Self-Driving Cars Now Street Legal in California

[Deleted]

I can't wait for this technology to be global!! Seriously i'd be able to sleep further while driving to my work! finally i can do something usefull during traffic!

[obdigore]

Wrong. Mice and keyboards aren't key components of your computer. Still, if your mouse or keyboard failed while you were BGing in WoW, you'd die. Sure you can replace them, but you have to go buy one or find a spare and plug it in. This absolutely cannot happen in a car, because if your power power steering died and the wheel went completely stiff, you'd die for real. You can't fill the reservoir or replace the pump en route, so it is engineered to still be usable if it breaks. If your RAM died, even while you were simply on the desktop without any programs open, your computer wouldn't function because it still requires an amount of memory to operate even when you aren't doing anything. If your processor fails or overheats, it can't process data from memory or your hard drive. Also, you can't check for physical wear and tear on your computer. It's either going to work, or it isn't. When your graphics card overheats, you will get a blue screen.

You can however check for wear and tear on your car. Almost all breakdowns occur after you turn your car off and then try to start it again. Computers do not mix with cars. The electronic components will always wear out before anything else. Engineers know this, which is why they don't make cars reliant on computers to function. The heat sensor in my Volvo is long dead, and I can still drive without any problems on a hot summer day.

/snicker.

Mice and Keyboards are key components of your computer. You said it yourself later in your post. If your RAM dies, your PC will shift to other RAM where possible. You can EASILY check for wear and tear. Parts of a computer don't just 'die'. There are always signs. You also don't take your PC in to an expert every 3000-25000 minutes to check for stuff.

[Deleted]

I don't know... People driving exactly the speed limit tend to piss me off.

I maybe mistaken, but surely you are pissed off by people driving at the speed limit while they could go a bit faster because driving is an utter waste of time.

If you could do something productive or fun while driving, it really wouldn't matter to you that much if you got to your destination in 20 or 30 minutes (well, unless you were going to get there late, obviously). Think about it and tell me if i'm mistaken.

[obdigore]

I maybe mistaken, but surely you are pissed off by people driving at the speed limit while they could go a bit faster because driving is an utter waste of time.

If you could do something productive or fun while driving, it really wouldn't matter to you that much if you got to your destination in 20 or 30 minutes (well, unless you were going to get there late, obviously). Think about it and tell me if i'm mistaken.

If there are 'automatic only' roads, I can see the speed limits being increased quite a bit since the computer in your car should be able to know how fast it can go for the road conditions, tire pressure/traction, weight distribution, and a ton of other things that matter. Also, the fact that most speed limits in the US are set by most efficient gas usage could be a thing of the past, since you should be able to set your car to speed or efficiency or smoothness of ride settings, depending...

[s_bushido]

I maybe mistaken, but surely you are pissed off by people driving at the speed limit while they could go a bit faster because driving is an utter waste of time.

If you could do something productive or fun while driving, it really wouldn't matter to you that much if you got to your destination in 20 or 30 minutes (well, unless you were going to get there late, obviously). Think about it and tell me if i'm mistaken.

Maybe. My favorite example is when I'm on a 4 lane road (2 lanes in either direction) and you get two cars driving next to eachother going the same speed...ensuring that *no one* can get around either of them. Or better yet! When someone doesn't bother to use a highway on-ramp to -you know- get up to speed...so we're all stuck going 45 when we finally get there, and the rest of the traffic is going 70+. Argh!

It's not the driving that I hate so much as the other people around me acting like they're the only ones on the road. Guess having a computer in control might alleviate that somewhat.

But anyway, I haven't read up on these auto-pilot cars. Are people actually able to fully devote their attention to other tasks while "driving?" Seems to me that you'd still have to monitor the car just in case. Or maybe I'd just be too paranoid to feel safe looking away for any extended amount of time.

[poser765]

Wrong. Mice and keyboards aren't key components of your computer. Still, if your mouse or keyboard failed while you were BGing in WoW, you'd die. Sure you can replace them, but you have to go buy one or find a spare and plug it in. This absolutely cannot happen in a car, because if your power power steering died and the wheel went completely stiff, you'd die for real. You can't fill the reservoir or replace the pump en route, so it is engineered to still be usable if it breaks. If your RAM died, even while you were simply on the desktop without any programs open, your computer wouldn't function because it still requires an amount of memory to operate even when you aren't doing anything. If your processor fails or overheats, it can't process data from memory or your hard drive. Also, you can't check for physical wear and tear on your computer. It's either going to work, or it isn't. When your graphics card overheats, you will get a blue screen.

You can however check for wear and tear on your car. Almost all breakdowns occur after you turn your car off and then try to start it again. Computers do not mix with cars. The electronic components will always wear out before anything else. Engineers know this, which is why they don't make cars reliant on computers to function. The heat sensor in my Volvo is long dead, and I can still drive without any problems on a hot summer day.

Bunk. I have quite a bit of experience operating large, complicated machines with autopilots. I can tell you the times I have been stuck at the gate for mx issues because of auto flight or related issues is exactly 0 hours. lol I have seen the autopilot be inop because of a MECHANICAL linkage that connects the system to the actual control surfaces.

The real easy fix here is to have a redundant system as well as routine inspections...annual or biennial.

[Alixie]

This is NOO GOOD. Ever see IRobot? My car's computer will turn homicidal and make it look like an accident.

[StayTuned]

I dont know if I like it or not.

You still have to make your licence, but you "never" get to drive a car. You will forget everything you learned pretty fast.

Also, nobody wants to pay attention at all times, but doesnt care about driving. Whats the point of it, anyway? If you always pay attention, just drive by yourself. The biggest pro of self driving cars, next to "security", is the ability to do productive things while the robot drives your car. You cant do anything else if the system needs a human observer preset at all times.

What if an accident happens? Whos gonna be responsible? Imagine two self driving cars next to each other. One car just decides to switch lanes and crashes into the other car. Before you even know wtf is happening, you are already injured, dead, or god knows what. Whos responsible in such a situation? You cant expect a person to have a reaction time of 0,001 seconds if hes not even driving the car himself.

What about signs such as "Stop here if its red" in other countries? Will your self driving car understand them? Or do you have to switch to manual?

Also, what about other countries in general? Not every country has the same street rules. In Croatia, not every road has a right of way sign but you have to memorize that you are on a "main road", thus having the right of way automatically until you see a stop sign. In Germany, thats completely different. If there is no right of way sign you have to stop due to the right before left rule.

There are many, many things why I think it shouldnt be legal for a long time....

[Shmir]

Didn't this law have more to do with being able to test out automated cars in California? It's not like you're going to see a sudden explosion of self driving cars. Take Google, for example. They have had to do most of their Google Car testing out in Nevada because the previous Cali law prevented them from doing in in California. And lets face it, driving in Nevada vs. California is the same as going from Easy mode to Hardcore. If someone can get a successful self driving car working in California, it can work anywhere.

[Reeve]

Didn't this law have more to do with being able to test out automated cars in California? It's not like you're going to see a sudden explosion of self driving cars. Take Google, for example. They have had to do most of their Google Car testing out in Nevada because the previous Cali law prevented them from doing in in California. And lets face it, driving in Nevada vs. California is the same as going from Easy mode to Hardcore. If someone can get a successful self driving car working in California, it can work anywhere.

Google's driverless cars have driven Lombard Street in San Francisco, the Golden Gate Bridge, and Highway 1.

[Xilurm]

My first thought was I, Robot. IMO I can't wait for this to happen all over the world. I hate driving.

[Valort]

I see this as a step forward, truthfully.

We all know machines are more accurate, but humans have better reflexes and flexibility. Putting the 2 together sounds like a great idea. Let the machine do the work, until thinking is required.

[Simulacrum]

Almost all traffic accidents are due to human error, all we need to justify it is for the self-driven car is better than its human driver, which I'm willing to be it would be in the vast majority of cases, especially for very young and very old drivers. The amount of young guys who kill themselves driving recklessly is so fucking huge; just in my town I've had 3 childhood aquaintances die in car accidents (of their own making).

Dunno how well the self-driving cars really preform in real-world conditions, suffering wear-and-tear while maintained by some random idiot who doesn't know how to take care of their car (ie. me), but they do appear to preform extremely well under optimal conditions.

[Skippy88]

I wouldn't mind it having them try it in a community for a year to see what happens. Give everyone in the town a free car and have them pay any medical expenses if the car gets into an accident.

I personally would love it. I would love to go down to Toronto more for concerts and stuff but traffic down there is crazy to the point hardly anyone I know goes down there unless they have to. If a computer car could make the roads safer then I'm all for it.

But it's not just cars and humans that are part of the problem. On my local road there's a left hand turn onto another road that people like to use a lot. Since it's only a 2 way highway we get stuck behind people waiting to make that left hand turn. Did the engineers think of putting in a left hand turn lane? Of course not.

[Deleted]

Nobody asked the following: where's the pleasure of driving when a damn robot does it for you?

[Reeve]

Nobody asked the following: where's the pleasure of driving when a damn robot does it for you?

The pleasure is in taking a nap or reading a book or doing a sudoku on that 4 hour drive from Houston to Dallas. We're not there yet, but this is a step in that direction.

[Gheld]

Nobody asked the following: where's the pleasure of driving when a damn robot does it for you?

Chances are there would be manual roads and auto roads in the future. Mixing human and computer drivers onto the same road is potentially disastrous, but segregating the two could have amazing benefits.
Chances are you'll still be able to deactivate automatic drive on your Jeep and go off-roading, or turn your car onto some old back country road and drive into the sunset.

On automatic roads you could do crazy things, like having cars criss-cross through an uncontrolled intersection at 80mph. Your car could draft other cars (safely) on the highway, giving you fuel economy that you couldn't even imagine now.

Many of the rules of the road, intended to keep stupid human drivers safe, but which slow down traffic, or force vehicles to operate with less than optimal efficiency would be unnecessary with computer controlled vehicles. On the auto roads every bodies car would be like the borg.

Pleasure is irrelevant.

EDIT: Oh, another huge economical benefit is that transport trucks could no longer require speed restrictions on some autopilot roads, leading to the faster turnaround of goods, which in turn could translate to lower prices and/or higher wages all across the board. Tell me there's no pleasure in that!

[mistuhbull]

California seems to be the most progressive state in US.
With it's laws on marijuana, and now self driving cars.

and then our awful shithole of a proposition system sets us back 20 years.

Sorry, but Colorado kicks our ass

[blackblade]

My first reaction was that this was dangerous. Then I thought about my opinion of human drivers and realized that I far prefer a computer.

It's a sad day for humanity when we would sooner trust our lives to a machine than another human being.

The irony, is that the machine is made by other humans, and is just as likely to get you in trouble as other humans.

[s_bushido]

The irony, is that the machine is made by other humans, and is just as likely to get you in trouble as other humans.

That logic doesn't quite hold up. Machines are efficient, dispassionate, perfect for repetitive tasks, and highly unlikely to be distracted by random bs while they should be concentrated on the road. So long as the technology is thoroughly tested, I don't see there being any major problems. This isn't exactly some rogue AI we're talking about.

Also: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9f6cHVuPlIg