Self-Driving cars / autos merged threadfest

[fotoguzzi]

This is way over-yhped. My boss has one and I've driven it. their so called self driving is no where near as sophisticated as a google car. Basically it follows lane lines and controls speed. It does not recognize stop signs, lights, or any traffic instruction. If you're in the right lane and there is an exit, it sometimes takes the exit cause it's following the lines. If you're on a street where it can't see the lines, it just turns off. If you take your hands off the wheel for more than 3 minutes it will start warning you to put them back.

The auto speed control is kind of nice but the steering thing is pretty worthless. Just a gimmick really.

True but you can buy the Tesla now.. when / where do you get a Google car?

[oldbike54]

Because there are so many that can't be trusted to drive w/o distractions of their mobile devices, food, makeup, etc,  once the technology can be trusted by the insurance companies more than people, the insurance companies will be the ones to mandate that no one can drive their own car any more.   They will do this through rates.    You'll pay 10X or more to drive your own car.    I'm not sure what this means for motorcycles.

 

Our rates should go down because there will be less people out there trying to kill us.

  Well , these are questions that have no answers ... yet . My best guess is that MC insurance won't change much , and when and IF self driving cars become safe and practical , the insurance rates will be 20% than driver operated cars . One trend that seems to be already gaining steam is the shared car . Self driving cars will make this even more practical , order up a ride by phone or Email , and it magically appears , when you are done , it parks its self in the nearest available designated spot . We live in interesting times .

  Dusty

[Wayne Orwig]

Our rates should go down because there will be less people out there trying to kill us.

I hate when I laugh so hard I spit out my coffee.



The insurance 'machine' will continue to want to profit by billions. If some rates drop, others will have to go up.

[Penderic]

You can see what this is leading to.

More dummy drivers. 

[dibble]

And of course at some point, the ethical questions need to be answered. The vehicle determines that the accident is un-avoidable. Does it save the single person in it? OR does it save the 6 people in the other vehicle and sacrifice it's own passenger? Or does it drive onto the sidewalk and kill the pedestrians? The software running autonomous vehicles will have to be programmed to handle all situations that they encounter. So someone gets to decide who maybe lives\who maybe dies.

OR maybe it just throws it 'hands' in the air, closes its 'eyes' and hopes for the best.

The Adaptive Cruise Control on my new car  says "APPLY BRAKE" , basically "over to you" when something outside set parameters occurs.

It can of course apply the brakes itself.

[fotoguzzi]

Can anyone explain to me how the driver, who makes $30k a year as a state representative, can afford a $100,000+ Tesla?

have two jobs, as a legislator the Representative earns $31,140/year.. He also claimed $6,600 in per diem (2012) $11,197 (2011) don't know about 2013-15 yet..

[HDGoose]

Too many complexities to unleash these in any quantities.

[stormshearon]

The Adaptive Cruise Control on my new car  says "APPLY BRAKE" , basically "over to you" when something outside set parameters occurs.

It can of course apply the brakes itself.

So - throw hands in air and wait for the human to handle it. Interesting, but I think the hype for the self-driving car is pushing the meme that the car takes car of everything - no human interaction at all.

Personally, I don't trust the folks thinking this up and implementing the software\firmware. I have been in computer engineering as a developer\tester for 30 years and I just don't share the confidence in this expressed by the folks promoting it. Airplanes still fall out of the sky and the pilots are very well trained - which is not what I would call the average motorist and the self-driving car is an attempt to let tech take car of the driving and remove the human completely because they are not capable.

Fortunately I'll most likely be dead and gone before this ever goes into general use.

[canuguzzi]

In these neck of the woods what scares me most isn't the Prius driver, the elder in a Buick, a youngster in a lowered Honda or an 18/wheeler taking up their entire lane, it is the high performance car, truck and ,SUV driver. The ones with 300,400 and up to 700 horsepower that think the on ramps and every straight is their opportunity to "open er up" switching in and out of traffic . The most common car I see driven this way is a BMW, maybe because everything thinks they are the Ultimate Driver.

Will auto driving cars reduce the market for ultra high performance cars? Sure, there will always be those willing to pay for higher performance but if you look at who is now driving electric cars, a lot of them used to be in high horsepower cars sitting in traffic.

The auto drive car is nearly here.

[nc43bsa]

I hope the self-driving vehicles wait to become the default until I'm no longer riding or driving.

[Doppelgaenger]

You forget that electric cars ARE high performance. They may not have 400 HP but they don't need it when you have 1000 ft lbs of torque from rest. Electric bikes are the same, if you test ride a Zero with a lowly 58 hp, your big block guzzi is going to feel like a slow fat pig when you get back on. Torque is king.

I think there will always be a market for the high performance car. And there will also always be morons that think they're Ayrton Senna and will drive like it.

[Rough Edge racing]

 What's the difference between a high performance car and a high performance motorcycle?  The bike causes less collateral damage when it crashes...
  Cars, and to some extent bikes, are requiring less drive input to control them....I bet the majority of drivers cannot deal with a clutch pedal and non power assisted steering...back up proximity devices and cameras so the driver need not actually look or check clearances before getting in the car.. Maybe driving/riding should be mindless like using a toaster..
 The 180 hp bikes and 600 hp cars are the last grasp for us Americans to be manly   

[mtiberio]

self driving cars will end human driving. once it is shown that self driving cars are safer than humans, you will be paying a premium with your insurance company to have your hands on the wheel...

[Cool Runnings]

In these neck of the woods what scares me most isn't the Prius driver, the elder in a Buick, a youngster in a lowered Honda or an 18/wheeler taking up their entire lane, it is the high performance car, truck and ,SUV driver. The ones with 300,400 and up to 700 horsepower that think the on ramps and every straight is their opportunity to "open er up" switching in and out of traffic . The most common car I see driven this way is a BMW, maybe because everything thinks they are the Ultimate Driver.

Will auto driving cars reduce the market for ultra high performance cars? Sure, there will always be those willing to pay for higher performance but if you look at who is now driving electric cars, a lot of them used to be in high horsepower cars sitting in traffic.

The auto drive car is nearly here.

300 hp V6 is normal these days. Do you live in a cave??? 

[cj750]

I too believe that self-driving cars will be the norm, sooner than we think.
When self-propelled autos first appeared they were a novelty, and subject to all kinds of restraints and rules to avoid disrupting the horse-drawn traffic.
Within ten years, the number of automobiles on the road equaled the number of horses. Ten years after that, horses had been relegated to rural backroads. With the generally faster pace of life today, I don't expect the transition to driverless cars to take that long, once the regulatory hurdles have been cleared. (Although I hope I'm wrong.)

I have to say that I view traffic exactly the opposite of Norge Pilot, though. Its the slow drivers I'm scared of. Whether they're blocking the left lane, requiring unnecessary and unsafe lane changes to get around, failing to get up to merging speed on an on-ramp, or creating a long line of frustrated drivers on a two-lane, they're road hazards, plain and simple. If I'm overtaken by a faster driver, in contrast, they pass, continue on their way, and are no concern of mine. I don't have to adjust my driving or give them a second thought. Faster drivers also tend to exhibit more situational awareness and are better at signaling their intentions, in my experience. Anyway, just my two cents. YMMV. 

[blackcat]

And then there is this:

A Florida woman thought she got away from a hit-and-run, until her own car called the cops.

Cathy Bernstein, 57, tried speeding off after hitting both a truck and a van near Northwest Prima Vista Boulevard, but her Ford cut her escape short, police said.

The car's 911 Assist system SYNC, gave details to police, including her location, and put Bernstein on the phone with a dispatch. The system automatically calls police if the car's been involved in an accident that deploys a car's airbag, according to Ford's website.

http://www.nydailynews.com/fla-woman-car-calls-police-alleged-hit-and-run-article-1.2456939?utm_content=bufferf94d3&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer

[homebrew]

This is way over-yhped. My boss has one and I've driven it. their so called self driving is no where near as sophisticated as a google car. Basically it follows lane lines and controls speed. It does not recognize stop signs, lights, or any traffic instruction. If you're in the right lane and there is an exit, it sometimes takes the exit cause it's following the lines. If you're on a street where it can't see the lines, it just turns off. If you take your hands off the wheel for more than 3 minutes it will start warning you to put them back.

That's just what they've enabled.  If you've got 38 minutes, check out this video from the CEO of Mobileye, one of Tesla's technology enablers on the self-driving side.  It's not known how much of the tech in that video already exists and how much is still in development and it's not known what subset of the existing technology can be enabled in the current Teslas with their existing sensor setup.  But pretty much everyone thinks that at least some additional technology is available in the more recently-built cars now and Musk is just waiting for the right time to turn it on.

Edited to add: It would help if I included the actual video, huh? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kp3ik5f3-2c

[pikipiki]

I really find the prospects of electric bikes interesting - Zero and Saietta look like best at the moment. Full recharge in about 2 hours. In a few years that could be under one hour.
The future of biker meets might be chatting around the recharge point with a hot mug of tea brewed by lifting what would have in days gone by been the gas filler dropping the mug in and pressing the heat button - a simple but useful option on future E-bike. Supping our tea we ignore the abuse being hurled at us by Tesla banker types who need access to charge there cumbersome cages, a useful safety feature of their self drive vehicle preventing it driving too close between the numerous parked recharging bikes