mainly because humans are jerks and no doubt you'll have people running full throttle knowing that the three laws of robotics would force a car to swerve out of the way.
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But with a human inside of the robotically controlled car, how does that factor into the equation in your scenario? Swerving out of the way could cause harm to the passenger.
 
TwistedAegis said:
But with a human inside of the robotically controlled car, how does that factor into the equation in your scenario? Swerving out of the way could cause harm to the passenger.
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The car would obviously have to calculate which would cause less harm.

The main point about his post, though, is that he referenced movies as "evidence" of a system working. Sure, when it's not real it works really well.
 
TwistedAegis said:
But with a human inside of the robotically controlled car, how does that factor into the equation in your scenario? Swerving out of the way could cause harm to the passenger.
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They'll have reaction times down to the millimeter to keep the passenger within tolerable g forces. A bump in the head is preferrable to getting killed.

Considering how many cars out there are held together by duct tape and chewing gum. I doubt a system like this would be adopted in large enough numbers. Can you imagine a redneck riding in one of those things?
 
I can't recall a situation when technology works 100% without error. There will always be electronic failures. Let's say that the failure rate is half human failure rate. That's still too much for a company to invest in. You could invest billions and billions of dollars and never be sure that you won't be sued for billions because of a "faulty device" some manufacturer in China made. And then there are 'recalls' when something went wrong in mass? Wow.

If I had a billion dollars to invest in something. None of it would go towards automatically driving cars. Maybe in 50 years, but not a great idea for an investment now.
 
Heh, I drive a motorcyle. It'll be a while before I let a computer drive for me... I actually enjoy driving the bike so having a computer controlled one is not something I'd ever want.
 
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