Would you ride in a driverless vehicle?

[HiFlyer 9,369]

It seems like the future is trying to aim us towards driverless vehicles. Trucks, cars, and now cabs point towards the possibility of an automated vehicle future. And of course planes have had autopilots forever, so.....

How comfortable are you with it?

 

[charliearon 3,034]

Nope!  Ain't gonna happen!

[overspeed3 410]

Autonomous vehicles have not yet proven to be free of many safety issues (I guess the same can be said of ones with drivers in total control).  But I believe that a person, at this point in time, can better anticipate the actions of other road vehicles, or of objects in the road, and make certain corrections to avoid accidents.  

So right now, I would not take a ride with a robot driver.  Perhaps in 10 years or so...

[ailchim 213]

No and I don't want to be in the next car to anyone that does either.

[martin-w 3,252]

 

Would you ride in a driverless vehicle?

I would if it had been perfected and proven to be safer than a human driver. 

Musk has said its a much harder task then he thought, but it will happen sooner or later. 

I see our future personnel cars as having a perfected autonomous mode, but manual if you chose. And the autonomous stuff takes over if you are about to do something dumb. We already have a semblance of that. My old Mazda CX5 had a system whereby if you were about to crash into something, it detected it and took over, slamming on the brakes. 

[birdguy 3,946]

Nope.  Not now, not ever.

The comparison to aircraft with autopilots is not valid.  There is always a pilot and copilot in passenger aircraft and traffic control that assures separation.  What kind of separation can you expect during rush hour in Los Angeles on 8 lane highways?

Nope.  Not now, not ever.

Noel

[goates 576]

2 hours ago, birdguy said:

Nope.  Not now, not ever.

People said the same thing about elevators without operators in them, but we don't give it a second thought any more. Automated cars aren't there yet, but I suspect they will be at some point.

When it comes to traffic separation, I think cars can already do a better job than people. My Rav4, and many other cars these days, have some form of radar or lidar that they use to maintain a safe distance behind the car ahead of you, and do it pretty well. It works great with the cruise control and makes long distance drives noticeably less tiring. There are also sensors to detect whether there are cars next to you to help you avoid changing lanes into a vehicle that may be hidden in a blind spot or that you didn't notice (like a motorbike). It also has a similar feature to Martin's old CX-5 whereby it will detect an impending crash and hit the brakes, which also works well. I once had someone cut me off on the highway and the car was already applying the brakes before I could react. The problem isn't the mundane driving in rush hour traffic, it's the edge cases and things like winter weather in northern climates that still need to be sorted out.

[birdguy 3,946]

30 minutes ago, goates said:

People said the same thing about elevators without operators in them, but we don't give it a second thought any more.

I've never heard of an elevator swerving over and colliding with an adjacent elevator.

Noel

[Mike A 346]

https://theintercept.com/2023/01/10/tesla-crash-footage-autopilot/

[Mike A 346]

https://slate.com/technology/2022/12/san-francisco-waymo-cruise-self-driving-cars-robotaxis.html

[n4gix 4,949]

Yikes! Please don't start such a horrible and unsafe enterprise in Arkansas! Our drivers are pretty horrible already, they don't need any help... 😱

[birdguy 3,946]

I can't wait for robo-dentists.

Noel

[goates 576]

2 hours ago, birdguy said:

I've never heard of an elevator swerving over and colliding with an adjacent elevator.

Noel

The incident I referred to in my post about a car cutting me off on the highway was driven by a person and wasn't much different than that in the videos shared above. It would have very likely caused an accident just as bad as those in the videos as the traffic on the highway that day was almost bumper to bumper if it wasn't for my car detecting an impending collision and hitting the brakes much faster than I could have.

39 minutes ago, n4gix said:

Our drivers are pretty horrible already, they don't need any help... 😱

This is a big part of why I think at some point self driving cars will become accepted eventually. For more and more people, driving is just a means of getting from point A to point B. If they could do it while eating/shaving/looking at their phone and not having to pay attention to driving at all, I suspect people will (eventually take to it) take to it. And before I get another round of "I will never do it" replies, try looking at every other driver on the road and tell me how many truly enjoy driving, as well as how many are actually good at it. Many of us here do enjoy the act of driving, and take it seriously, but I'm not convinced the population as a whole cares nearly as much.

[martin-w 3,252]

5 hours ago, birdguy said:

 

Nope.  Not now, not ever.

Noel

 

Project forward 5 or 10 years. Don't underestimate advancements in technology. Teslas do it reasonably well now, imagine how good they'll be in a few years when AI and computer technology is even more advanced.

Worth considering, that currently, human drivers are often not very competent and responsible for thousands of deaths every year. 

[birdguy 3,946]

11 minutes ago, martin-w said:

Project forward 5 or 10 years.

I don't think that far ahead Martin.  I think about driving now, here, in the present.  I'll take my chances on the street with a human driver as opposed to a robo driver.  Besides, it will be quite a while before get electric cars where I live and even longer for driverless cars.  My ashes will be safe in whatever landfill they happen to be residing in.

Believe it or not I've never seen an electric car, let alone a driverless one.

The world seems hellbent on taking the fun out of everything.  

Noel

Edited January 11, 2023 by birdguy