NGC so here we go with motorcycles and Autonomous cars

[Johncolleary]

Looks like motorcyclists will have another thing to watch out for!!! They say it was the motorcyclist fault?
http://www.motorcycle.com/features/featuresgm-cruise-autonomous-car-and-motorcycle-collide-in-san-francisco-html.html

[rodekyll]

Yes, another road hazard for bikes, and yes, the police report (one of the more coherent I've read) indicates that the m/c was pretty clearly at fault.  He was lucky.  He got a sore shoulder AND the opportunity to decline his Darwin award.  That's a 2-fer for the situation!

[Murray]

The other point is they are trialling this technology not rolling it out, so I'd expect every incident to be looked at and where there was a better solution the code writers to plugging away at it. This is the point of a trial.

[Furbo]

Who...Who is begging for driverless cars? Its one of my life's pleasures even when its not. It seem to be an answer to a question no one is asking.

[kfz]

Who...Who is begging for driverless cars? Its one of my life's pleasures even when its not. It seem to be an answer to a question no one is asking.

Not the people whose livelihood depends on it, thats for sure.

If I could have a electric driverless car I would.  The car is just a tool, a necessary evil. Its a box that carries the kids and the groceries round.  If I can dispense with ferrying people about and the soul destroying boredom of watching the brake lights of the car in front while sitting in a 6 hr queue. The yes.

Of course I dont for a minute think its safe, the technology needed (low/mid level AI) isnt there yet.

Kev

[Murray]

Who...Who is begging for driverless cars? Its one of my life's pleasures even when its not. It seem to be an answer to a question no one is asking.

Considering the number of people who seem to think they have more important things to do like, be completely and utterly obliterated on drugs and or alcohol, yell at their kids, do their face paint and mess with their phones I'd suggest there is a market. I can also see it been a boon to older peoples independence especially in regional and rural areas where public transport is not a thing. Personally I'll quote paraphrase Chris Harris, I'm not sold on the idea but at 4AM if R2D2 offered to drive me to the airport I'd take that offer.

[n3303j]

The robots are always going to blame the "meat bags".

Currently we are speaking of autonomous cars operating in an environment comprised mainly of human driven vehicles.

The next logical step in rapidly moving large numbers of individuals is to clear the  roadways of all vehicles that can only function singularly and under the limits of human reflexes and reasoning.

With communication across the swarm and computer reflexes these vehicles could easily run 6 inches apart at any speed the road physics would allow. Stopless intersections would be a reality where the vehicles only have to miss by inches.

It's been said that the biggest problem with autonomous vehicles is what outside view (if any) are you going to show the occupant so you don't completely traumatized them.

[oldbike54]

 Clean up on aisle 7 . Stop with the politics fellas . Do you not understand the rules after having them explained , repeatedly .

 Dusty

[Sasquatch Jim]

 The biker was blamed because the cop couldn't find a driver to ticket.
 What if the driverless car road rages?

[et18]

Personally, I can't wait for driverless cars.  My commute is only 7 miles of lightly traveled two lane and I still can't get to work most days w/o someone having a tire in my lane while looking down at their phone.  I also pass a Tesla Model S almost every morning, the woman driving it is never looking up but is always perfectly in her lane.  Honestly, she is never looking at the road but her car is in the dead center of her lane.  My assumption is it's on auto pilot.  New tech like this is always a little scary but I feel a lot safer passing that Tesla than all the other drivers holding a phone in one hand.

[Noguzznoglory]

according to a couple of reports highly automated vehicles fail to recognize motorcycles a significant number of times
https://www.revzilla.com/common-tread/highly-automated-vehicles-and-motorcycles-part-one

[Testarossa]

I have all sorts of thoughts about this, some of them inspired by the decades of experience we have with autopilots in aircraft.

First, using an autopilot in no way exempts the pilot from responsibility for safe operation and traffic avoidance. If you have a midair collision or fly into terrain while on autopilot, that's pilot error. Traffic laws that make the human driver responsible for safely operating the car should NOT be changed -- and insurance companies need to advise their customers of the implications.

Some cheap equivalent of the aircraft transponder or sailboat radar reflector could solve most of the issues regarding autonomous recognition of motorcycles, cyclists and pedestrians. It could be an unpowered RFID the size of a key fob. State law in Colorado forbids automobiles from coming within 10 feet of a cyclists (the law is rarely enforced, even after a car knocks down a cyclist). Five feet would be a reasonable standard of distance maintenance from the RFID transponder, allowing safe passage when the car and bike were in adjacent lanes. Perhaps with a firmware exception when the bike is overtaking the car (as in lane splitting).

If left-turning cars are the main problem for oncoming bikes, the RFID detector should be sensitive to targets out to 100 meters or more.

Meanwhile I'm very hopeful that autonomous cars will be more predictable than human-operated cars, and will always signal lane changes, turns etc.

In this part of the world, a major issue is snow-packed roads. If lane markers are covered, I suspect that no autopilot system will work short of having cars follow buried cables.

[Lannis]

I have all sorts of thoughts about this, some of them inspired by the decades of experience we have with autopilots in aircraft.

First, using an autopilot in no way exempts the pilot from responsibility for safe operation and traffic avoidance. If you have a midair collision or fly into terrain while on autopilot, that's pilot error. Traffic laws that make the human driver responsible for safely operating the car should NOT be changed -- and insurance companies need to advise their customers of the implications.

.........

In this part of the world, a major issue is snow-packed roads. If lane markers are covered, I suspect that no autopilot system will work short of having cars follow buried cables.

These kinds of things are why it's not going to happen as soon as the enthusiastic optimists think it will.   I spent some years programming manufacturing robots which were interacting with a moving assembly line, with other robots, and with humans ... and the number of variables is incredible even in that environment ....

Lannis