US to Allow Cars without Steering Wheels

Megalith

Megalith

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The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has released a new report suggesting it is unopposed to the concept of cars without steering wheels populating the roads. While the actual legislation is still evolving, it appears to be a positive step for Level 4 autonomous driving. The Center of Auto Safety has criticized the NHTSA’s outlook, however, claiming the agency is placing industry first and people second.

Despite deaths, injuries, and crashes involving a variety of semi-autonomous and autonomous vehicle technology across the country, DOT continues to insist that eliminating regulation is the way to achieve safety. Despite cybersecurity vulnerabilities continuing to dominate headlines, and rising public concern surrounding driverless cars, NHTSA is still failing to require the submission of any information about the most basic level of safety prior to this technology being deployed on our streets and in our neighborhoods.
 
RealBeast said:
Autonomous cars cannot possibly drive worse than real people, particularly when alcohol is involved.
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True, but I wonder in "severe" conditions, I mean Canadian winters.
I have lane keeping assist and it can't even see brand new lines on the road during sunny days... make you wonder.

Anyway, back onto topic, we need to let innovation happens for it to happens and I also think that right now, we need R&S... and need to educate pedestrian and cyclist...
 
LOL. Eliminating regulation almost never results in improved safety. It might save money, but I can't think of any examples of it improving safety.
 
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 ;)

Xerack said:
It's all good until the car gets a B.S.O.D....nope...don't see a problem here...
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Hell, it's about time. How long before we get meal trays and peanuts too? Can't wait!!!
 
The National Safety Council estimated that 40,100 people were killed in 2017 automobile accidents in the US. There have been 3 deaths (in the US, and 1 in China) since 2016 caused by self-driving cars (2 in 2016 and 2 in 2018). I would say that self-driving cars are already safer than human drivers, by several orders of magnitude. Sure there will still be a few deaths caused by self-driving cars, but not tens of thousands.
 
[21CW]killerofall said:
The National Safety Council estimated that 40,100 people were killed in 2017 automobile accidents in the US. There have been 3 deaths (in the US, and 1 in China) since 2016 caused by self-driving cars (2 in 2016 and 2 in 2018). I would say that self-driving cars are already safer than human drivers, by several orders of magnitude. Sure there will still be a few deaths caused by self-driving cars, but not tens of thousands.
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whats the ratio of reg vs self driving on the road?
 
At least have the steering wheel there for the sake of redundancy, holy shit. Considering how many damn problems we've already had with cars loaded with tech (and without) I don't understand how this could possibly be a good idea for when shit inevitably fails.

The CAS is absolutely right.
 
Brian_B said:
I’d rather drive with a joypad anyway.

Pew pew
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Way ahead of you. Now where's first gear?

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Oh the FUD.

Of all autonomous miles driven there's been on fatality in a crash. If instead humans had driven those miles roughly 100 more people would have died in accidents.

Autonomy is the future.

 
I like the idea of autonomous cars but not the idea of removing the wheel. There needs to be a backup for emergencies. Companies need to stop watching I, Robot.
 
Good, I cant wait for all these dumb ass humans to not be able to control their 3 ton death machines. I dont care if it errors out, ITS STILL SAFER than a human at the wheel. But of course after the first couple major accidents the government will regulate that all smart cars have government over-rides, etc "for safety" so they can track you and control your movement.
 
Business6 said:
At least have the steering wheel there for the sake of redundancy,
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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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I am for AI driving but leave us the steeeing wheel for now, give it 20-30 years and I’ll be fine without one.
 
I can hardly wait to see the road rage (ever seen someone beating the dash of their car?) when the person needing to get to work or an appointment is running late and the autonomous car refuses to exceed the speed limit or sit on the tailgate of the car in front of them.

Heck, just watching the looks on their faces as the car maintains 150 foot gap at 75MPH will be hilarious.

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!"

I guess they are going to put electric charging stations every mile of two on the roads given how fast those eletric cars will use up their batterirs powering all this. Taking the wheel out will reduce the weight and might extend the drive time for a few seconds.


No way to override the AI. Seems like a dream come true. I'll still be driving my 65 Cobra, or 64 Ranchero giggling my arse off.
 
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Xerack said:
It's all good until the car gets a B.S.O.D....nope...don't see a problem here...
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Humans get BSOD all the time. Its called a stroke. And yet humans are allowed to drive. Nothing is perfect, humans least of all.
 
pendragon1 said:
whats the ratio of reg vs self driving on the road?
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The ratio is greater with self driving cars at the moment, but everyone's estimating something like 90% reduction in deaths once they become the norm.
 
BSmith said:
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.
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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...
 
Also would easily allow cars to be built and shipped to both left hand and right hand drives countries. Might save a few bucks in production cost. Minor things like headlamp alignment could be handled at the dealer.
 
bigdogchris said:
Also would easily allow cars to be built and shipped to both left hand and right hand drives countries. Might save a few bucks in production cost. Minor things like headlamp alignment could be handled at the dealer.
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Couple servos and a boot screen asking which side the driver is on. Err sorry, I mean $300 fee and dealer turning a screw is more likely.

Or if we could just drive on the same side as everyone else lol
 
bigdogchris said:
Also would easily allow cars to be built and shipped to both left hand and right hand drives countries.
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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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