Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple scientists disclose self-driving car research

reuters.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 181 posts

Re: Apple scientists disclose self-driving car research

#21

Post by rockinghigh »

menacingly wrote: post #13

There was a time when I thought of regulations as progress killers, but I find myself shifting on that and getting nervous every time I hear about self-driving tech. It's great stuff, but I really do not want my family to be the brave eggs we had to crack to get to the omelet of a driverless future. I now _like_ that someone somewhere has a book listing chemicals that aren't allowed to be shipped on an airplane, and…

In the US alone, 35000 people die and more than 2 million are injured every year in car crashes. Technology is our best hope to reduce these numbers. Airbags, blind spot detection, lane keeping, emergency braking can all contribute. Self-driving level 5 will not suddenly appear and work everywhere in every situation. It’s a gradual process. Another thing to keep in mind is that insurers will not insure these cars for cheap until they are safer than humans.

Re: Apple scientists disclose self-driving car research

#22

Post by loxs »

dogruck wrote: post #2

I wonder if companies, like Apple, will segment their tech stack to extract areas where one could argue that it’s not ethical to have an intellectual advantage. Perhaps pedestrian detection is one such area. If two autonomous car companies are competing, it makes sense to fight on many feature sets. It feels wrong to compete on “ability to detect a bike rider.”

Probably the only ethical solution is to develop everything open-source

Re: Apple scientists disclose self-driving car research

#23

Post by KKKKkkkk1 »

mcphage wrote: post #20
KKKKkkkk1 wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If Apple cannot gain on their competition by being able to better detect bikers, what would be their incentive to put money into developing that technology?

Not getting sued for millions or billions of dollars? Not watching their reputation end up in the gutter due to negligence on their part?

That hasn’t stopped other companies in this space.

Re: Apple scientists disclose self-driving car research

#25

Post by enraged_camel »

menacingly wrote: post #13

There was a time when I thought of regulations as progress killers, but I find myself shifting on that and getting nervous every time I hear about self-driving tech. It's great stuff, but I really do not want my family to be the brave eggs we had to crack to get to the omelet of a driverless future. I now _like_ that someone somewhere has a book listing chemicals that aren't allowed to be shipped on an airplane, and…

Regulations may slow down innovation, but they also protect against companies who try to socialize the externalities of their business activities.

To me, full laissez-faire capitalism is a lot scarier than a system in which everything is overburdened with regulations.

Re: Apple scientists disclose self-driving car research

#26

Post by gpmcadam »

calvinbhai wrote: post #14

So Project Titan is not really 'dead'?

Surely, if they killed it, they would still be in a position to release any findings.

Also, one could argue that given that this has been released, it probably lends more to the idea that it's dead.

Re: Apple scientists disclose self-driving car research

#27

Post by chiefofgxbxl »

rockinghigh wrote: post #21
menacingly wrote: post #13

There was a time when I thought of regulations as progress killers, but I find myself shifting on that and getting nervous every time I hear about self-driving tech. It's great stuff, but I really do not want my family to be the brave eggs we had to crack to get to the omelet of a driverless future. I now _like_ that someone somewhere has a book listing chemicals that aren't allowed to be shipped on an airplane, and…

In the US alone, 35000 people die and more than 2 million are injured every year in car crashes. Technology is our best hope to reduce these numbers. Airbags, blind spot detection, lane keeping, emergency braking can all contribute. Self-driving level 5 will not suddenly appear and work everywhere in every situation. It’s a gradual process. Another thing to keep in mind is that insurers will not insure these cars for…

Technology has helped a great deal. I'm saddened that enforcement hasn't played a bigger part, though. What I see around me on a daily basis is pure complacency. People switching lanes without turn signals, drivers with half their car in the bike-lane, tailgating, people who have their blinker on for several minutes (how did they forget? are they blasting music in their car such that they can't hear the clicking noise? are they that distracted??) etc.

It feels like my fellow drivers simply don't care about the human life that surrounds them. They'd rather text their friends than pay attention to the several-thousand-pound machine they are operating. In my opinion, obtaining and keeping a driver's license is just far too easy in the U.S., but I guess there is no hope to fix things on this end for two reasons: (1) losing your privilege to drive a car is a "death sentence"... how will you get to work and pay the bills?, and (2) police departments are facing budget cuts, so enforcement probably will not increase.

We have hope that self-driving cars will remove these negligent/distracted drivers from the road, but at the end of the day, what does that say about people that they can't take operating a heavy machine responsibly? Do we have any future tech that would emerge where ordinary people can threaten each other's lives?

...

Also, road design in the U.S. appears to care more about throughput than safety. Traffic circles are far safer, but they aren't used enough. Anecdotally, near my hometown there is a 6-lane road intersecting an 8-lane (!) road. That is the most dangerous intersection in the town, and IIRC the county! It's no wonder why having so many lanes of cars hurling themselves through an intersection is dangerous, so why are people allowed to design these roads in the first place?

Re: Apple scientists disclose self-driving car research

#28

Post by akgerber »

menacingly wrote: post #13

There was a time when I thought of regulations as progress killers, but I find myself shifting on that and getting nervous every time I hear about self-driving tech. It's great stuff, but I really do not want my family to be the brave eggs we had to crack to get to the omelet of a driverless future. I now _like_ that someone somewhere has a book listing chemicals that aren't allowed to be shipped on an airplane, and…

The reason why consumer/enterprise software is so lightly regulated is that very few people die when mistakes are made. (Embedded, especially medical, is a different story: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therac-25)

Meanwhile, cars (and roadways designed for high speeds without proper pedestrian accommodations) have been the #1 cause of injury deaths for kids for generations: https://www.cdc.gov/injury/wisqars/LeadingCauses.html

Re: Apple scientists disclose self-driving car research

#29

Post by mononcqc »

johngalt wrote: post #17
menacingly wrote: post #13

There was a time when I thought of regulations as progress killers, but I find myself shifting on that and getting nervous every time I hear about self-driving tech. It's great stuff, but I really do not want my family to be the brave eggs we had to crack to get to the omelet of a driverless future. I now _like_ that someone somewhere has a book listing chemicals that aren't allowed to be shipped on an airplane, and…

I understand the reluctance to trust new technology. If we are talking about the risk/cost of new developments, we should not forget the baseline costs we pay today. Self driving car tech will be the only method that can provide a hundred fold decrease in driving fatalities. Slowing down progress has a cost too.

You could also just reduce driving deaths by having better public transportation and reducing driving overall.

Sounds like it would even be better in the long run.

Re: Apple scientists disclose self-driving car research

#30

Post by tristanstcyr »

mononcqc wrote: post #29
johngalt wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I understand the reluctance to trust new technology. If we are talking about the risk/cost of new developments, we should not forget the baseline costs we pay today. Self driving car tech will be the only method that can provide a hundred fold decrease in driving fatalities. Slowing down progress has a cost too.

You could also just reduce driving deaths by having better public transportation and reducing driving overall. Sounds like it would even be better in the long run.

Or you could do both. The right tool for the job.
Post reply on HN