A portion of this video appeared yesterday on CBS Morning. No one bothered to explain who Austin Meyer was; pretty sure the general population has no idea. It was actually a stunt done on a private road with a "safety" pilot in the right seat.

 

http://youtu.be/ifpBWxTKhLU

Ya an acquaintance of mine drove up from Texas via the interstate mostly on autopilot

 

Apparently the system is in beta

 

...cars of the future

I drove i10 from Austin to El Paso, there's nothing out there but tumble weeds. You could basically fall asleep and still be on the road.

For 2017 there should be a smaller Tesla for ~30'000.-

Count me skeptical. This system is only going to last until the first serious accident where the software/hardware is a plausible cause. And since they're recommending it for use at Interstate driving speeds, it's likely to be in the "serious" category of accidents. Tesla may think it has an out by saying the driver has to monitor, but all it takes is one jury decision. Personal injury trial lawyers are very, very good at what they do here in the USA. So I'm surprised Tesla is taking this risk right now.

 

On the other hand, I can't wait for self-driving cars to be practical. I'm old enough that I can see an approaching horizon where I won't be able to drive, and I'd still like to be mobile! There are a few places like Downtown Seattle or anywhere around Miami where I'd just as soon let the car deal with the hassles. But it's only going to work well when most cars can do this, not just a few, and all the legal wrinkles are ironed out.

 

I'm looking forward to self-driving cars (If we ever see them). It would be great to be able to get home in your own car after a few drinks without ordering a taxi, or watch a film whilst sat on a long journey. I can see the only way such a system would work is to remove all manual cars from the road, but this is unlikely to happen any time in my lifetime

So?  We have folks driving around the Capitol Beltways in clunkers - they're reading papers too. Not to mention, eating, putting on makeup, and texting or looking at cat videos.

 

DJ

Can't wait till they all set cruise  to 75 mph and try to get in the left lane of two lane highway and end up doing 25 while I cruise by in right lane at 60 (like I do today)!

I was reading an article about how the programming will handle an accident. Basically saying if the vehicle was put in a situation where it had to decide between hitting a group of pedestrians and saving the driver, or avoid the group of pedestrians and kill the driver, would the company behind the system program the vehicle to save the driver over a group of pedestrians? The company may choose to program these things with the safety of their customer first over outside factors that will be secondary factors in the programing. 

 

I am not against them I just really like driving manual cars, especially that I live in a mountain range in New Zealand, driving a driverless car here would be pointless as you are supposed to enjoy everything about New Zealand, including the roads.

self driving should not be mandated feature pushed on manufacturers as goverment tends push these changes I hate. I think driverless vehicles should be banned from all roads end of story.

Count me skeptical. This system is only going to last until the first serious accident where the software/hardware is a plausible cause. And since they're recommending it for use at Interstate driving speeds, it's likely to be in the "serious" category of accidents. Tesla may think it has an out by saying the driver has to monitor, but all it takes is one jury decision. Personal injury trial lawyers are very, very good at what they do here in the USA. So I'm surprised Tesla is taking this risk right now.

 

 

Have to agree there.

self driving should not be mandated feature pushed on manufacturers as goverment tends push these changes I hate. I think driverless vehicles should be banned from all roads end of story.

 

I don't think anyone is mandating auto-driving capability, yet.

 

But the stupid bag of meat behind the wheel is the least safe thing in the vehicle.

 

Cheers!

Luke

Count me skeptical. This system is only going to last until the first serious accident where the software/hardware is a plausible cause. And since they're recommending it for use at Interstate driving speeds, it's likely to be in the "serious" category of accidents. Tesla may think it has an out by saying the driver has to monitor, but all it takes is one jury decision. Personal injury trial lawyers are very, very good at what they do here in the USA. So I'm surprised Tesla is taking this risk right now.

 

On the other hand, I can't wait for self-driving cars to be practical. I'm old enough that I can see an approaching horizon where I won't be able to drive, and I'd still like to be mobile! There are a few places like Downtown Seattle or anywhere around Miami where I'd just as soon let the car deal with the hassles. But it's only going to work well when most cars can do this, not just a few, and all the legal wrinkles are ironed out.

 

I'm pretty sure autonomous driving will be a reality in the not too far distant future. It's a matter of mere years before the first almost completely autonomous cars will hit the roads. Anyone following the automotive industry, knows that in the last few years, many car makers and some other _very_ big players (Google, Apple) began investing _enormous_ amounts of money on autonomous drive R&D.

 

Yes, autonomous cars don't have (for now) the common sense typical of human beings (they're already working on it though). But an autonomous car does not DUI, is never tired, is never distracted by smartphones, nor by putting up lipstick nor looking at pretty girls on the roadside, doesn't never break speed limits, red lights, and other road rules. Google autonomous cars have made millions of miles (in autonomous mode) with no fatal accident, and all the accidents they were subjected to, were to blame on other cars (driven by human beings).

 

Of course 100% safety could only be achieved if all the cars on the roads were autonomous, but I'm pretty sure even this will be a reality some day (and I predict in the course of our lives). Maybe, some day driving a non-autonomous vehicle will require a special license, with increased insurance costs, and every non-autonomous vehicle will be forced by law to broadcast and signal his presence to all the other (autonomous) vehicles.

Elton Musk has hidden agenda all rich socialists lobbying government do? He wants to someday ban human driven cars. It means can't drive your 65 Mustang to 82 Camaro. Need to have same mindset as gun rights activist as goverment can't be trusted to protect you.

Keep these cars comming.

Sure, for those of us, including myself, used to drive their cars by our own it will may eventually not be that easy to accapt the fact no longer being "in full command" anymore, but pragmatically speaking - and as pointed out above in #6 for instance:

Spending some precious time while driving from A to B by enjoying the landscapes passing by, reading a book, watching a movie or whatever is indeed something i'd honestly very much welcome to be available rather sooner than later!

And sure:
Automating every aspect of our daily lives certainly is something worth to be disussed and remain critical about. However - when looking at all the many people driving like crazy every day a full automation of car-traffic, if ever possible, may definitely be worth a real lot!