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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

#111

Post by MBCook »

Someone1234 wrote: post #63
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 just want to say, I have a similar vehicle system (Eyesight, rather than Honda Sensing) and I agree with everything you are saying. It isn't self-driving, it is just a bunch of really cool driver assist technology. Unfortunately the reason why these systems fail on sharp turns is that the lane-line literally falls outside of the camera's vision. Aside from adding two more cameras (which I'd welcome) I cannot see th…

I'm impressed Honda is offering it on all models (LX, Sport, EX, EX-L, Touring) instead of saying "Sorry, Touring only".

Now that I've had Honda Sensing for a few months I really like (in a rental right now and miss parts of it), but I'd like real blind spot indicators and the cross traffic alert.

Either way, serious upgrade from a 'dumb' car.

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

#112

Post by dominotw »

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 got a mazda that does the same thing.

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

#113

Post by prodigal_erik »

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…

Cabbie pay is huge compared to the depreciation of the car. Medallion systems create deliberate taxi shortages to prop drivers' daily income up somewhere near a livable level. It might be viable to have a self-driving van on every block if they could idle with nearly zero cost.

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

#114

Post by david-given »

mikeash wrote: post #86
oblio wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A very old joke (circa 1997, when Clippy was introduced): Two engineers are arguing: a mechanical engineer and a software engineer. The software engineer brags: If we were the ones making cars, they'd go twice as fast as they do now and they'd use half the fuel! The mechanical engineer replies: Yes, but if you'd want to break in case of an emergency you'd get a pop-up saying: Are you sure you want to break? Yes/No/Ca…

There's a related joke about engineers riding in a car that breaks down. The mechanical engineer says, "It's a loose belt. Let's tighten that and we'll be all set." The chemical engineer says, "No, it's fuel contamination. We need to drain the fuel, filter it, and then we can be on our way." The software engineer says, "No, all we have to do is turn the car off, get out, shut all the doors, then get back in and turn…

There's a related joke about engineers at an aviation software convention. This one might even be true.

At a talk to an audience of avionics programmers, the speaker at one point asks: "Tell me truthfully; how many of you would be comfortable flying in a plane where your team had done the software?"

Onlt a couple of people put their hands up. The speaker targets someone at the front. "You have that much confidence in your work?"

"I'd be fine," they reply. "If my team wrote the software, the plane would never even leave the ground."

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

#115

Post by thedevil »

mrspeaker wrote: post #13
stcredzero wrote: post #2

In the early 2000's, I was hanging out sometimes in western North Carolina, and there was this young woman who has in the habit of getting together with some friends and driving around the clock to get to Colorado and back on short trips, instead of flying. I'm wondering if this technology isn't going to be used for such purposes.

My initial thoughts about self-driving cars was that they would be less bad for the environment, thanks to more people being able to share one car - but the more likely scenario will be opposite: convoys of cars with one sleeping person in each.

Another possibility is that if self-driving taxis take over, cars might get a lot smaller. Most of the space in your car is wasted most of the time and is only there for the occasional time that you need it.

Although, I'm not arguing whether self-driving cars will be a net good or bad from an environmental standpoint, I'm not sure.

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

#116

Post by ghaff »

Alupis wrote: post #50
mchahn wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> and am currently in the middle of a 360. You have no faith in AI. The car will always be better at driving than the human. It would be much better at handling a 360 than a human ever could. Actually humans are very bad at handling 360s unless you are a pro.

Humans are very, very good at handling unknown complex situations. In order for any AI to handle any situation, it must first be programmed to do so. If that situation was an unknown, you get undefined behavior. Undefined behavior in a car traveling down the road is not a good thing to place a bet on... especially your life. This is why majority of sane driverless vehicle talk has concluded a human driver must always…

>This is why majority of sane driverless vehicle talk has concluded a human driver must always be in the driver seat, ready to take control.

And people who do research in this area have concluded that this doesn't work. People let their attention drift (even if they don't actively perform some other task) and, even if people are more or less paying attention, they haven't been driving and switching modes in that way is difficult.

We're definitely reaching the point with assistive driving systems where there probably needs to be more discussion about how much assistance makes sense if no one is willing to fully turn over control.

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

#117

Post by atourgates »

tdicola wrote: post #49
nostromo wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If I could get in my car, read a bit and fall asleep, and wake up in Las Vegas from San Francisco, I'd prefer it over flying every time. But this has more to do with how air travel has become miserable than anything else.

You can do this with buses today.

The key difference is control and convenience.

The big advantages of driving vs. flying are that the trip starts from your house, whenever you want it to start. There's no sharing space with passengers. Bathroom and food stops are at your convenience, no-one else's.

You lose these with a bus.

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

#118

Post by CoffeeDregs »

Conversations about self-driving have focused on zero defect rate in-city self-driving vehicles, but a lot of these technologies are reaching Pareto-efficient levels of usefulness. I don't need my car to drive the first and last miles; I'd be perfectly happy if it just drove on the highway.

And why do humans drive long haul trucks for anything other than the first and last miles? Trucks should drive themselves between depots at the edges of metros and then humans can drive them into the city. https://www.mercedes-benz.com/en/mercedes-benz/innovation/th... "Self steering"... How long before that moniker is replaced by "Self driving".

And why are humans delivering packages? They might not be for long: http://www.reuters.com/article/us-starship-delivery-robot-id...

It's going to shock our economy once industries begin constraining roles to the level at which robots can be "good enough". After figuring out how to manage them, we'll start to see robots deployed in force.

As parents, my wife and I are talking about this a lot as we think about how to raise our kids (and we are emphatically hands-off parents)...

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

#120

Post by knodi123 »

melling wrote: post #10
stcredzero wrote: post #2

In the early 2000's, I was hanging out sometimes in western North Carolina, and there was this young woman who has in the habit of getting together with some friends and driving around the clock to get to Colorado and back on short trips, instead of flying. I'm wondering if this technology isn't going to be used for such purposes.

Throw in 90-100 mph driving speed and we have a great way to travel. There"s no reason we can't have higher speeds on highways with only self-driving vehicles?

I don't think there's a reason we couldn't, but as far as shouldn't, efficiency losses from air drag increase proportional to speed. Same reason we don't have any 100mph submarines.
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