"California's state Senate approved a bill last month to allow road-testing of driverless cars. California joined Nevada, which passed similar legislation in March and licensed the nation's first self-driving vehicles in May. At least four more states — Arizona, Hawaii, Florida and Oklahoma — are considering legalizing autonomous vehicles.
Proponents of self-driving cars say the vehicles can reduce accidents, clear traffic congestion, lower emissions and transport blind or disabled people. Critics argue that the technology is unproven and could be unsafe."
You beat me to it. I invite anyone to come to the Bellevue-Redmond area...at times, maybe half the cars have no actual driver, just a warm pile of atoms sitting in the drivers seat making a random input now and then.
We've had driverless cars in my area for decades. On closer inspection you see a pair of hands on the wheel and sometimes can catch the top of a hat at about the level of the bottom of the "driver's" window.
2015 Mazda 6 Grand Touring, 2014 Mazda 3 Sport Hatchback, 1999 Mazda Miata 2004 Toyota Camry LE, 1999.
That was me at my first traffic stop. At 13. Cop couldn't see anyone driving when he went past. Another decade or so and that'll be me again.
I've been on a few long stretches of road where you set the cruise at the speed limit and occasionally nudge the wheel with your knee (I-94 in Eastern Montana for example). If the car was driving itself, I could be scanning the horizon with my binocs, looking for antelope.
Usually I'm having too much fun just looking at the scenery go by. Maybe if I had a longing, boring commute every day, this tech would be handy.
Driverless cars be used as a traffic "fine" punishment.
If you cause an at-fault accident, you must let Google do the driving for you for 1-year.
If you can go the following 5 years (after the year of punishment) without an at fault accident, then you start over. If you have another accident in those 5 years, then you get punished with a driverless car for 5 years, again, needing to prove yourself for 5 years to start the cycle over at 1 year punishment again.
'21 BMW X3 M40i, '15 Audi S4, '16 Audi TTS, Wife's '19 VW Tiguan SEL 4-Motion
"The danger will come not from auto-piloted vehicles but from the holdouts, those drivers who for whatever reason rely on the faulty, flimsy wetware between their ears. What will be normative? Should manually operated vehicles be the ones to give way? Or should autopilot cars (with special running lights) be especially deferential to their inferior human counterparts?
Nobody cares about driving anymore.
Give people a button that says "Home" and I guarantee they will push it."
Got to ask, are consumers really asking for this, or are we just throwing more tax monies around in the name of stimulus? Wonder if the gov figures that once they control the car, then they get access to your personal info off of it. That means it will be easier to insert tolls, tax by mileage and maybe even provide insurers all of your info? George Orwell was just a few decades ahead of time!
Some use Orwell as an instruction manual rather than a warning.
It's a lot deeper than stimulus. It's control. I'd also worry about data breaches - some idiot upper manager loses a laptop on a flight, a few million people have their info compromised, and the manager ends up with another promotion towards a huge pension.
It will be a sad day when the pleasure of driving is taken from us. Just as bad as having electric cars eventually jammed down our throats. Our Government is becoming more and more oppressive. Eventually we will all drive shoebox sized dull cars driven by computer taking us home to our 800 square foot government mandated apartments.
2012 Highlander Limited AWD V6 and 2015 Ford Fusion Hybrid SE
I've done lots of long road trips with my family and I'd love to have driverless cars...at least on the interstates. I think it would be great to enter a highway, punch in your exit, then take a nap, watch a movie or just relax. Then take the controls back when exiting.
I think it has a time and place, and I have nothing against it really - so long as it doesn't become mandated (and then tracked in a way that would make Orwell cry). And IMO, many "drivers" should have their inputs limited.
Probably 100 years in the future when all transportation is automated, they'll look back to now and wonder why people even wanted to drive their own car.
Sort of like cave men saying it would be crazy not to be able to go out hunting every day to kill their dinner. Why would anyone want to just go to a restaurant and be given food. Cave men would say that the government is taking away people's ability to go out and hunt for food.
Can people hunt today...sure. But it's restricted by time and location. In the future it might be the same for driving. If you drive on public roads then the cars will drive themselves because it improves safety, efficiency, MPG, etc...but for the minority (like hunters) who want to drive for entertainment, then there will be private locations where they can take their vintage cars and drive around.
In some ways, that is not all bad. I would sacrifice driving inputs on my evening commute, if it would speed things up. There's no fun to be had on those roads in traffic, anyway - especially with the dumbed down local driving dynamic.
But at late evening or on a Sunday, I want to do things myself. I don't know if cavemen got the same enjoyment out of hunting that some of us get from driving. Maybe autonomous cars can be programmed to deal with manually driven vehicles/motorcycles/bicycles - they will have to interact with pedestrians too.
That willl be a sad day. I want to drive my car when and where I want to drive it any time any day. Maybe and only maybe during the height of rush hour around a major city. When I am out on the open road whether it be 4 lane interstate or 2 lane country roads I want to dirve a car with horsepower I choose and under my control. Hopefully it will take at least 30 years. If I'm still alive I will be 86 and it won't matter. Then I will just remember the good old days when a man could by a Mustang, Camaro, or Challenger with the most horsepower available without government interference.
2012 Highlander Limited AWD V6 and 2015 Ford Fusion Hybrid SE
I can't imagine it being anything less than a good 30 years. Remember, the people implementing the tech are paid by the hour, and results don't matter.
Today probably will be a "good old days" in terms of performance. New cars lack the style of older cars, but they have unparalleled reliability and ease of maintenance compared to the classic muscle days.
Well let's see, over the past decade the gov has decided to change our light bulbs without asking what we want (and big surprise, the new bulbs don't seem to be performing anywhere near what was promised!), start sticking us with E85 ethanol despite warnings about it hurting our vehicles and driving down our gas mileage, , give more and more of our decision making to insurance companies and god knows what else. Now they want to take over our control of our personal vehicles. The scary part is that this is happening from BOTH damn parties. It's about industry lobbying, money and control. Congress doesn't care about we want except for some lip service at election time. The rest of the time the treat us like they were part of a monarchy coronation and we're under their control and ownership.
Yes, the gold old days of the black air of Pittsburgh or L.A. in the 70s, ddt sprayed on our fields, companies polluting where ever they want, etc...I'm driving a car getting 50mpg with 10 times more reliable than anything made in the 70s and a lot safer...I love it!
I am not talking about the 70's. I'm talking about todays cars. I Love the idea that at my age I can buy a Toyota Highlander AWD Limited that gets 23.5 mpg and pollutes the hell out of everything. I laugh everytime it gets under these eco nuts skin. But seriously I will probably be long gone before the infrastructure is available to do this reliably. Hopefully it will be confined to the Eco nuts state of Choice California or NY.
2012 Highlander Limited AWD V6 and 2015 Ford Fusion Hybrid SE
Don't hold your breath. It took just about five years to screw up all our new cars with mandatory electronic stability control, and to make us pay for that in the process.
Actually, I would love a bit of "unwarranted" government encroachment upon some of our "liberties". To force people to learn driving seriously, in professional schools, and not just with a little help of your parent or friend. To mandate tough driver testing. To remove kids, geezers and loonies from behind the driving wheel. To enact and enforce tough distraction bans (phones, texting, anything). To nurture more common sense and personal responsibility. Then maybe we wouldn't need mandating anything driveless.
"Get the cost down, figure out who's liable when two autonomous vehicles collide, and give us a button that returns control to the driver on fast mountain roads but lets the car do all the work in heavy traffic, and we're in!"
Just one big issue - what to do about speed and camera generated revenues. I wonder if such systems could also be linked between cars and traffic controls to finally establish responsible light sequencing. I won't hold my breath.
I'd let the car take me home in the evening grind, but I wouldn't want the system if it couldn't be disabled at my own whim. Train the system to interact with human driven cars (and motorcycles, pedestrians, etc), and it might have a future.
give us a button that returns control to the driver on fast mountain roads
I wouldn't want the system if it couldn't be disabled at my own whim
Sorry, not gonna happen. Once give up your liberty/authonomy - gone forever. Example: you cannot fully disable ESC on many last model cars. They will tell you that this is a liability issue. One of those "code" words: "safety" or "liability". When you hear them, it means: "shut up and do what you are told". Maybe you'll be allowed to disable it only in specially designated areas with a preapproval of your "flight plan" (apply 10 business days in advance). SL of 35 mph will apply for any manually operated vehicle. "Fast mountain roads" - that is exactly where it will never be allowed, for "safety" reasons.
figure out who's liable when two autonomous vehicles collide,
Hold the engineers and politicians that decided autonomous driving vehicles was a good idea accountable and liable? Hahahahha.... it'll never happen. :sick:
'21 BMW X3 M40i, '15 Audi S4, '16 Audi TTS, Wife's '19 VW Tiguan SEL 4-Motion
"It will be a sad day when the pleasure of driving is taken from us. Just as bad as having electric cars eventually jammed down our throats. Our Government is becoming more and more oppressive. " --- Damn tru dat!
Where I live, they won't even allow me to take my donkey cart on the freeway!
"Of those questioned, 79 percent said they would be concerned about equipment failure, like a software glitch or a balky sensor; 59 percent would worry about liability issues, such as where blame would lie in the event of an accident; 52 percent would fret about hackers invading their cars' systems; and 37 percent would be concerned about various corporate and government entities collecting their personal data, such as speed and location."
"A little-noticed amendment to the United Nations Convention on Road Traffic agreed last month would let drivers take their hands off the wheel of self-driving cars. It was pushed by Germany, Italy and France, whose high-end carmakers believe they are ready to zoom past American tech pioneers and bring the first "autonomous vehicles" to market."
“There's this myth that people love driving,” Urmson said earlier this month. “But commuting to work in the morning isn't fun. What if we could let people focus on things like texting that they are already doing in their cars, but do it safely?”
In some circumstances, I can see this being beneficial, e.g., those who've had a few too many, elderly folks that no longer drive, tourists in unknown city. However, could this eventually put thousands of taxi drivers in the unemployment line?
It was interesting to see the responses from 2012. We see cars now that will warn you not to change lanes and several will stop rather than run into another car. The drivers in these commercials all seem distracted to me. But in truth with the generation now getting to drivers age it seems like fewer and fewer are interested in owning a car. I have seen some of the google cars and it looks like they do work so I guess the new kids could always get a car that drives itself. Worried about information being given to the government? Like it isn't now with Google and face book, twitter, instagram? Not even getting into the NSA and our phones.
On a side note I read a blog that suggests one big advantage would be that you could send the car away after getting to work freeing up parking space. Think what that could do for places like San Francisco.
I also don't see people resisting this movement all that much. Look at how many people don't drive in New York City. Buses, Trains, even cabs and planes don't require any input from the passenger and about half the people living in Manhattan are not driving now. Just food for thought.
True, Stever. We already assume the position of passenger almost every day. For tasks like commuting all that would be different is a computer driving rather than someone with a bad attitude.
Don't hold your breath. It took just about five years to screw up all our new cars with mandatory electronic stability control, and to make us pay for that in the process.
On any car worth its salt you can disable the electronic stability control nannies.
'21 BMW X3 M40i, '15 Audi S4, '16 Audi TTS, Wife's '19 VW Tiguan SEL 4-Motion
It was interesting to see the responses from 2012. We see cars now that will warn you not to change lanes and several will stop rather than run into another car. The drivers in these commercials all seem distracted to me. But in truth with the generation now getting to drivers age it seems like fewer and fewer are interested in owning a car. I have seen some of the google cars and it looks like they do work so I guess the new kids could always get a car that drives itself. Worried about information being given to the government? Like it isn't now with Google and face book, twitter, instagram? Not even getting into the NSA and our phones.
On a side note I read a blog that suggests one big advantage would be that you could send the car away after getting to work freeing up parking space. Think what that could do for places like San Francisco.
I also don't see people resisting this movement all that much. Look at how many people don't drive in New York City. Buses, Trains, even cabs and planes don't require any input from the passenger and about half the people living in Manhattan are not driving now. Just food for thought.
Wouldn't sending your car away for parking be a waste of gas and miles?
Also, there's the liability issue which still hasn't been answered, but greater then that, is who's willing to put their life in the hands of a computer? A car can kill you, and you won't much care who's liable if your dead.
'21 BMW X3 M40i, '15 Audi S4, '16 Audi TTS, Wife's '19 VW Tiguan SEL 4-Motion
Comments
Proponents of self-driving cars say the vehicles can reduce accidents, clear traffic congestion, lower emissions and transport blind or disabled people. Critics argue that the technology is unproven and could be unsafe."
Auto industry speeds toward driverless cars (Detroit News)
Quote of the Day.
I've been on a few long stretches of road where you set the cruise at the speed limit and occasionally nudge the wheel with your knee (I-94 in Eastern Montana for example). If the car was driving itself, I could be scanning the horizon with my binocs, looking for antelope.
Usually I'm having too much fun just looking at the scenery go by. Maybe if I had a longing, boring commute every day, this tech would be handy.
2024 Jeep Grand Cherokee L Limited Velvet Red over Wicker Beige
2024 Audi Q5 Premium Plus Daytona Gray over Beige
2017 BMW X1 Jet Black over Mocha
If you cause an at-fault accident, you must let Google do the driving for you for 1-year.
If you can go the following 5 years (after the year of punishment) without an at fault accident, then you start over. If you have another accident in those 5 years, then you get punished with a driverless car for 5 years, again, needing to prove yourself for 5 years to start the cycle over at 1 year punishment again.
So says Dan Neil.
"The danger will come not from auto-piloted vehicles but from the holdouts, those drivers who for whatever reason rely on the faulty, flimsy wetware between their ears. What will be normative? Should manually operated vehicles be the ones to give way? Or should autopilot cars (with special running lights) be especially deferential to their inferior human counterparts?
Nobody cares about driving anymore.
Give people a button that says "Home" and I guarantee they will push it."
Who's Behind the Wheel? Nobody (Wall St. Journal)
That being said, a lot of "drivers" should be forced into such cars.
It's a lot deeper than stimulus. It's control. I'd also worry about data breaches - some idiot upper manager loses a laptop on a flight, a few million people have their info compromised, and the manager ends up with another promotion towards a huge pension.
On the other hand, commuting on a crowded freeway twice a day isn't what I'd call pleasure driving.
Sort of like cave men saying it would be crazy not to be able to go out hunting every day to kill their dinner. Why would anyone want to just go to a restaurant and be given food. Cave men would say that the government is taking away people's ability to go out and hunt for food.
Can people hunt today...sure. But it's restricted by time and location. In the future it might be the same for driving. If you drive on public roads then the cars will drive themselves because it improves safety, efficiency, MPG, etc...but for the minority (like hunters) who want to drive for entertainment, then there will be private locations where they can take their vintage cars and drive around.
But at late evening or on a Sunday, I want to do things myself. I don't know if cavemen got the same enjoyment out of hunting that some of us get from driving. Maybe autonomous cars can be programmed to deal with manually driven vehicles/motorcycles/bicycles - they will have to interact with pedestrians too.
Today probably will be a "good old days" in terms of performance. New cars lack the style of older cars, but they have unparalleled reliability and ease of maintenance compared to the classic muscle days.
Don't hold your breath. It took just about five years to screw up all our new cars with mandatory electronic stability control, and to make us pay for that in the process.
NHTSA Studying Self-Driving Cars, Talking to State DMVs (Inside Line)
I'd let the car take me home in the evening grind, but I wouldn't want the system if it couldn't be disabled at my own whim. Train the system to interact with human driven cars (and motorcycles, pedestrians, etc), and it might have a future.
I wouldn't want the system if it couldn't be disabled at my own whim
Sorry, not gonna happen. Once give up your liberty/authonomy - gone forever. Example: you cannot fully disable ESC on many last model cars. They will tell you that this is a liability issue. One of those "code" words: "safety" or "liability". When you hear them, it means: "shut up and do what you are told". Maybe you'll be allowed to disable it only in specially designated areas with a preapproval of your "flight plan" (apply 10 business days in advance). SL of 35 mph will apply for any manually operated vehicle. "Fast mountain roads" - that is exactly where it will never be allowed, for "safety" reasons.
Hold the engineers and politicians that decided autonomous driving vehicles was a good idea accountable and liable? Hahahahha.... it'll never happen. :sick:
---
Damn tru dat!
Where I live, they won't even allow me to take my donkey cart on the freeway!
Oppressive, I tell ya!
"Of those questioned, 79 percent said they would be concerned about equipment failure, like a software glitch or a balky sensor; 59 percent would worry about liability issues, such as where blame would lie in the event of an accident; 52 percent would fret about hackers invading their cars' systems; and 37 percent would be concerned about various corporate and government entities collecting their personal data, such as speed and location."
Driverless Cars? Not in My Garage, Say 88 Percent of U.S. Adults
"A little-noticed amendment to the United Nations Convention on Road Traffic agreed last month would let drivers take their hands off the wheel of self-driving cars. It was pushed by Germany, Italy and France, whose high-end carmakers believe they are ready to zoom past American tech pioneers and bring the first "autonomous vehicles" to market."
Cars could drive themselves sooner than expected after European push (Yahoo)
“There's this myth that people love driving,” Urmson said earlier this month. “But commuting to work in the morning isn't fun. What if we could let people focus on things like texting that they are already doing in their cars, but do it safely?”
Google reveals prototype, plans for self-driving car (Detroit News)
Google To Test Fleet of Self-Driving Prototypes This Summer

nytimes.com/2014/05/28/technology/googles-next-phase-in-driverless-cars-no-brakes-or-steering-wheel.html?_r=0
In some circumstances, I can see this being beneficial, e.g., those who've had a few too many, elderly folks that no longer drive, tourists in unknown city. However, could this eventually put thousands of taxi drivers in the unemployment line?
It was interesting to see the responses from 2012. We see cars now that will warn you not to change lanes and several will stop rather than run into another car. The drivers in these commercials all seem distracted to me. But in truth with the generation now getting to drivers age it seems like fewer and fewer are interested in owning a car. I have seen some of the google cars and it looks like they do work so I guess the new kids could always get a car that drives itself. Worried about information being given to the government? Like it isn't now with Google and face book, twitter, instagram? Not even getting into the NSA and our phones.
On a side note I read a blog that suggests one big advantage would be that you could send the car away after getting to work freeing up parking space. Think what that could do for places like San Francisco.
I also don't see people resisting this movement all that much. Look at how many people don't drive in New York City. Buses, Trains, even cabs and planes don't require any input from the passenger and about half the people living in Manhattan are not driving now. Just food for thought.
Why own a cab when you can hail one?
Also, there's the liability issue which still hasn't been answered, but greater then that, is who's willing to put their life in the hands of a computer? A car can kill you, and you won't much care who's liable if your dead.