Self Driving Cars - Yes or No

…and those of the components of the cars.

On a well delineated roadway in good condition? Yes, without a problem

But on a worn out roadway in a blizzard? Not on your life.

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Even if self-driving cars get into fewer accidents than human controlled vehicles (which should not be hard to achieve,) if a few bad incidents occur (and there is no doubt in my mind that they will) … people will reject them en masse.

What you want then is a goat … two for a large yard. :wink:

I picked up two pygmy goats about a month ago and they’re still chewing on the same 1/8th acre spot. I’ll be able to feed about 40 of them with the same area I fed 25 katahdin sheep on.

Sheep are not good for lawns … they clip the grass too short.

Everybody … just like they do now. :wink:

That’s why I rotate them around different section of the lawn. :wink:

These are my thoughts as well. I see “driver assistance” becoming a much more prevalent concept rather than “self-driving”. I honestly don’t see a time where self-driving would become the norm, at least not without a major overhaul of our national highway system and infrastructure.

No “miracles on the Hudson” with those automated planes.

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My first comment to self driving cars is as a motorcyclist.

IT’S BAD ENOUGH THAT I HAVE TO DEAL WITH PEOPLE TEXTING, NOT PAYING ATTENTION BECAUSE THEY DRIVE BORING CARS, OR ARE TALKING ON THIER PHONES… NOW I HAVE TO TRY TO KEEP THE IDIOT VEHTRONICS FROM KILLING ME TOO. AND… I CAN’T EVEN FLIP IT THE BIRD!!!

/MCrant

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My kids started learning to drive cars at age 8 and 9, when they could reach the pedals. They were already proficient with motorcycles, ATVs, and anything they could reach the controls on by then.

I intentionally own older vehicles without dozens of airbags and no trac-control or antilock.

I can’t understand why people would ever want to be less self sufficient or capable???

You don’t think you actually need a license to drive, do you? It’s just another revenue generating tool for the state. Just like license plates and emissions testing.

You just made a case for computers driving instead of humans, computers don’t get distracted.

I can see, however, the creation of “self-driving lanes” as part of the highway infrastructure for parts of the nation – it should be feasible to create safe self-driving lanes on limited access highways, potentially allowing for increased traffic density and speed without jeopardizing safety. In other parts of the country, winter snow and ice (as well as salt and sand) will likely confound and delay the implementation of self-driving.

The technology is interesting, in that we already seem to have reached the point where (at least for driving on clear roads in good weather) self-driving cars can operate as safely as – perhaps more safely than – motorist-operated cars. The technology will continue to improve, and eventually road and highway infrastructure may be improved to make self-driving possible and safe throughout the nation, in all driving conditions. But there’s a part of me that is wary about letting my car have that much control.

They do when the road is covered with snow. If they can’t tell where they are they loose their minds and wait for a human to tell them what to do. That might not be so bad if they were the only car on the road, but almost certainly, they are not …

…and there are those of us who not only don’t wish to travel in such vehicles but also do not want to be surrounded by them.

I don’t know. I’m betting they’d drive better than half the idiots already on the road do.

from How will self-driving cars handle snowy driving conditions?

Here are the four types of tech that will allow driverless cars to move safely on snowy streets.

Solvable, it’s just not a huge hurdle for machines to drive better than humans who aren’t real great in the snow. Until it is solved the human operator can take over.

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But of course some people will insist they need to be flawless instead of a more realistic hurdle of doing better on average than humans do. That latter isn’t a very high hurdle imho.