A thread to discuss self-driving cars and other vehicles. No politics, please.
Technology, commercial aspects, legal considerations and marketing are all on-topic.
- Companies (e.g. Tesla Inc.) are only on-topic when discussing their self-driving products and research, not their wider activities. The exception is when those wider activities directly impact (or are impacted by) their other business areas - e.g. if self-driving car development is cut back due to losses in another part of the business.
- Technology that's not directly related to self-driving vehicles is off-topic unless you're discussing how it might be used for them in future.
- If we're talking about individuals here, that should only be because they've said or done something directly relevant to the topic. Specifically, posts about Tesla do not automatically need to mention Elon Musk. And Musk's views, politics and personal life are firmly off-topic unless you can somehow show that they're relevant to self-driving vehicles.
Cadillac plans to release a scaled back, more simple version of similar technology by 2015 - what they call "Super Cruise", which isn't total self-driving, but does let you relax on highways. It positions your car in the exact center of a lane, slows down or speeds up as necessary, and is said to be meant for ideal driving conditions (I'm guessing that means ideal weather, no rain or snow, etc.).
I am looking forward to such tech. If enough people prefer to drive this way, and the technology works reliably, it could result in safer roads with fewer accidents. Another possibility is that, using GPS and maybe the ability to know ahead of time which roads are most clogged, they can find the quickest route from place to place.
On the other hand, hacking could be a real concern, and I hope it doesn't become a serious threat. It's looking like we're living more and more like those sci-fi Everything Is Online worlds depicted in fiction for a long time.
(Mod edited to replace original post)
Edited by Mrph1 on Mar 29th 2024 at 4:19:56 PM
So that's what this does
@Pykrete It's called a boosted cascade of simple features. Antlers are a very simple form to detect, in the same way our eyes can detect people we have become accustomed to in a crowd in short order.
Honestly a deer is not a problem, even less if they get around to adding thermal. Damaged sensors? Well, that's when the human gets asked to take over which becomes a problem if the human is using the vehicle as a designated driver.
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
How often do such debris stick to the front of a car? Because I'm pretty sure they tend to just blow over the car.
edited 10th May '12 2:57:35 PM by Balmung
^^
A Doe doesn't have antlers though.
I live in Los Angeles. We have a lot of debris of kinds you wouldn't believe. 
I think it would be a cool convenience feature, but to be honest I would really rather just drive myself. Or make it a freeway/highway only feature.
Though it would be cool to use on the beat.. Set my squadcar to drive laps in a pattern around the base, put on the sunglasses, and knock the fuck out for an hour or two...
edited 10th May '12 2:59:40 PM by Barkey
So that's what this does
Detecting debris is even easier. Weird shit? Slow down a bit. That's not me, that's something referred to as anomaly detection. You slow down where the roads have weird stuff around, like in real life.
NOT THE BEES
Excuse me for
being skeptical of image recognition. Because both of those are potential threats on the road.
My dad had a hummingbird fly into the front and the skull got stuck inside the deer whistle before. That was a weird one.
edited 10th May '12 3:07:30 PM by Pykrete
^^
So LA traffic would be even slower than it already is? No thanks!
Give the AI cars the slow lane then, I'll stick in the middle lane and not randomly slow down for mcdonalds wrappers.
^
That's.. Weird as hell.
edited 10th May '12 3:10:02 PM by Barkey
NOT THE BEES
Yeah a sheriff came over when we pulled over to investigate (I think he thought we were trying to break into the car or something), and he gave the funniest look when we reached in with a pair of tweezers and pulled out a bird's head*
Oh, and bug splatter coating all your stuff. A swarm of bugs can take half your windshield and sensors from clear to cloudy in about five seconds. Around the coast or wetland at the right time of year its pretty much a weekly occurrence.
edited 10th May '12 3:20:40 PM by Pykrete
I can barely see those with my own eyes, so having AI sensor or me would be no different.
Also, I'd rather be slow on the road than to drive myself. Hey, while the car drives itself I might get stuff done on a laptop. That's the reason why I prefer public transport.
edited 10th May '12 3:28:32 PM by IraTheSquire
I have balls.
^
It wouldn't really have much to do with my LE duties, my base is off the grid where GPS is concerned. We show up as a strangely shaped blotch of color next to the navy base, which is 100 % detailed in how the roads and buildings are laid out on those things.
We also don't have a bar on-base, which makes drunk drivers rare.
edited 10th May '12 3:59:17 PM by Barkey
I see the Awesomeness.
Speed limits can probably be eliminated since they're only there because of human reaction times and poor judgement calls. And a chance to make money, but that will disappear when a simple line of code prevents tickets from being issued. Make the system adapt to road conditions and vehicle computer checks (most modern cars already do this) and you can just adjust the speed settings based on probable response times and probable obstacles.
That and the chance to take away the wheel from all the morons who think driving twenty miles under the speed limit in the fast lane is a good idea. A force toggle where continuous violation for five minutes or so removes that option. And the fuckers who always cut you off in traffic.
Fight smart, not fair.
NOT THE BEES
I've never actually seen anyone go significantly under the speed limit in the fast lane. At least not outside of traffic jams that were already happening.
Speed limits should not get eliminated though. I'm already wary of the AI missing something, bugging out, or not anticipating some extreme outlier condition that might be contextually obvious — I definitely don't want it happening at 100+ mph.
edited 12th May '12 1:45:09 AM by Pykrete
Bit of a thread hop here.
The google version that detects other cars and the curb is nice and all, but I'm kind of dubious about how these things cope when the curb isn't there or is hard to detect. What happens if it has to go off-road? Or something happens and it can't follow the curb?
Be not afraid...
NOT THE BEES
What happens if the curb is a crumbly mess of a sharp drop-off that pokes past the lane line sometimes, etc. Because that's like, the street right behind my house.
edited 12th May '12 2:00:00 AM by Pykrete
V
Or there isn't a kerb at all? There are a lot of country lanes like this around here, as in this country, almost all roads are paved.
I can see self-driving being useful for trucks and buses, though. It'll probably appear there before it appears on cars.
Keep Rolling On
Where I grew up, we didn't have sidewalks or curbs. It was just a road and then dirt on the sides.
I see the Awesomeness.
Eh, I was using that as a specific example. It's just as possible to use the example of someone weaving back and forth. Or have you ever seen an ambulance with its lights and horns blaring have to slow to a stop and wait for several minutes as some fucktards decided they didn't need to move out of the way? That goes away too. Also, instant traffic obstacles update. No more will you have to listen for warnings on the radio or wait until you get there. The minute there's a huge block, cars will simultaneously move off the thoroughfare.
Fight smart, not fair.
NOT THE BEES
I'm also curious about places where there isn't actually a paved road at all. When I went to Nebraska a couple years ago we went out into the sticks for a family reunion and it was about 30 miles of sand and gravel the same color as the dry grass on either side.
But what if you don't want to move off to the thoroughfare? What if you're not even planning on stopping in that city and need to stay on the highway regardless of the traffic jam? I don't think I want an AI making any of my travel decisions for me. Also I doubt this would eliminate speed limits; those are there to prevent accidents and the only place accidents don't occur is in a perfect world. AI can't provide that.
I still think people can react to the emergencies on the road better than the AI. I was also under the impression that the autopilot on airplanes was for emergencies only, like if the pilot died, and that those programs can't actually do something like landing the plane. You still need a human there who can fly the thing.
Well I suppose if the computer decides "Hey, lets take sidestreets past the jam to get to the freeway again!" then it isn't a bad idea. That's what I tend to do in areas I know well.
And what if the headlights turn all red and shit and the car decides the quickest way to your destination is over the wriggling bodies of the meat sacks on the sidewalks?
V
@ Ace:
Autopilots are in everyday use on just about every commercial flight, and autopilots can land a plane; they've been able to do it since the Hawker Siddeley Trident of the 1960s. Of course, they still need a human there, just in case anything goes wrong and to re-assure the passengers.
edited 15th May '12 3:01:55 PM by Greenmantle
Keep Rolling On
And more to the point, keeping the plane in the air is simple enough that most of the stuff is done by autopilot anyway. The pilot is just there more for the take-off and landing, which are the hard bits.
Why the heck do you want to deliberately get stuck on a highway when there's another way that takes less time and how often does that happen?
edited 15th May '12 5:38:21 PM by IraTheSquire
I see the Awesomeness.
I was thinking more of when the road is either blocked or you're already in a city during something like rush hour (which would also be reduced since automated cars should communicate and you no longer have to deal with some jackass blocking the lane you're trying to merge into because of a cell and lack of common sense). Essentially, the car would just register it as a blocked or reduced route and drive around it. Same for construction.
Speed limits are there due to expected cross traffic, estimations of human reaction times and several other things. They are not necessary for safe travel if the users already know how to drive safely. Essentially, you don't make the speed limits laws, you internalize the safe speed limits based on the situation. A highway is a significantly different environment than a suburb neighborhood, and the things bouncing around are quite different. Driving slower increases the time you have to react, which the automation systems will do much better than humans.
Autopilot in planes: if the Myth Busters are to be believed, the autopilot is fully capable of piloting the plane all on its own, as they tested the "can some schmuck land a plane?" myth and the autopilot would do it for them. Air navigation is a lot easier though since the biggest obstacle is down.
Fight smart, not fair.
Long and short of it is I think AI's would drive like old ladies. They also might act like assholes and not let a manual driver change lanes on a merge.