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Uber’s First Self-Driving Fleet Arrives in Pittsburgh This Month

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Re: Uber’s First Self-Driving Fleet Arrives in Pittsburgh This Month

#111

Post by throwaway049 »

technofiend wrote: post #90
aetherson wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I can't imagine why. If you were going to devote hours to being behind the wheel of an Uber, would you will willing to do it for "far less" than the already far-from-princely sums that an Uber driver makes?

I literally had an Uber driver this morning who didn't speak enough English to take the route I requested. She knew "Hello", and "Have a nice day." No harm done if she's a competent driver. Would I devote hours being behind the wheel? No. I would try to find a job UNIXing for food because that's what I know. But we're not talking about me. We're talking about folks who have a driver's license, a clean driving record…

If you're paying attention to prevent collisions then it's not a passive job. And if I got into a car to find the 'driver' dividing their attention between the road and their novel then I would get right out again.

Re: Uber’s First Self-Driving Fleet Arrives in Pittsburgh This Month

#112

Post by nkoren »

losteverything wrote: post #64
nkoren wrote: post #15

Ubiquitous comment, as a person within the industry: there's a big difference between cars that have a hands-free driving mode, and cars that do not have a driver. The latter will be an absolute game-changer; the former can yield some marginal gains in safety and congestion, but does not really shatter any paradigms. This is the former. The latter will certainly happen eventually, but is orders of magnitude more chal…

"As a person within the industry" has there been any talk about the paths driverless will take? New roadways? Attendant-less roadways? Change in existing designation of highways? How to accomodate 10-20 people (vehicles won't look like they do now)? I envision future photos-videos of driver and driver less "vehicles" at a busy intersection just like horses and early cars.

These are the right questions to be asking! Yes, there has been some talk -- but not remotely enough. At present, the vast majority of work in the vehicle-automation space is being done by, well, vehicle people. The assumption is that driverless vehicles will slot into the existing infrastructure with minimal modification. There's a fair amount of consideration being given to vehicle-to-infrastructure communications (so that vehicles can notify traffic signals that they are approaching, for example), but relatively little consideration being given to how the roadways will actually _physically_ evolve.

Personally, I expect that this evolution will be roughly as significant as what was catalysed by the horseless carriage.

Re: Uber’s First Self-Driving Fleet Arrives in Pittsburgh This Month

#113

Post by agumonkey »

rwmj wrote: post #58
Shivetya wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same view here, current solutions are nothing more than Sunday drivers to me. They work well in good to near perfect conditions only where we actually need the least amount of self driving. Wheel less driving, first show me it drives in the pouring rain at night when the roads aren't lit. Show it having the ability to obey posted speed limits, adjust to construction, and the like. I am still surprised at how much cur…

Give me a car which self-drives for 4 months of the year, and requires me to drive it the other 8 months. That's still a massive advantage over the car I currently own.

Interesting. A car that could "drone" in some contexts. Leave your parking lot and wait closer for instance. No need for high speed, complex collision avoidance. Only 10mph private neighborhood mobility. That could be a nice selling point. Something like the Tesla thing, just better.

Re: Uber’s First Self-Driving Fleet Arrives in Pittsburgh This Month

#114

Post by Retric »

rayiner wrote: post #80
Retric wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You could drive down every road in the US for under 10 million dollars. So as long as you can keep them updated I don't think highly detailed maps are a problem. Especially if this is supposed to be a backup for GPS.

Considering how often GPS gets confused here in DC, I'm amazed we are suggesting relying on it to drive the car.

They are using it for navigation not lane following. You can supplement GPS with dead reckoning for tunnels etc, but high quality maps let's a car be aware of landmarks and then use them to figure out where in the world they are. EX: With enough precision there is plenty of information in the picture to figure out where it's located. http://socialforest.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/Forest-Gr...

Re: Uber’s First Self-Driving Fleet Arrives in Pittsburgh This Month

#115

Post by 794CD01 »

efuquen wrote: post #104
speleding wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

We don't need to jump to completely driverless right away, there is a convenient intermediate step: The passenger can be the passive driver, and the car would drive to the pickup location empty. As soon as regulation allows, that step already gets you the major benefit of not having to "pay for the other dude in the car".

> the car would drive to the pickup location empty. It would seem full driverless with nobody in the car is the big deal here. It doesn't really matter is someone will be behind the wheel later, you already had the thing driving around with no human to intervene in case it does something crazy. Don't see how that's an intermediary step.

A car driving around with no human inside poses less risk to human life than a car driving around with a human inside who is unable to control the car.

Re: Uber’s First Self-Driving Fleet Arrives in Pittsburgh This Month

#116

Post by gambiting »

tcoppi wrote: post #97
kalleboo wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How many billions have been poured into speech recognition? I don't anyone here would trust controlling a car with Siri or Google Voice lest it misinterpret something you said.

Have you used Google Voice in the past ~year? I have a standard american accent so I might be the best case scenario for it but I haven't seen it miss a word I've said anytime I can remember in a year or two. I mostly use it in the car to reply and send texts, works even with the radio and ventilation on. I've used an Amazon Echo and that is right 99% of the time too. Now, interpreting the words I say is a different…

Well, the thing is, English is not the only language in the world. Google's voice recognition in my native language, Polish, is absolutely abysmal.

Re: Uber’s First Self-Driving Fleet Arrives in Pittsburgh This Month

#117

Post by konschubert »

mdasen wrote: post #86

Uber has to work on self-driving technology, but in a certain way doesn't self-driving technology seem like something that will eliminate Uber's market advantage? Right now, Uber is the go-to choice in most areas because of network effects. They have the most drivers because they have the most users. They have the most users because they have the most drivers. In a world of self-driving vehicles, anyone with capital…

> In a world of self-driving vehicles, anyone with capital can buy a fleet to blanket a city.

The truth is, that's also possible in a world of driver-driven vehicles. Just pay the drivers more for a year or two, and the network is yours.

Uber is going to be of marginal importance in 10 years.

Re: Uber’s First Self-Driving Fleet Arrives in Pittsburgh This Month

#118

Post by 794CD01 »

technofiend wrote: post #102
dilap wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hmm, I'm not so sure. First, Uber drivers are already not making much. Drivers I've talked to here in SF say they are near $15/hour (though they can more in the form of bonuses if they hit certain hours-driven targets). Second, the job of a passive driver will actually be both more boring and harder -- you have to pay attention while doing nothing, but be ready to take over in a second. It's like being a passenger, e…

Your example of San Francisco is an outlier - there's too much upward pressure on wages there to let driving compensation fall too low. Let's have the same conversation about Minneapolis, Dallas, St. Paul, Austin, Kansas City, etc. Austin is a great example of a city with a lot of unemployement and underemployment due to the massive student population. Can't you imagine a college student riding around listening to le…

Unfortunately the current favored presidential candidate wants to make that situation illegal by raising the federal minimum wage to 12 or more.

Re: Uber’s First Self-Driving Fleet Arrives in Pittsburgh This Month

#119

Post by gambiting »

puranjay wrote: post #31
jayjay71 wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Everybody wants to jump straight to 4, because 3 is actually dangerous and likely to cause deaths as people are lulled into a false sense of safety. The question is how long will it take? Some people say 2 years, some people say 20.

How much has the recent interest and investment in self-driving cars impacted this estimate? 5 years ago, I would have said that level 4 automation is 20 years away. With all these billions pouring in, I'd cut that projection in less than half. I'm certain that I won't be driving a car ever in 2030

And interestingly, seeing challenges ahead, I don't think we will have 100% autonomous cars before 2050, if not later. 50 years ago, we were certain that perfect image recognition is just few months of work away, or at least enough money poured into it will solve the problem. It's 2016 and our best of the best image recognition algorithms can't even tell a zebra and a sofa in a zebra print apart. Since automatic cars are trying to solve the same problem I can't believe that in 2030 anyone will make 100% autonomous car, not a chance. Super advanced cruise control, like Tesla's autopilot, but better - sure, absolutely. But a car without a steering wheel? nope.
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