self driving cars

[snowcat]

[LiveCoug]

Did we have a thread already with this video, or am I misremembering?

[YOUTUBE]cdgQpa1pUUE[/YOUTUBE]

[falafel]

We did have a thread somewhere.

[Moliere]

Did we have a thread already with this video, or am I misremembering?

[YOUTUBE]cdgQpa1pUUE[/YOUTUBE]

Why does it have to be a Prius?

[Indy Coug]

Why does it have to be a Prius?

To keep initial demand at manageable levels.

[thesaint258]

[YOUTUBE]hlr-WgusR8Q[/YOUTUBE]

[Pelado]

[YOUTUBE]hlr-WgusR8Q[/YOUTUBE]

Includes favorable mention of California for that other thread.

[Color Me Badd Fan]

Nice place to test them out. They must be aware of the fact that Vegas has the worst drivers in the country. They want to expose the cars to every type of human driver error possible.

[Uncle Ted]

Taking a ride in a self driving (Uber) car... http://money.cnn.com/video/technolog...ney/index.html

I can't wait to take my ride.

[Applejack]

Self-driving cars cannot come fast enough! I welcome our new robot overlords!

P.S. How's this for a prediction? In the future we won't allow people to drive non-self-driving cars. Buckle up for that social issue.

[Uncle Ted]

Apparently California is not crazy about our new robot overlords...

Uber sending self-driving cars to Arizona

Uber is moving its self-driving pilot project to Arizona, one day after the California Department of Motor Vehicles ordered the autonomous vehicles off the roads in San Francisco.
“Our cars departed for Arizona this morning by truck,” an Uber spokeswoman said Thursday afternoon in a statement. “We’ll be expanding our self-driving pilot there in the next few weeks, and we’re excited to have the support of Governor Ducey.”
After starting its San Francisco test on Dec. 14, the ride-hailing company angered the mayor and officials at the DMV by refusing to get a permit to operate its self-driving cars. Residents also flagged several incidents involving the self-driving vehicles, such as running red lights. And so, around noon on Thursday, a fleet of Uber self-driving cars passed through the South of Market area on the backs of several flatbed trucks. Commuters gawked at the fleet with their distinctive hoods, backing up traffic as the convoy slowly drove by.
In a statement Thursday, Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey called California’s regulations burdensome and said Arizona welcomes Uber’s self-driving car test with “open arms.”
“While California puts the brakes on innovation and change with more bureaucracy and more regulation, Arizona is paving the way for new technology and new businesses,” he said.
[...]

http://www.sfgate.com/business/artic...a-10813886.php

[taekwondave]

I am a total geek about this stuff. I check r/technology and r/science daily in hopes of hearing updates on autonomous cars. I think it's because of my son. I love the fact that he will never need to drive. He's only 3 years old but by the time he's 16 human-driven cars will seem like a strange relic. 1.25M people worldwide die every year from accidental death, the majority of which are from car accidents, and it's the #1 killer of people age 1-45 (0-1 is death during childbirth, and 46 and above is when heart disease and cancer start kicking in).

In fact, we recently got my wife the new Kia Sorento (her old lease was up) and we drove it down to St. George earlier this week to spend time with her family and on the way down got to try out their new "smart cruise control." I've never had a more relaxing 3.5 hour drive in my life. You set the desired top speed and how many car lengths you wish to stay behind the cars in front of you (from 1 to 4--although I think even 1 car length is more like 3 but year) and it detects the cars coming up and adjusts the speed down accordingly. When they move over to the right the car speeds back up. No need to hit the break and reset cruise, no need to fiddle with the cruise lever/button all day trying to time your move from behind a truck or any of that garbage.

It made even touching the steering wheel a massive annoyance. It was great. I just can't wait for everything to be autonomous. It's basically like curing a major disease.

*edit. That last paragraph sounds like I'm equating the convenience it offers to curing a major disease. I didn't mean that.

[Uncle Ted]

Downside to self-driving cars... Less accidents means less organs transplants:

Self-Driving Cars Will Make Organ Shortages Even Worse

We need to prepare for that now.

Much has been said about the ways we expect our oncoming fleet of driverless cars to change the way we live—remaking us all into passengers, rewiring our economy, retooling our views of ownership, and reshaping our cities and roads.


They will also change the way we die. As technology takes the wheel, road deaths due to driver error will begin to diminish. It’s a transformative advancement, but one that comes with consequences in an unexpected place: organ donation.
[...]

http://www.slate.com/articles/techno...shortages.html

Maybe it is time to grow some organs.... http://www.popsci.com/scientists-gro...ith-stem-cells

[BigPiney]

Downside to self-driving cars... Less accidents means less organs transplants:


http://www.slate.com/articles/techno...shortages.html

Maybe it is time to grow some organs.... http://www.popsci.com/scientists-gro...ith-stem-cells

That sounds like a freakonomics study.

[Walter Sobchak]

<http://mashable.com/2017/03/03/tesla...-reddit-crash/>

Watch the video. (Can't embed here, sorry.)

Some groups, like the German government, have argued that "Autopilot" is a misnomer at best, and potentially fatal false advertising at worst. The system came under fire after the first self-driving fatality last year, when a distracted driver's Model S drove underneath a white tractor trailer. A National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) investigation, however, cleared Tesla of any liability, deeming Autopilot safe if used correctly.

Like I said in the other thread. This isn't the future.