Forget Uber, driverless cars are going to change automotive industry

bjl

Car AI has a ways to go before it's ready for rollout. I say this mostly because in its current (and near future) state, it's an "all or nothing" scenario IMO.

I remember reading about this Google car that was programmed to stop at a stop sign, and if it detected another car had got there first, it would wait for that car to stop, go then the Google car would go. The issue is that they realized all the drivers were doing rolling stops (aka not coming to a complete stop) so that was messing up the AI/sensors. Basically, autonomous cars' main bottleneck will be the fact that unless everyone adopts them, there will still be other drivers on the road who may still cause accidents.

zoro69 wrote: ↑

Jan 13th, 2016 1:00 pm

I think we have all the pieces, and it's just about refining those pieces, putting them in place, and making sure they work across a huge number of environments – and then we're done," he added."

And, as anyone in software can tell you, on most projects it's the last 10% of the work that takes 90% of the time. Driving on an empty highway is relatively easy with the amount of computing power you can throw at it today. Not running over a kid jumping out into the street in front of you in a snow storm is hard.

Also, what happens when a driverless car hits a kid (it will happen at some point), who calls 911 if there is no one driving the car? Automatic reporting of accidents?

How will it know severity of injuries like a person would?

Uber confirms plans for self-driving vehicle test site in Pennsylvania
http://www.bizjournals.com/philadelphia ... nsylv.html

"“The investments we’re making in Pittsburgh... are key to the long-term future of transportation," said John Bares, the director of Uber's Advanced Technology Center. "Self-driving technology has the potential to drastically cut down on accidents and congestion while making transportation even more affordable and convenient for everyone."

Dynasty12345 wrote: ↑

Jan 6th, 2016 11:40 pm

Did anyone catch the cbcnews segment on driverless cars? Got me excited about the future of cars

Imagine driverless car everywhere.

Less errors, human error are main cause of crashes. Less crash = less need on firefighters, police, maybe doctors. Not big dent but would affect nonetheless.

No more drunk driving

No need for automotive dealers.

Could be less need to own a car. You use it only 4% of the time from point a to b. Then it stays parked. Auto cars could continue elsewhere.

Free up a lot of parking space, that occupy non used cars

Less ticket fee revenue for cities though

Traffic still going to happen also

This is Uber's end game. People won't need to own cars, they will just call a computer driven Uber. They will be so cheap as they have no drivers to pay that only the rich will own cars.

I wonder what everyone will do with their driveways and garages once no one needs to own cars?

Self-driving cars will increase car ownership rates. What you should expect to see is even more surbanization than ever before.

Guncho wrote: ↑

Feb 29th, 2016 11:57 am

This is Uber's end game. People won't need to own cars, they will just call a computer driven Uber. They will be so cheap as they have no drivers to pay that only the rich will own cars.

Uber currently pays drivers less than it costs to drive a new car and offloads all costs of financing and maintaining vehicles to drivers. That's not their end game at all.

aznnorth wrote: ↑

Jan 7th, 2016 8:37 am

Yup, just blame microsoft. ERR #404.

Hahaha that's funny, ya I hate when my computer acts up let alone my car, imagine I'm in a rush to go to work damn car just gives me errors on the dash and wont start, it needs to be rebooted what the hell does that mean , im a plumber not a rocket scientist lol hahah well then I would have to call for a service appointment for the car not starting and and I tell them to also bring a new windshield because I lost it on the car with my golf driver lol sometimes technology piss*s me off lol

SLee wrote: ↑

Feb 29th, 2016 1:05 pm

Uber currently pays drivers less than it costs to drive a new car and offloads all costs of financing and maintaining vehicles to drivers. That's not their end game at all.

Uber is currently losing money hand over fist. Their end game is to become an integral part of our lives and eventually make a lot of money once that happens.

Guncho wrote: ↑

Feb 29th, 2016 1:19 pm

Uber is currently losing money hand over fist. Their end game is to become an integral part of our lives and eventually make a lot of money once that happens.

Personally, because of how much money they already lose despite pushing their drivers to the limit, I suspect their endgame is IPO and let the investors hold the bag.

Guncho wrote: ↑

Feb 29th, 2016 11:57 am

This is Uber's end game. People won't need to own cars, they will just call a computer driven Uber. They will be so cheap as they have no drivers to pay that only the rich will own cars.

exactly. Maybe so cheap..its free http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/01/ ... -shoppers/

and before the taxi industry people chime in with that will never happen...

Free use of a car is already very real http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/waivecar-launch/ Make that self driving so it comes to you/leave it anywhere and why would you want to own a car?

zoro69 wrote: ↑

Feb 29th, 2016 3:55 pm

exactly. Maybe so cheap..its free http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/01/ ... -shoppers/

and before the taxi industry people chime in with that will never happen...

Free use of a car is already very real http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/waivecar-launch/

The same problem you always get with too much advertising; if every car was advertising then nobody would or could pay attention to any individual ad. And with SDCs, you just sleep through it and never see the ads.

zoro69 wrote: ↑

Feb 29th, 2016 3:55 pm

exactly. Maybe so cheap..its free http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2014/01/ ... -shoppers/

and before the taxi industry people chime in with that will never happen...

Free use of a car is already very real http://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/waivecar-launch/ Make that self driving so it comes to you/leave it anywhere and why would you want to own a car?

Yeah maybe just different levels of uber as there already are.