Autonomous Cars

[giant_mtb]

Protocol says that the driver is basically supposed to hover over the controls in case of an emergency.  Fuck that, I'd rather just drive than have to be on the brink all the time.

[Payman]

So... it's been revealed that Uber disabled all of the Volvo's safety features to test their own halfassed technology.

[AutobahnSHO]

So... it's been revealed that Uber disabled all of the Volvo's safety features to test their own halfassed technology.

And put a halfass driver in the wrong seat..

[Morris Minor]

So... it's been revealed that Uber disabled all of the Volvo's safety features to test their own halfassed technology.

That explains the vehicle being blind to the hazard.
Also, wouldn't it be better to bake the tech into the vehicle & testing that, rather than buying cars off the shelf & strapping on the autonomous stuff?

[Soup DeVille]

That explains the vehicle being blind to the hazard.
Also, wouldn't it be better to bake the tech into the vehicle & testing that, rather than buying cars off the shelf & strapping on the autonomous stuff?

Volvo's tech is probably all black boxed and useless to do any developing on for anyone that's not Volvo.

[Morris Minor]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-selfdriving-sensors-insight/ubers-use-of-fewer-safety-sensors-prompts-questions-after-arizona-crash-idUSKBN1H337Q

[Laconian]

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-uber-selfdriving-sensors-insight/ubers-use-of-fewer-safety-sensors-prompts-questions-after-arizona-crash-idUSKBN1H337Q

I would expect the industry to converge on using fewer sensors, but definitely not so abruptly and at such an early phase; that's reckless!

[CaminoRacer]

Autonomous snow plows

https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/autonomous-snowplow-norway/

[RomanChariot]

Autonomous snow plows

https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/autonomous-snowplow-norway/

That is a great use of autonomous technology. The same thing is being done with tractors for farming.

[giant_mtb]

Autonomous snow plows

https://www.digitaltrends.com/cars/autonomous-snowplow-norway/

This I can get on board with.

[AutobahnSHO]

Tesla upset with NTSB over fatal crash. Claims it was driver error, not the car's fault.

https://www.engadget.com/2018/04/12/tesla-ntsb-model-x-crash-ends-formal-agreement/

[93JC]

Tsk-tsk. Not surprised. Tesla wants to "get ahead of the story", to present the situation as they see it or in the most flattering way possible. That's a big no-no when it comes to dealing with bodies like the NTSB: they don't present anything until they've analyzed all facets of the situation. I said this almost two years ago:

It'll be interesting to see what happens as Tesla grows, if Tesla keeps growing. These sorts of issues are going to become more commonplace, and if the Model 3 ever becomes a success they're really going to have to change their tune lest their customer service be branded 'hostile'.

Even if they're correct it won't look good on them.

[AutobahnSHO]

MIT is working on a car that can handle tame country roads without super detailed GPS maps. 

https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/07/mit-maplite-self-driving-car/

[Morris Minor]

Tsk-tsk. Not surprised. Tesla wants to "get ahead of the story", to present the situation as they see it or in the most flattering way possible. That's a big no-no when it comes to dealing with bodies like the NTSB: they don't present anything until they've analyzed all facets of the situation. I said this almost two years ago:

Even if they're correct it won't look good on them.

The NTSB is one government agency I respect. Their methodology is pretty good and they usually get to the bottom of things. Their people tend to come from the relevant industries, e.g. an air crash investigator would know one end of a plane from another. They seem pretty fair to me.
I'm guessing automotive autonomy is a very tough field, because there are few people around that understand the underlying fundamentals of how it all works.  It will take time to build up the expertise.

[AutobahnSHO]

A little more info on that Uber death:
https://techcrunch.com/2018/05/07/uber-vehicle-reportedly-saw-but-ignored-woman-it-struck/

[giant_mtb]

MIT is working on a car that can handle tame country roads without super detailed GPS maps. 

https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/07/mit-maplite-self-driving-car/

"While 3D maps may still be useful for dealing with the complexity of cities, this could be vital for rural trips, snowy landscapes and other situations where the car needs to improvise."

Or people could just stay home in their precious cities. 

[12,000 RPM]

People outside of cities might like autonomous cars too. Lots of elderly folks out in the sticks by my job.

[AutobahnSHO]

I think a combination of this kind of technology, GPS and good mapping, communication between cars (ie if one car sees an issue and stops it signals the ones behind it and they all can slow/stop safely much faster than human driver)

will all eventually be combined to make autonomous cars much much safer than current driving.

[AutobahnSHO]

https://www.engadget.com/2018/05/08/waymo-snow-navigation/

Interesting.

[giant_mtb]

People outside of cities might like autonomous cars too. Lots of elderly folks out in the sticks by my job.

I imagine you and I have different ideas about what "in the sticks" means...

[Onslaught]

People outside of cities might like autonomous cars too. Lots of elderly folks out in the sticks by my job.

I'm not sure old southern people could even know how to tell the car to drive them to cracker barrel

[CaminoRacer]

I'm not sure old southern people could even know how to tell the car to drive them to cracker barrel

That's just automatic. You only have to tell it something if you want to go somewhere else

[12,000 RPM]

I imagine you and I have different ideas about what "in the sticks" means...

Farm land?

[CaminoRacer]

https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/3/17530232/self-driving-ai-winter-full-autonomy-waymo-tesla-uber

[giant_mtb]

https://www.theverge.com/2018/7/3/17530232/self-driving-ai-winter-full-autonomy-waymo-tesla-uber

"Rather than building AI to solve the pogo stick problem, we should partner with the government to ask people to be lawful and considerate," he said. "Safety isn't just about the quality of the AI technology."

Lol

[CaminoRacer]

https://www.sae.org/news/2018/06/volvo-fedex-truck-platooning

This could solve the stupid times when a truck passes another truck that's going 0.5 mph slower than it and takes 6 hours to get out of the left lane.

[giant_mtb]

Won't solve that problem unless every truck on the road is using that system, and even then it won't.

"This is SAE Level 1 or 2 driving. We're not doing anything close to autonomous driving,"

Full-on autonomous vehicles is like asking for autonomous sidewalks.  It's not gonna happen.

[Soup DeVille]

Farm land?

By definition has few "sticks" and quite a lot of people around to farm it.

[12,000 RPM]

There are plenty of trees around the farms down here. I drive by them every day

[Soup DeVille]

I think a combination of this kind of technology, GPS and good mapping, communication between cars (ie if one car sees an issue and stops it signals the ones behind it and they all can slow/stop safely much faster than human driver)

will all eventually be combined to make autonomous cars much much safer than current driving.

Any good safe operation has multiple levels of redundancy; this would have to be especially true for automobiles, which are in general poorly maintained and still expected to work.

Vehicle-to-vehicle comms and transponders would be only one level of that- ideally.