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Honda's $20k Civic LX now offers self-driving capability for highway use

wsj.com

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Re: Honda's $20k Civic LX now offers self-driving capability for highway use

#101

Post by blisterpeanuts »

jklowden wrote: post #94
ben1040 wrote: post #27

This looks like the "Sensing" feature that Honda has implemented on some of their other vehicles. I just bought a 2016 Accord that does the same thing -- there's a camera mounted on the windshield, another camera in the front grille, and a radar sensor on the front bumper. Calling it "self-driving" is kind of a misnomer and I think the article kind of blows it out of proportion. It will track the car in front of you…

Free-market ideology if you ask me. The first sentence suggests the hapless government wants to spent $4 billion on research for something you you can have today for $20K. A little later it mentions Washington's "time and billions" spent on fuel-efficiency instead of "saving lives". The government has also funded electric-car research and encouraged Detroit to build them. Contrasting self-driving with electric drive…

Yes, the WSJ is known for its free-market ideology :)

But I think they have a point. The gov't has largely focused on fuel economy for decades now, while tens of thousands of people continued to die or suffer horrible injuries in cars. Sure, seat belts, crumple zones -- a good start. Unleaded? Not sure how that saves you in a crash.

Re: Honda's $20k Civic LX now offers self-driving capability for highway use

#102

Post by Gratsby »

adrianN wrote: post #89
Gratsby wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mercedes has had the ability to keep a safe following distance for a decade or more. The lane assist is not something I've heard of, but I stopped staring at the latest and greatest features on cars around the time that Mercedes came out with the follow feature.

But do they have it in such a cheap car? I know that the feature existed for a long time in very expensive cars.

I don't think they have such a cheap car (not in the US anyways). But it is my understanding that they offer it in their lowest end models.

Re: Honda's $20k Civic LX now offers self-driving capability for highway use

#103

Post by randyrand »

jklowden wrote: post #94
ben1040 wrote: post #27

This looks like the "Sensing" feature that Honda has implemented on some of their other vehicles. I just bought a 2016 Accord that does the same thing -- there's a camera mounted on the windshield, another camera in the front grille, and a radar sensor on the front bumper. Calling it "self-driving" is kind of a misnomer and I think the article kind of blows it out of proportion. It will track the car in front of you…

Free-market ideology if you ask me. The first sentence suggests the hapless government wants to spent $4 billion on research for something you you can have today for $20K. A little later it mentions Washington's "time and billions" spent on fuel-efficiency instead of "saving lives". The government has also funded electric-car research and encouraged Detroit to build them. Contrasting self-driving with electric drive…

Seat belts were invented by English engineer George Cayley in the mid-19th century,[3] though Edward J. Claghorn of New York, was granted the first patent.

The government did not invent the seatbelt. All it did was monopolize it through the patent system and later criminalize not wearing it. How heroic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seat_belt

Re: Honda's $20k Civic LX now offers self-driving capability for highway use

#105

Post by akamaka »

lbenes wrote: post #87
akamaka wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I blame Elon Musk for this shift in the meaning of "self-driving". It used to be a term that was only applied to driverless cars, but last year Elon announced that they plan to make the Tesla a self-driving car at the same time as announcing similar driver assistance features. While Tesla's driver assistance features are much more advanced than these, it's not much of a stretch after Elon already fired the first mark…

Language is organic and constantly changing. I used to insist on calling my drone, a remote controlled quadcopter, as drones were those autonomous military vehicles dropping bombs on weddings in the Middle East. But everyone now from the news to the FAA calls my little RC toy, a drone. Sure, it bothers me to watch words like self-driving and hoverboard lose their meaning. If someone as influential as Obama can't prot…

When you put it that way, it's really interesting to think of it as a language shift rather than just a question of marketing honesty. If the average person describes the car he already owns as "self-driving", perhaps that will accelerate acceptance of real driverless cars.

Re: Honda's $20k Civic LX now offers self-driving capability for highway use

#106

Post by dsmithatx »

jklowden wrote: post #94
ben1040 wrote: post #27

This looks like the "Sensing" feature that Honda has implemented on some of their other vehicles. I just bought a 2016 Accord that does the same thing -- there's a camera mounted on the windshield, another camera in the front grille, and a radar sensor on the front bumper. Calling it "self-driving" is kind of a misnomer and I think the article kind of blows it out of proportion. It will track the car in front of you…

Free-market ideology if you ask me. The first sentence suggests the hapless government wants to spent $4 billion on research for something you you can have today for $20K. A little later it mentions Washington's "time and billions" spent on fuel-efficiency instead of "saving lives". The government has also funded electric-car research and encouraged Detroit to build them. Contrasting self-driving with electric drive…

It was stupid for this article to start talking about the $4 billion Obama has talked about for research.

This article is about features and not a real self driving car. If anything the features make this car very dangerous in the hands of people concerned with their phones and tablets and kind of proves the need for investments like the $4 billion.

To me it sounds like the free market is about to make the road damn dangerous for the rest of us. To quote the article, "For instance, some owners have posted videos of hands- and foot-free driving on YouTube and the car inevitably makes a mistake.".

Re: Honda's $20k Civic LX now offers self-driving capability for highway use

#107

Post by mirkules »

superuser2 wrote: post #97
jklowden wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Free-market ideology if you ask me. The first sentence suggests the hapless government wants to spent $4 billion on research for something you you can have today for $20K. A little later it mentions Washington's "time and billions" spent on fuel-efficiency instead of "saving lives". The government has also funded electric-car research and encouraged Detroit to build them. Contrasting self-driving with electric drive…

How is this in any way a reply to the parent comment?

As ben1040 put it, "the article blows [self-driving] out of proportion." Jklowden hypothesizes that WSJ blew it out of proportion in order to paint a picture that the government is wasting money at best and not letting the free market innovate at worst. It wouldn't surprise me that a publication like Wall Street Journal would advocate in favor of a free market.

Re: Honda's $20k Civic LX now offers self-driving capability for highway use

#108

Post by prostoalex »

muhfuhkuh wrote: post #80
prostoalex wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

WSJ editorial board does not like the electric vehicle, emission and carbon tax credits, considering it crony capitalism http://www.wsj.com/articles/voters-should-be-mad-at-electric...

It's just another one of the pile of vitriol against electric vehicles. Day after day, whenever someone mentions Tesla or Prius Plug-ins or the Nissan Leaf or whatever, it seems to kick in a auto-response of "what is the ROI of electric vehicles? You'll have to drive a million miles to get your investment back!" (as if buying a new non-exotic car is any kind of financial instrument). They also always talk about how m…

I am not particularly opposed to their argument (crony capitalism is evil, after all) but their omission of decades of handouts to fossil-based businesses, as well as variety of present-day deductions crafted specifically for those industries makes the argument hypocritical or incomplete, to say the least.

Re: Honda's $20k Civic LX now offers self-driving capability for highway use

#109

Post by MBCook »

ben1040 wrote: post #27

This looks like the "Sensing" feature that Honda has implemented on some of their other vehicles. I just bought a 2016 Accord that does the same thing -- there's a camera mounted on the windshield, another camera in the front grille, and a radar sensor on the front bumper. Calling it "self-driving" is kind of a misnomer and I think the article kind of blows it out of proportion. It will track the car in front of you…

I've got the same car and you're dead on.

I really wanted the automatic cruise control but the truth is it's a hassle in the city on the highway. I don't want to constantly adjust the distance between the car in front of me and my car as conditions change so I end up just managing it myself without cruise control or setting it 'classic' mode where it doesn't use the radar.

That said shortly after I bought the car I drove it across state and the automatic cruise control and lane keep were FANTASTIC. I know the lane keep seems kind of lazy but when you're driving across the plains with heavy cross winds it makes things SO much easier. Really a road trip feature.

The 'you must steer' alert is fun. I've discovered one or two places near my house where the street is straight enough (along with the alignment on my car) that it will briefly trigger some times. Note that it's ALWAYS active (unless you turn it off), it's not only in use when you're using the lane keep function.

EDIT:

Also, sadly, Honda doesn't have a full-stop automatic cruise control like some other brands. If the traffic gets too slow it will disengage and warn you that you're in control. It's never something you could use on a standard street, highway only.

Re: Honda's $20k Civic LX now offers self-driving capability for highway use

#110

Post by csours »

vonmoltke wrote: post #85
turtlebits wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Once cars are autonomous, it makes it drastically simpler to carpool/rideshare or even pick up and drop off riders that may share the same or partial route as you. Also if your car is able to drop you off, it can be a shared resource when you don't need it.

I want to reply to all three of you (turtlebits, maxerickson, teod) with basically the same points. I'll put it here because yours is currently the top-ranked reply, but I am going to address all three of you. > Once cars are autonomous, it makes it drastically simpler to carpool/rideshare or even pick up and drop off riders that may share the same or partial route as you. I don't see how it is drastically simpler. Y…

> I don't see how it is drastically simpler. Yes the logistics would be easier. There still needs to be an infrastructure for identification of passengers and dispatch of vehicles that is completely independent of what is driving the vehicles themselves.

I don't think anyone expects it to be drastically simpler overnight, but when you look at the value proposition there is every reason to expect that someone will figure it out, package it, and sell it as a service.

Several major automakers are working on this, as well as Uber, Lyft, and a number of startups.

I do think it will be an iterative process where the first few attempts may backfire, and I do think that there will still be a large number of people who want a non-shared car; On the other hand there may also be a very large number of people who would love to have a "free" car that other people get to use when they are not using it.

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