[ds968]

IMHO, THE stupidest idea in automotive history - I have a hard time even getting used to driving an automatic transmission car without being bored to tears, I can't possibly imagine buying a self driving car and using that feature for anything other than having it pick me up in the rain when I exit a restaurant which doesn't have valet service . I love DRIVING cars, and putting some effort into that activity is 100 % of the fun factor, as opposed to feeling like a car is diving me ! Huge yawn there . Besides, if you want a car to drive you ...take UBER , lol !


Anyway, speaking of getting picked up, it looks like BMW and Tesla's top models have the self parking and the summon features already in their top of the line 2015 models, I just can't find out any info on the distances involved - will it drive itself to pick you up if you're 300 ft away and around the corner, or only if you're no more than 50 ft away and pretty much a straight line ?

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[ampegboy1]

When they put the tech in a black, 3rd-generation Trans Am so that I can say to my watch "KITT, get me outta here!" and have it come and get me wherever I am, then and only then will I be interested in self-driving cars

 

Michael

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[Rap]

Dan I agree. Just what is the point? Of course I suppose there are some that don't enjoy driving like we do

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[MLB]

I guess I can imagine that for someone with a disability it would preserve some independence and the ability to get around

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[ds968]

I guess I can imagine that for someone with a disability it would preserve some independence and the ability to get around

Great point, did not think of that ...

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[94SilverCab]

I recently heard an interview with the Chairman of Nest, which was purchased by Google. Among other comments he told a story about visiting Google headquarters for the first time. Regardless cars are ubiquitous on the Google campus and his comment was that he never realized how bad human drivers were until he had that experience.


I believe that in the future, human driving will be a hobby limited to racetracks and removed from our daily tasks, just like horseback riding.


Jay

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[ds968]

My wife works at a company practically adjacent to the Google campus . I have been there numerous times and can add some flavor and perspective to the Nest chairman's observation ; first of all, there are very few parking lots and very few cars, vis-a-vis the number of employees there, since a very large number of employees take the ubiquitous Google buses who transport them from home to work and back. Coupled with Yahoo buses, they just about take over the commuter lanes in this area. On campus there are numerous bicycles used by employees to go between buildings, so there is not a lot of driving going on. What he may have observed is a rather small segment of employees driving to and from work in a very crowded traffic area, and if he thought those are poor drivers it may very well be the result of the Google's demographic ; I swear those employees look like they just graduated from kindergarten :-) ! Lol, probably in their first year of just getting a driver's license and if you add in the geek factor where they're incapable of operating anything that does not have a game controller or a touch screen, there's your explanation for his opinion that humans are not as capable drivers as computers . Incidentally, last month one of the self driving Google cars crashed into the back of a bus ( unfortunately not a Google bus, that would have been hilarious ) - the reason given for the glitch causing that incident was the bus moving at about 15 mph while the car sensor indicated a different speed..or something like that. In any event, back to my original opinion, but slightly modified : except for use by someone with a disability, self driving cars are a travesty to the sprit of owning and enjoying a car !

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[968Syncro]

There is actually a larger vision behind self-driving cars.  Cars will become more of a shared utility and people will no longer own cars.   Consider for a moment the utilization percentage of our cars.  For example we drive them .... what .... perhaps 5 percent of the time, the remainder of the time they are unused, sit in the garage or in a parking lot.  With self-driving cars, they become shared.  When you need to go to the store, you order a car and it comes to your home, is available to you for the next hour or two while running errands, it brings you home, and then goes off and does other work.  Most likely it will also give choices about sharing, so for example if a neighbor also needs to go to the store, it will provide to you a half-price choice to share the car.   It will become a much more efficient method of transportation, we will need fewer cars manufactured, less use of resources.   And some centralized depot will maintain them, we won't have to anymore, no more worry about tires, oil changes, smog test, etc..  Of course this is some time off, but trends always move to more efficient use of resources.

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[968Syncro]

And oh, let's also consider accidents.  We still loose about 35,000 people a year in the US who die in car accidents.  I think something like 90% is from human error.   A utility of self-driving cars will be much much safer, think about all the parents who have gone through the most horrific experience of loosing a child.  And then there are the people who are injured in car accidents, and the enormous medical expenses, and lost work, and the associated insurance company and legal expenses.  Imagine how much medical expense we could save with self-driving cars.

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[flash]

i welcome self driving cars.  frankly, sitting in traffic is no fun as a driver.  i see no realistic benefit to being stuck having to deal with it.  i would much rather be driven, be it by a human or a machine.  this would free up a large amount of my time, reduce stress, and be safer.  i think it is a california phenomenon that we don't have better public transportation, and seem to have few plans to change that.  if we did, many of us would not be driving at all.

 

people resisted the "short range" of electric cars too, claiming they needed more, when in reality they did not.  a few years later, they are all over the place, and people are loving them.

 

a self driving car is a great commuter idea.  it may not replace the "toy" but it sure is practical.

 

something to think about:  how about we give one to every one of those danged camry and prius drivers that insist on doing 65 in the commuter lane, when the rest of traffic wants to do 75, and then dive over to exit at the last possible second?

 

pretty sure the machine will be a better driver than those clowns too

 

heck, half of the people out there aren't paying attention to their driving anyway, and are focused on their phone.  this would at least make those people less of a hazard

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[ds968]

Less hazardous - sure. Less expensive - sure. Better for the environment - sure. More convenient - sure. Living in a mini-biosphere would also be all of those things. Ugh, how mundane and utopian ! You can have your self driving cars, or electric cars, or whatever else the rest of the sheep herd will be in . I'll take being a driver over being a passenger any day any time and for the rest of my life .


But I'll concede on the safety of teens and adolescents issue ; mandating self driving cars for anyone under 25 , ( and over 75 while we're at it ..) may not be a bad idea. Along with mandating DUI engine start controls on every single vehicle on the road ! And mandatory jail sentences for texting and driving . And so on and so forth..

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[flash]

lol - for me, it's about the conditions.  i HATE driving in traffic.  i will do almost anything to avoid doing that.  a self driving car would be great at removing me from that stress and boredom, and give me back that much time.  i can't pay enough for that either.  same goes for the electric car.  gaining back 45 minutes a day was huge for the wife.  she comes home a lot less stressed too.

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[ds968]

Lmao, Flash is slowly but surely joining the " hey you kids, get off my lawn ! " and " I can't be bothered with that anymore " societies . That said, I've been moving in that direction as well but I'm being dragged kicking and screaming and leaving claw marks on the floor all the way ..:-)

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[flash]

lol - already there.

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[ds968]

So the first fatality in a self driving car ( Tesla ) happened recently. It seems the auto-pilot feature did not "see" the side of the huge truck next to it - supposedly the truck's siding was white and not all that visible because of the bright sunshine that day , yada, yada.. - so one thing led to another and the Tesla ended up under the truck which sheared off the entire top of the car , and likely the entire top of the occupant , unfortunately . The DOT and NTSB have started an inquiry into the matter to identify if an inherent flaw of the system needs to be immediately corrected. Yesterday, I heard an auto industry advocate being interviewed and he said that on that same day when this fatality was caused by an auto pilot system omission / error , there were probably a half dozen fatalities caused by drivers errors so he felt the government should place greater focus on the " larger problem " .. Sheesh, whilst that statistic may be true, I think that's a pretty dumb statement to make ; sure, why not try to focus on a solution to a million and one causes of driver error instead of what appears to be a very narrow mechanical flaw which can probably be fixed rather quickly . That is not to say that we shouldn't address DUIs, distracted driving dues to texts, calls, eating, putting on makeup, racing, road rage, etc, etc , but pick the low hanging fruit first !

Ugh, imagine driving an auto-piloted Tesla with a Takata air bag in it ! :-). You'd be safer inside a barrel on Niagara Falls .

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[flash]

the problem with self driving cars is that they won't work until all cars are self driving.  the variable of that idiot in the camry that is too busy texting to pay attention to the fact that he is doing 60 in the fast lane, will always create an unperceived danger.

 

that being said, there are studies out there that show that the computer can drive the car better and safer than over 70% of the humans out there.  that's a pretty good average.

 

the scenario in which this could work would be a designated lane, which allowed the cars to be much closer together, computer controlled, which would then disengage automatically upon exiting that lane.  get in, let the box take over, get out, back to normal.  i like it

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[lbpesq]

One "self-driving" fatality vs. a half dozen human driven car fatalities on the same day? And the industry guy claims this proves human controlled cars are the bigger problem? Talk about spin! That's one out of how many self-driving cars vs. six out of how many million human driven cars driven on that day? And what price will society pay for the population increase that will undoubtedly result from passengers looking for something else to do when they aren't responsible for driving? (Think about it).

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[az968]

Hmm, that will sure solve the boredom of long distance travel. I suspect we'll see some new car "accessories" in the future. New business venture anyone?

 

Elon Musk recently made a statement about someday soon being able to summon your car from afar, so it looks like "Kitt, come get me otta here" isn't so far off.

 

I would be glad to have a car do the driving on long freeway trips. Wireless Netflix., Hot tub in the back, Wine chiller. Perfect!

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[ds968]

Elon Musk recently made a statement about someday soon being able to summon your car from afar, so it looks like "Kitt, come get me otta here" isn't so far off.

!

BMW already has that option available in their 7 series models. It's somewhat limited so you can't be too far from the car and it won't be able to turn too many corners to get to you , but if you're parked half a block away , on the other side of the street and you want your car to come get you because it's raining, or because you're a sissy who is too lazy to move your fat ass and walk over to it .. it's there . I feel the same way about self-driving cars - I envision the typical occupant to be an octogenarian , in a velour homewear pants suit ( or simply in their snuggles ) snoozing while the car is driving them. Ugh, I'd rather die of my own hand driving into a ditch than ever joining that demographic. But , to each his own ......

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[az968]

Retrieving the car from down the block when it's raining is why we have spouses.


And don't knock velour driving outfits till you've tried them

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