Autonomous Cars, Autonomous Driving

hpmctorque

What are your thoughts on this trend?

We enthusiasts may not like this autonomous driving trend, but the auto industry is increasingly supplementing and replacing a lot of driving tasks. I assume most participants on Edmunds' forums enjoy driving. We take pride in our driving skills. It's part of our skill set, and we identify with our unique driving style. We also associate driving with freedom and, to some extent, adventure. For us, getting a drivers license was a rite of passage.

By contrast, many young people and the next yet-to-be-born generation will embrace autonomous cars. For many of them, driving is just another chore, and getting a drivers license is not a big deal. Also, many people, regulators, and the insurance industry assign a lot of value to the purported safety attributed to autonomous driving. In 30 years, give or take a few, driving will become a lost art. It'll still be available for those who want to drive, just as horseback riding still is today, but it won't be part of our daily routine. My guess is that eventually driving won't even be an option on many public roads. Sadly for us, most of the topics on Edmunds will be obsolete.

Already, cameras and nannies on new cars are supplanting the skills we learned and cherished.

Question: Will drivers licenses eventually go the way of the do-do bird?

stever

Good article in Wired about "driving" the autonomous Audi A7 to Vegas.

hpmctorque

Are autonomous cars closer than we think, as the article below would lead us to believe, or are the developers of these systems underestimating the legal, structural, employment and entrenched interest issues? How do you feel about cars without steering wheels? Come to think about it pedals would also be superfluous.

http://www.autonews.com/article/20150202/OEM06/150209976/google-developing-uber-rival-report-says

stever

Another Wired article:

"The machine doesn’t get tired, stressed, angry, or distracted. And because trucks spend the vast majority of their time on the highway, the tech doesn’t have to clear the toughest hurdle: handling complex urban environments with pedestrians, cyclists, and the like."

The World’s First Self-Driving Semi-Truck Hits the Road

hpmctorque

Self driving cars aren't ready for prime time yet...

http://www.autonews.com/article/20150511/OEM11/150519980/google-delphi-disclose-crashes-in-self-driving-cars

stever

Guess that's why they are testing them, eh?

stever

"Consider that the first semi-autonomous vehicles are already on the roads. Fully autonomous cars could be available for purchase as soon as 2020.

It's widely expected that AVs will be cheaper to operate and travel faster than cars; be fleet-owned (individual ownership won't be worthwhile if AVs are both affordable and guaranteed to arrive promptly); and mostly use electric and/or hybrid power.

Fleet ownership of AVs could reduce the number of cars on the road by 60% to 90% due to more efficient usage and, consequently, reduce car sales by an equivalent percentage. Many of the 1 million jobs in U.S. auto manufacturing will probably disappear.

More than 2.5 million driving jobs (there are 1.7 million truck drivers, 650,000 bus drivers and 230,000 taxi drivers — about 2% of the U.S. workforce) will also be eliminated or transformed."

As the age of autonomous vehicles nears, why are policy wonks focused on the past? (LA Times)

stever

"Driverless cars have the potential to solve certain intractable social inequity problems," he said.

For one, fares will decrease by 85%, to about 25 cents a mile, he predicted. That means for most people, there will be no need to own a car."

Get ready for driverless taxis at 25 cents a mile (LA Times)