Will you buy a self driving car?

[bykfixer]

Even George Jetson had to steer some.

 

[SCEMan]

Took the wife for a "spirited" drive in my 2015 A3 Quattro for lunch at a favorite spot in the local mountains today. No way I'd sit in a Google car doing the same drive without a lobotomy... Now, if I still had to drive to work, self-driving cars (for that purpose) might sound appealing. But what about all the non-self driving cars sharing the same roadway? No way the software logic could handle some of the "Darwin Award" maneuvers I see almost daily.

 

[vadimax]

Took the wife for a "spirited" drive in my 2015 A3 Quattro for lunch at a favorite spot in the local mountains today. No way I'd sit in a Google car doing the same drive without a lobotomy... Now, if I still had to drive to work, self-driving cars (for that purpose) might sound appealing. But what about all the non-self driving cars sharing the same roadway? No way the software logic could handle some of the "Darwin Award" maneuvers I see almost daily.

So far they don't see a standing truck:

 

[tab665]

while were at it I need a robot to go to work for me. give me time to work on my hobbies.

 

[SCEMan]

So far they don't see a standing truck:

And people are afraid to fly in airlines due to loss of control...

 

[nbp]

Yes. I don't enjoy driving and I hate traffic. While it won't happen in my lifetime I would love to see all vehicles self driving as it will reduce accidents through driver error/driver negligence/fatigue, reduce traffic as much traffic is the result of individual driving habits (ghost traffic jams I believe is the term), allow more vehicles on the road with less congestion via automated traffic control, and simply be more efficient overall. There was a time when an elevator had an operator and to do for the automobile what automation did for the elevator will be a great improvement over the norm.

This.

I don't think the benefits would really be seen until ALL cars are self driving, which I think is unlikely, but frankly, most drivers I see should not be driving at all and a world free of human drivers would be orders of magnitude safer.

People are fatigued, daydreaming or stressed out, drunk, high, on prescription pills, texting, talking, reading newspapers, eating food, playing around with pets, attending to children, observing things within or outside the vehicle, driving too fast for conditions, ignoring basic traffic laws/signage, and are otherwise careless, negligent, erratic and unpredictable behind the wheel.

A computer doesn't suffer from any of those issues.

We have over 100k crashes and over 400 traffic fatalities every year just in Wisconsin. Many of them due to drunk driving thanks to ridiculously lax DUI laws. You can't get people out of the driver's seat fast enough.

While self driving cars are unlikely to be as fun or exciting, full automation of all vehicles would likely save thousands of lives nationwide every year.

 

[stfc69]

This.

I don't think the benefits would really be seen until ALL cars are self driving, which I think is unlikely, but frankly, most drivers I see should not be driving at all and a world free of human drivers would be orders of magnitude safer.

People are fatigued, daydreaming or stressed out, drunk, high, on prescription pills, texting, talking, reading newspapers, eating food, playing around with pets, attending to children, observing things within or outside the vehicle, driving too fast for conditions, ignoring basic traffic laws/signage, and are otherwise careless, negligent, erratic and unpredictable behind the wheel.

A computer doesn't suffer from any of those issues.

We have over 100k crashes and over 400 traffic fatalities every year just in Wisconsin. Many of them due to drunk driving thanks to ridiculously lax DUI laws. You can't get people out of the driver's seat fast enough.

While self driving cars are unlikely to be as fun or exciting, full automation of all vehicles would likely save thousands of lives nationwide every year.

How big is Wisconsin? There were 'only' 1713 road fatalities in the whole of the UK in 2013, stricter drink driving laws though... but 400 seems a lot!

 

[nbp]

How big is Wisconsin? There were 'only' 1713 road fatalities in the whole of the UK in 2013, stricter drink driving laws though... but 400 seems a lot!

5.8 million people in Wisconsin.

A densely populated state like California which still only has half the population of the UK has over 3,000 traffic fatalities annually. For the nation it's over 30,000. It's pretty scary.

Sure, one can argue that many result from not wearing seatbelts, etc., but how much better if there are fewer crashes to begin with? Maybe the billions of dollars each year spent on insurance claims, medical expenses, car repairs, etc. could be spent on the autopilot systems. I'm just saying why I don't necessarily think automated vehicles are bad...they can't possibly be worse than humans. Humans can be trained to be excellent drivers, but most have only the bare minimum skills to pass a driver test, and in some cases, drivers do not even posess a valid license.

Imagine if a central processing center in your town could automatically send a download in the morning to your vehicle with updates on road construction, lane closures, weather, etc., so your car could alter it's route to work for efficiency or to avoid hazards. Imagine if bad weather came in fast and instead of the guy in front hitting the brakes suddenly causing a chain reaction of tail lights and emergency maneuvers for dozens or hundreds of cars, the first car sent a signal to others and they all braked simultaneously and in sync slowing down traffic but preventing traffic jams, backups, and rear end collisions. Imagine No more accidents from texting, drinking, or distracted drivers.

Sign me up.

 

[Chauncey Gardiner]

^+1, to what nbp stated.

While we're at it, imagine if people drove like their life depended on how they drove.

~ Chance

 

[dc38]

^+1, to what nbp stated.

While we're at it, imagine if people drove like their life depended on how they drove.

~ Chance

SEMANTICALLY...driving as if one's life depended on that driving could mean getting out of a hairy situation.

 

[martinaee]

^+1, to what nbp stated.

While we're at it, imagine if people drove like their life depended on how they drove.

~ Chance

The amount of people that don't boggles my mind...

I guess you could say I usually drive more like an old grandpa even though I'm pretty young, but it's because you're not going to get anywhere realistically much faster in day to day driving with stop lights. I'll routinely be going just under the limit and some morons in BMWs and Mercedes (yeah I'm stereotyping, but I live in an area with a lot of really well off people and I notice the people with nice cars tend to be horrible drivers) will do 20 miles over and pass me on solid lines/single lane roads talking on a cell phone up to their ear just so they don't have to drive behind somebody and so they can get to their stop 30 seconds faster. Sure.... 99 percent of the time nothing happens... except for that one time doing stupid **** does make a difference then your car is wrapped around a power-line post.

If we all had self driving cars where people who normally have horrible driving tendencies can instead focus on their cell phones or whatever then driving would be so much safer most of the time. The car would go EXACTLY the speed limit and not do unnecessary dangerous maneuvers just to get somewhere 10 seconds faster. I'm all for it and I think cars will be a LOT safer in the future with the tech developing being not only much better but pretty much ubiquitous.

 

[bykfixer]

The amount of people that don't boggles my mind...

I guess you could say I usually drive more like an old grandpa even though I'm pretty young, but it's because you're not going to get anywhere realistically much faster in day to day driving with stop lights. I'll routinely be going just under the limit and some morons in BMWs and Mercedes (yeah I'm stereotyping, but I live in an area with a lot of really well off people and I notice the people with nice cars tend to be horrible drivers) will do 20 miles over and pass me on solid lines/single lane roads talking on a cell phone up to their ear just so they don't have to drive behind somebody and so they can get to their stop 30 seconds faster. Sure.... 99 percent of the time nothing happens... except for that one time doing stupid **** does make a difference then your car is wrapped around a power-line post.

If we all had self driving cars where people who normally have horrible driving tendencies can instead focus on their cell phones or whatever then driving would be so much safer most of the time. The car would go EXACTLY the speed limit and not do unnecessary dangerous maneuvers just to get somewhere 10 seconds faster. I'm all for it and I think cars will be a LOT safer in the future with the tech developing being not only much better but pretty much ubiquitous.

You sound exactly like my dad did when I was about 14. He knew I'd be biting at him soon to drive.

Well dawg-gonnit I ended up driving just like you, and after 33 years of driving mains and highways in all kinds of weather... zero accidents so far.

 

[bykfixer]

The amount of people that don't boggles my mind...

I guess you could say I usually drive more like an old grandpa even though I'm pretty young, but it's because you're not going to get anywhere realistically much faster in day to day driving with stop lights. I'll routinely be going just under the limit and some morons in BMWs and Mercedes (yeah I'm stereotyping, but I live in an area with a lot of really well off people and I notice the people with nice cars tend to be horrible drivers) will do 20 miles over and pass me on solid lines/single lane roads talking on a cell phone up to their ear just so they don't have to drive behind somebody and so they can get to their stop 30 seconds faster. Sure.... 99 percent of the time nothing happens... except for that one time doing stupid **** does make a difference then your car is wrapped around a power-line post.

If we all had self driving cars where people who normally have horrible driving tendencies can instead focus on their cell phones or whatever then driving would be so much safer most of the time. The car would go EXACTLY the speed limit and not do unnecessary dangerous maneuvers just to get somewhere 10 seconds faster. I'm all for it and I think cars will be a LOT safer in the future with the tech developing being not only much better but pretty much ubiquitous.

You sound exactly like my dad did when I was about 14. He knew I'd be biting at him soon to drive.

Well dawg-gonnit I ended up driving just like you, and after 33 years of driving mains and highways in all kinds of weather... zero accidents so far.

 

[martinaee]

I want to drive fast... I love the idea of driving fast all the time. I think I just daydream of how fudged things could go very quickly with one steering issue or loss of traction/etc.

I know it sounds weird, but I think having the internet and being able to see very morbid stuff that happens all the time with cars has made me much more aware of the need to not only drive safely yourself, but assume that everyone else is not paying attention at all. Some people get angry and aggressive at other bad drivers---- seriously for your own good just give idiot drivers as much space as possible.

Just go to any of the myriad sub-forums on Reddit dealing with bad drivers: road rage, accidents, dash-cams, wcgw (what could go wrong), watchpeopledie, etc. etc. etc. and you'll see why you also need to start driving like your life depends on it. I'm not messed up or psycho, I just like seeing the reality of how fragile humans are and how easily things can go very very wrong.

I for one welcome our future automated AI overlords. Car self driving tech will be able to focus 100% of the time (in conditions when it works perfectly--- which will also improve) on just driving and not be distracted. I think it's funny how already in cases where cars like Teslas using current self driving tech get into accidents it's almost always already later discovered that it was somehow human error. I'm sure it's not perfect, but it's already proving to be much better than most human driving and reactions.

 

[vadimax]

I hope this one will never become self driving:



Just a question: a car is driving safe speed in a turn, but there is an invisible ice patch or spilled oil on a pavement. What would all those autopilots do if options are:

1. Hit a group of parked cars and stop;
2. Hit a light pole and stop;
3. Hit nothing at the moment, but a couple of seconds later fall into a river?

 

[bykfixer]

Just a question: a car is driving safe speed in a turn, but there is an invisible ice patch or spilled oil on a pavement. What would all those autopilots do if options are:

1. Hit a group of parked cars and stop;
2. Hit a light pole and stop;
3. Hit nothing at the moment, but a couple of seconds later fall into a river?

Not that I trust computers to drive me but...
If that scenario occured the computer would likely do better at handling that versus a panick'd driver. Same with sudden flats, and other cases.
I know there have been times my antilock brakes handled things better than I would have.
Pull off on a wet grass or gravel shoulder for example and begin to slide. Antilock brakes ease off and control stopping way better than I could. Same with ice n snow.

 

[vadimax]

Not that I trust computers to drive me but...
If that scenario occured the computer would likely do better at handling that versus a panick'd driver. Same with sudden flats, and other cases.
I know there have been times my antilock brakes handled things better than I would have.
Pull off on a wet grass or gravel shoulder for example and begin to slide. Antilock brakes ease off and control stopping way better than I could. Same with ice n snow.

Do you know that ABS very quickly releases brakes to regain traction, but later then increases pressure, slides, then regains traction again and so on? You hear that process as a series of "hits".

But real optimal braking -- is NEVER to lose traction. Those short sliding gaps increase total braking distance. This is why experienced drivers brake much better than ABS.

BTW, the situation with three options is real. It is my personal experience when I was young and stupid enough to drive normal speed by a river early in the morning when it was some +3°C. Asphalt in one of turns was covered with invisible thin layer of ice -- a leftover of subzero night and river vapor. I have chosen a light pole as a minimal evil. There was no over way to stop nearly uncontrollable vehicle. I have managed to evade opposite direction car, stopped rotation, but there has left no space for a safe stop.

 

[bykfixer]

Do you know that ABS very quickly releases brakes to regain traction, but later then increases pressure, slides, then regains traction again and so on? You hear that process as a series of "hits".

But real optimal braking -- is NEVER to lose traction. Those short sliding gaps increase total braking distance. This is why experienced drivers brake much better than ABS.

I'm a very experienced driver. Dump trucks, tractors, snowplows, and millions of miles without a single accident. And I can honestly say the ABS is better at it than I am.

As a highway worker I have seen numerous instances where anti-lock brakes kept loaded semis who had to suddenly stop from jack knifing, numerous cases where slippery conditions and crazy drivers have caused accidents that would have been much worse if not for others behind the front vehicles having ABS. Potential multi vehicle pile ups reduced to just a couple.

I've seen first hand instances galore in rain, snow, ice, mud, etc etc and nearly been in a bunch. And that thing of NEVER sliding is something at times is impossible without assistance. You have 60,000 pounds that has to instantly stop? I mean one instant things are fine and in the blink of an eye you have to go 65mph to zero?... in 100 yards? And it is raining? And you never slide?
You're a better man than me bro.

Like I said, I don't like a computer deciding anything. Perhaps in Lithuania things are different.
But in the grand scheme of things know the world of driving here in America is better off with antilock brakes. Myself included.

 

[SCEMan]

For very experienced enthusiast drivers like myself (49 years in So Cal from muscle cars to sports cars to commercial trucks ), the question is; "Should other people buy self-driving cars?"

I'm not too concerned about encountering a situation I can't manage, but it's the ubiquitous brain-dead texting, and reckless behavior of other "drivers" that worry me :thumbsdow.

 

[Hooked on Fenix]

I'd be all for a car with a designated driving feature service like onstar that would let an experienced driver remote control the car in the event you had too much to drink, or were about to pass out from being tired, or had an injury and needed to get to the hospital quick. I could see that as a last line of defense to prevent unwanted accidents, but an automated car, not going to happen.