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The long, winding road for driverless cars

economist.com

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Re: The long, winding road for driverless cars

#31

Post by jcranmer »

ajross wrote: post #4
11thEarlOfMar wrote: post #2

"After a couple of decades, hybrid and electric vehicles still account for no more than 2% of new-car sales in most countries." This is just not convincing. The sales were weak because the products were weak. There are about 500,000 people who have placed orders for the Model 3 sight unseen . There is tremendous pent up demand for these cars, simply because buyers believe that the company selling them finally has the…

> LiDAR I've worked with in fact could suffer 'sun poisoning' if the sun shone directly into the receiver. Notably, the optical guidance systems in all existing vehicles are subject to exactly the same exploit. This is one of the criticisms (of self-driving cars, and with LIDAR vs. imaging specifically) I just simply don't get. You can blind a real driver much more easily and less recoverably than you can any sensor.

> This is one of the criticisms (of self-driving cars, and with LIDAR vs. imaging specifically) I just simply don't get. You can blind a real driver much more easily and less recoverably than you can any sensor.

Human optics is actually really, really good. We can adapt very well to having a light source as bright as the sun in the same field of view as shaded and make at details in both very bright and very dark regions. Optical sensors can't do that--you either wash out the bright stuff and see the shaded detail, or you darken the shade and make the bright stuff visible.

Re: The long, winding road for driverless cars

#34

Post by prodmerc »

Fricken wrote: post #20
kbos87 wrote: post #18

I for one hope driverless cars take a hell of a lot longer than people like Elon Musk expect them to. First off, I enjoy driving. I identify with the brand of car I just bought. Yes, I have to deal with traffic and competing for parking in my congested city neighborhood... but that's a choice I made because driving and the freedom that comes along with it are, to me, things I value. If you think I'm a small minority,…

>I don't like the idea of some self aggrandizing tech entrepreneurs in SV who have decided that they know what the future of the place where I live should look like. Does Henry Ford count as a self-aggrandizing tech entrepreneur deciding what the future of the places where people live should look like?

Well, he loves his car...

Re: The long, winding road for driverless cars

#36

Post by fulafel »

kbos87 wrote: post #18

I for one hope driverless cars take a hell of a lot longer than people like Elon Musk expect them to. First off, I enjoy driving. I identify with the brand of car I just bought. Yes, I have to deal with traffic and competing for parking in my congested city neighborhood... but that's a choice I made because driving and the freedom that comes along with it are, to me, things I value. If you think I'm a small minority,…

All these concerns are trivial compared to the elephant in the room, climate change and CO2 emissions caused by road transport.

To a first approximation, if driverless cars reduce total miles driven by cars, they are good - otherwise they are bad.

Re: The long, winding road for driverless cars

#37

Post by pinpeliponni »

We haven't even got to the hardest questions yet because driverless cars are still so far away.

Think of a situation where you have to choose from either hitting an other car killing everyone inside it but saving you, or driving off the road killing you but saving everyone. Well, we all save ourselves if we can choose (timing, etc). But what if the other car has 5 passengers and you are alone?

The driverless car will be required to kill you, the driver. In future the car will know, and take away your control, and simply kill you.

When people realize this, and the legislation has to take a stance, there will be a major backlash against driverless cars. People are basically selfish.

Re: The long, winding road for driverless cars

#38

Post by xiphias »

pinpeliponni wrote: post #37

We haven't even got to the hardest questions yet because driverless cars are still so far away. Think of a situation where you have to choose from either hitting an other car killing everyone inside it but saving you, or driving off the road killing you but saving everyone. Well, we all save ourselves if we can choose (timing, etc). But what if the other car has 5 passengers and you are alone? The driverless car will…

The solution to this problem is quite simple: the car should slow down _before_ it can get to a situation like this. For this situation to happen the other car must do something stupid, which should be detected before it can cause something that can kill anybody.

Re: The long, winding road for driverless cars

#39

Post by taway_1212 »

hwillis wrote: post #12
ams6110 wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's because EVs only work for a subset of driving needs (local commutes). If you need to drive long distances, even occasionally, you either need to own another car, or rent one. Either is at best suboptimal compared to owning one car that can do it all. When I can own an EV that will go 300-400 miles per charge and can be recharged in 5 minutes at any corner "station" I will think about it.

It works for any "local commutes" up to 250 miles (base model). That's a shitload of driving. Taking a half hour break after over 3 hours of driving is not that weird. Imagine if we all had electric cars, and had to switch to gasoline. It would seem so inconvenient to have to go all the way to a gas station to refill, when you're used to having a fully charged vehicle every morning. It would seem so inconsequential t…

Maybe I've had lunch already (am driving in the evening)? Maybe my lunch takes 15 minutes and I don't need entire 30? Maybe I prefer to have my break 4-5 hours into the drive instead?

Re: The long, winding road for driverless cars

#40

Post by hammock »

daveguy wrote: post #10
wcummings wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I thought the idea was that you could swap batteries, not sit there charging.

As far as I know no one has implemented that yet. Tesla has superchargers around the country, but those are charge based not exchange based. They give +170 miles for a 30 minute charge, so not exactly a quick stop. The size and weight of the full battery pack may make it infeasible to change quickly. A half pack or 1/4 pack may be useful, but then the car has to be standardized/designed for that and you have to worry…

They were testing something in Israel many years ago. Don't know what happened to that company
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